Agriculture Bill Updates

As you will have seen in the agricultural press recently, the Agriculture Bill was set before parliament on 16th January and this will give the necessary powers to design England’s agricultural policy for when the country leaves the EU. Agriculture is a devolved department and therefore once the country is outside of the EU, each UK administration will have the flexibility to develop its own agricultural policy to suit their circumstances.

The Government are setting out that the bill will allow each country to move away from the current EU’s bureaucratic common agricultural policy.
As with the original Agriculture Bill that was introduced to parliament back in 2018 (which was shelved due to a change in the political climate), the whole ethos behind the bill is that farmers and land managers will be rewarded with public money for providing public goods.

The government are setting out that the policy will provide support for those who look after both the country’s land and animals and in turn through this work provide public goods with a particular emphasis on environmental public goods. The major difference from the original agricultural bill introduced, is that the current one does also focus on food production.

The headline provisions within the bill promote the following:
• Activities to protect and improve the land, water and air within the environment
• Support to provide thriving plants and wildlife
• Actions to help reduction and protection of the country from environmental hazards
• Actions to help the country adapt to and mitigate climate change
• Support to help maintaining, restoring and enhancing the beauty of the country’s heritage and to help with the increase in engagement and access to the environment for the general public
• Support to help improve the health and welfare of the country’s livestock

In the period between the introduction of the original bill in 2018 and the current bill published, the Government has also taken account of feedback they have received from the agricultural industry and therefore does focus more on food production than the previous bill.
The headlines that are new within the bill, are those which cover our food security, soil quality and animal traceability service, fertiliser regulation and organics regulation.

Importantly, the government has now recognised food security as an essential for the UK as we leave the EU and is now recognising that approximately 28% of food eaten within the UK comes from EU countries. They have set out that they will be looking within this bill and future policy at global food availability, the resilience of the supply chain of food into the UK, food safety and consumer confidence within food produced.
In this current changing climate, things are moving very fast and included within the bill the government has set out a transition period for the phasing out of direct subsidy payments within England and to move to the new policies that they will be introducing. This transition period is set out to be a 7-year period starting in 2021 and ending in 2027.

PFK will be keeping a close eye on all progress and will be well positioned to assist with the changes that will come about and help with the move towards a new agricultural support system. To discuss with an expert, call us on 01768 866611 or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.