Agriculture Bill goes to Committee stage

The Agriculture Bill returned to the House of Lords last week.

Defra Lords minister, Lord Gardiner of Kimble, will be leading several sittings of the whole house as the Bill is progressed through the Committee stage, which is expected to take a couple of weeks. Peers will have the opportunity to scrutinise the legislation line by line, as well as consider any amendments tabled by peers following the Second Reading earlier this month.

The Bill was first introduced to the House of Commons on 16 January to deliver on the government’s manifesto commitments to ensure a smooth and gradual transition away from the EU’s Common Agriculture Policy, which simply pays farmers based on the total amount of land farmed, and replace it with a system where farming efficiently and improving the environment go hand in hand.

The government said it remains confident that the Agriculture Bill will reach Royal Assent in time to begin the “transition towards a new, fairer agricultural system in England as planned in 2021”.

The Environment Bill is understood to be delayed until autumn.

Responding to a Parliamentary question from Conservative MP Matthew Offord on Friday, water minister Rebecca Pow said the government response to its consultation on Measures to reduce personal water consumption will now be published “by the end of 2020”.