Draft Common Organisation of the Markets in Agricultural Products (Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organisations, Tariff Quotas and Wine) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2021

Victoria Prentis Excerpts

Monday 14th June 2021 General Committees

[The Chair]

I remind Members to observe social distancing and sit only in places that are clearly marked. I also remind Members that Mr Speaker has stated that masks should be worn in Committee. Hansard colleagues will be most grateful if Members send their speaking notes to [e-mail]. I call the Minister to move the motion.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Victoria Prentis)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the draft Common Organisation of the Markets in Agricultural Products (Fruit and Vegetable Producer Organisations, Tariff Quotas and Wine) (Amendment etc.) Regulations 2021.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Hollobone. The regulations were laid before the House on 13 May 2021. The technical amendments made by the instrument cover three different policy areas: the fruit and vegetables aid scheme, tariff rate quotas, and wine.

First, our amendments will ensure that producer organisations recognised in the fruit and vegetables aid scheme can continue to receive aid for the actions they carry out in any new operational programmes that they implement once they have completed their existing one. The instrument remakes amendments to European Union regulations relating to the fruit and vegetable sectors and the fruit and vegetable producer organisation aid scheme. It includes, for example, activities that can be funded under the scheme, the amount of aid that can be claimed and the requirements that the producer organisation must meet in order to be eligible for funding. The amendments minimise any ambiguity in the rules that will apply to the legacy scheme in the UK until the scheme is switched off in England. The instrument will also make operability amendments to ensure that transnational producer organisations can receive funding in respect of all of their members for the remainder of the current operational programmes once we switch over to retained EU law.

The instrument also remakes amendments to EU regulation 2017/1185 to ensure that the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved Administrations can continue to obtain certain production price data from economic operators. The information itself is used for market management purposes, and DEFRA and the devolved Administrations intend to maintain the collection and use of that information in the UK.

In technical terms, the instrument will correct an error relating to the commencement of part 4 of a previous statutory instrument, the Agricultural (Payments) (Amendment, etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020. The amendments in that statutory instrument relating to fruit and vegetable producer groups, fruit and vegetable producer organisations and notifications of agricultural market information to domestic authorities may not come into force as intended at the end of the transition period. The instrument addresses that problem. The instrument also revokes and remakes some provisions made by the Common Organisation of the Markets in Agricultural Products (Producer Organisations and Wine) (Amendment Etc.) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 concerning fruit and vegetable producer organisations that might not have taken effect for the same reasons.

Secondly, the EU law in question sets out broad provisions on the administration of export tariff quotas that result from international agreements. The amendments we seek to make will ensure that the UK is able to administer export tariff rate quotas. The amendments will allow us to make detailed provisions in a future instrument on the administration of export licences for UK goods that are imported into third countries under tariff rate quotas—for example, UK cheese imported into the United States. Although that will allow UK exporters to continue to benefit from preferential market access, other powers will be needed to ensure that traders in the Crown dependencies can also access any new quotas.

The amendments replace references to the EU with the UK and remove references to the administration of import tariff rate quotas. Those are covered by regulations made under the Taxation (Cross-Border Trade) Act 2018. Tariff rate quota legislation affects the whole of the UK, as trade is reserved. No policy changes are made by these provisions.

Finally, the provisions on wine include a minor change to entry 1 of the table at annex 9A of retained regulation 1308/13. This change will make it clear that the established wines referred to are those recognised as established protected designation of origins and established protected GIs, or geographical indications, of the type referred to in article 1072 of retained regulation 1308.

This instrument, which is predominantly technical in nature, provides clarity in the context of continuity. I urge Members to agree to the amendments proposed in the regulations.

--- Later in debate ---

[Victoria Prentis]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for making those points. I reassure him and the Committee that we take the way in which SIs are drafted very seriously. It is an important task, just as the work the Committee is doing this afternoon is important, and I do not want to minimise that at all by saying that many of the fixes are to do with dates.

The hon. Gentleman will remember well the context in which we were working in November—we had no idea at that point whether there would be a trade and co-operation agreement. I am glad that one has come into effect. We are also dealing with 40 years of EU legislation and how we can best use it to do the right thing for producer organisations in this country. He is right to say that there is layer on layer of meaning. I am a great lover of detective fiction. In particular, I enjoy the complexities in “golden age” detective fiction. I am extremely keen to ensure that we get our new legislative programme right in as transparent a way as possible. I am always happy to take up details with the hon. Gentleman, whether outside or inside our debates on SIs.

As for the ambiguity, it is ambiguous—I am frank about that. We do not know that we will need this draft SI, but we think it is better to get the legislation absolutely clear, so that the people using it are aware of the position. We do not feel that POs have been disadvantaged in the early part of this year, but we want to get it right now.

I am extremely happy to talk about suspending competition law with the hon. Gentleman at any point. I do not know that this Committee is the place to do that, but I will say that those suspensions were done in the context of the early stages of the pandemic, when we were extremely concerned about getting food on to the shelves. I am very proud of the work that was done to assist our retailers in making sure that our population was fed. With that in mind, I hope the Committee will agree to the amendments in the draft regulations.

Question put and agreed to.