Food: Storage

(asked on 25th February 2019) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department plans to maintain funding for Private Storage Aid schemes after the UK has left the EU.


Answered by
David Rutley Portrait
David Rutley
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
This question was answered on 5th March 2019

European regulations concerning private storage aid are being retained under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018, should the Secretary of State choose to operate a scheme in England after we leave. This is a devolved matter and similar powers to operate private storage aid will exist for Northern Irish, Scottish and Welsh Ministers.

The Agriculture Bill contains powers which would allow the Secretary of State to amend the retained EU legislation on private storage aid, with the aim of eventually phasing the schemes out in England. It also gives the Secretary of State the ability to amend the schemes’ general operation, so they can be run in a way appropriate for the domestic market while the Government consults on phasing the scheme out. While for the most part there is a weak economic case for market intervention, there may be very specific circumstances in which granting private storage aid will make overall economic sense. For this reason, powers to use private storage in response to exceptional market conditions are being retained in the Bill.

The Agriculture Bill extends similar powers to Welsh Ministers and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland. The Scottish Government is able to rely on the retained EU legislation regarding public intervention and private storage aid.

We are working with all the devolved administrations on common UK frameworks where coordination would be necessary or desirable and, with the agreement of the devolved administrations, we expect market intervention schemes of this nature to be part of such a framework.

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