Draft Food and Feed Imports (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 Draft Official Controls for Feed, Food and Animal Health and Welfare (Amendment Etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019

Deidre Brock Excerpts

Tuesday 12th March 2019 General Committees

[Deidre Brock (Edinburgh North and Leith) (SNP)]

It is a great pleasure to serve under your chairship, Ms McDonagh. I find it hard to contain my excitement at another piece of secondary legislation necessitated by Brexit. The sheer delight of unnecessary legislation is unbounded sometimes.

Reading the explanatory notes for the regulations, we come across familiar lines—pieces of text that are familiar from other forays into this Brexit chaos. For example:

“The existing EU law is being retained in UK law after EU Exit. This instrument amends the legislation so that references to other EU Member States, the European Commission and associated elements are removed or replaced by appropriate wording.”

We are taking back control to replace with appropriate wording—a brave and decisive move. This legislation already exists, but here we are having to gather to pass it again with minor changes. That is some way to run this United Kingdom.

This legislation is very important, however. Most of the animal feed used in the UK is imported from the EU or under EU trade agreements, and any disruption to the supply will cause major problems for farmers and food production and for distribution across these islands. The same goes for fertilisers, forage seed, herbicides and pesticides. Without the EU supply lines, we are in trouble. If we do not have security of supply of these products, farmers might be growing a darned sight less than they have been used to. But it is a good fortnight until B-day, so this is not last minute or anything.

Another problem that farmers will face is that the trucks that bring these products to their farms and take away the farm’s output are more often than not driven by a non-UK EU citizen. They tend not to make £30,000 a year, so we will need a whole lot of replacements that we do not have. However, that is a headache for another day, isn’t it?

I am pleased to see that there is some indication in the regulations that the Government will respect that the devolved Administrations have different arrangements and their own positions. I hope that that is a sign of things to come, because that should be the attitude across the whole of Government and Parliament. In the middle of this epic bourach, it is one tiny glimmer of hope. Apart from anything else, it will make it easier when we come to the independence negotiations in a wee while.

I cannot say that I am entirely supportive of the statutory instruments, since they would never have been needed if there were no Brexit, but I accept that they will pass today and might be a useful part of the regulatory framework to keep the show on the road for a little while. Whether the physical manifestation of incoming supplies matches the regulatory framework, coming as they do on imaginary ferries, remains to be seen.