All 1 Vicky Ford contributions to the Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Act 2020

Read Bill Ministerial Extracts

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

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Direct Payments to Farmers (Legislative Continuity) Bill

Vicky Ford 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, 9 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 George Eustice
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

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.

Vicky Ford Portrait Vicky Ford (Chelmsford) (Con)
- Hansard - -

Chelmsford is largely an urban constituency, but when I visited one of my local farms just before Christmas, it was devastating to see that, because of the wet weather, people there had not been able to plant any of their winter wheat. They are doing some fantastic work with new crops such as millet, so that we do not need to import that. Will the Bill help to give farmers across Essex and the east of England the certainty they need at this challenging time?

George Eustice Portrait George Eustice
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

The Bill will absolutely give them that certainty. The Bill is essential if we are to give farmers their direct payments—those area-based payments—in December. If this direct payment regulation did not come into UK law, we would be unable to do that.