All 1 Desmond Swayne contributions to the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Act 2020

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Tue 28th Jan 2020
Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Bill
Commons Chamber

Committee stage:Committee: 1st sitting & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Committee: 1st sitting: House of Commons & 3rd reading & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Committee: 1st sitting & Committee: 1st sitting: House of Commons & Committee stage & 3rd reading

Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Bill Debate

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Department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Bill

Desmond Swayne Excerpts
Committee stage & 3rd reading: House of Commons & Committee: 1st sitting: House of Commons & 3rd reading & Committee: 1st sitting
Tuesday 28th January 2020

(4 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts Amendment Paper: Committee of the whole House Amendments as at 28th January 2020 - (28 Jan 2020)
George Eustice Portrait The Minister of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (George Eustice)
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Clause 1 provides the legal basis for the Government and devolved Administrations to make payments to farmers under the direct payment scheme for 2020. The clause is needed because article 37 of the withdrawal agreement means that the EU legislation governing the 2020 common agricultural policy schemes will no longer apply in the UK on exit day. This was fully intended; it is part of extracting the United Kingdom from the European Union’s next multi-annual budget cycle, which starts in 2021, and it allows us to take back control of agriculture policy and domestic agricultural funding.

The Bill is needed because of a quirk in the way that the EU common agricultural policy is funded. Pillar one payments—the so-called basic payment scheme payments —are funded from the following year’s budget, unlike pillar two payments for things such as countryside stewardship, which are funded from the budget year in which they apply.

Desmond Swayne Portrait Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)
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Does clause 1(3) include the higher level stewardship regime, or is that part of a separate settlement?

George Eustice Portrait George Eustice
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It includes the basic payment scheme. Only direct payments are in the Bill’s scope, and that includes the annual area payments that most farmers would receive.

As we are not contributing to the next multi-annual financial framework, we have decided that we should fund this year ourselves to provide farmers with continuity. The withdrawal agreement therefore disapplied the direct payment scheme to the UK. The European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020 applies that agreement, and disapplies the direct payment scheme, so to pay farmers for this year, we have to provide this regulation.