A bill to introduce payments for environmental improvements by farmers fails to win time in Parliament to pass into law
The future of new legislation to reward farmers for providing environmental benefits has been plunged into uncertainty while the government attempts to resolve Brexit.
A business statement from the Leaders' Office confirmed yesterday the Agriculture Bill is not scheduled to be debated or voted on during the final session in Parliament on Monday September 9. After that date Parliament is prorogued until October 14, just ahead of the October 15 date Prime Minister Johnson has earmarked for a general election.
The Agriculture Bill was introduced in September 2018, but has been stalled in Parliament since November, as the government attempted to get its Brexit deal with the EU agreed.
It contains the legal basis for the government's flagship plans to replace the EU's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), which pays farmers based on the total amount of land farmed, with a subsidy system that pays farmers for improving the natural environment.
Under the new scheme farmers would receive "public money for public goods", such as better air and water quality, improved soil health, higher animal welfare standards, public access to the countryside and measures to reduce flooding.
Once Parliament is prorogued, under convention all legislation waiting to be approved is scrapped and a fresh Parliamentary session begins with a clean slate. However, a spokeswoman for Defra said there is a chance some of the remaining Bills currently before the House could be carried over to the next Parliamentary session, adding "the government will look to work constructively with the opposition on this front".
"If agreement cannot be reached, we will look to reintroduce the bills in the next session, and details on this will be set out in the Queen's Speech," she added.
Martin Harper, global conservation director for the RSPB, said that the bill had been a "first tentative step in the right direction", but that the sector was now "faced with acute uncertainty", with no clarity on when a new version of the Agriculture Bill will make it back to Parliament.
"For farmers, this comes on top of the crushing worry that a no deal Brexit has created. At a time when we need to be sending clear signals to the farming community that nature-friendly, agroecological farming is the future, this current mess couldn't be more damaging," he said.