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

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to undertake post-legislative review of (1) the Ivory Act 2018, (2) the Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019, (3) the Agriculture Act 2020, and (4) the Fisheries Act 2020, in line with the policy of reviewing Acts three to five years after enactment.

Together with other initiatives, post-legislative scrutiny promotes the delivery of meaningful and effective legislation. Post-legislative reviews are tailored for each Act and should be proportional in scope.

The Ivory Act 2018 came into force on 6 June 2022 when the ban on dealing in elephant ivory commenced. To allow an effective assessment to be made of how the Act is working in practice, we are recommending that a post-legislative review be undertaken in due course in line with the three-to-five-year timeframe from when the Act came into effect rather than the date of Royal Assent.

Defra, as the Act's enforcement authority, monitors routinely the Wild Animals in Circuses Act 2019 and will discuss the most appropriate way to review the 2019 Act with the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

Defra intends to undertake post-legislative review of the Agriculture Act 2020 by no later than November 2025.

Post-legislative scrutiny of the Fisheries Act 2020 will be taken forward within the three to five years’ timeframe after Royal Assent. In planning the timing of the post-legislative scrutiny, we need to consider that the Joint Fisheries Statement (JFS) required by the Act was published in November 2022, the first Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) as required by both the Act and the JFS, were published at the end of December 2023. The Act also requires review of the JFS and FMPs. We are considering the most appropriate point for the post-legislative review.