Yes, we are all excited.
My Lords, I will speak to my Amendments 296 and 297 in this group. I am also speaking in support of the amendments in the names of my noble friend Lady Young of Old Scone, the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett, and the noble Lord, Lord Randall. He has made a significant contribution to this and other debates, and we are grateful to him for raising the issue of protecting hedgerows this evening. It is an issue which many people care deeply about, and a number of noble Lords have reflected that this evening.
Our amendments propose a new schedule to modernise regulations relating to intensive farming and the management of livestock and soil. They fit in with the suite of amendments on the need to create a new regulatory framework regime, which has been expertly introduced by my noble friend Lady Young of Old Scone. As she and other noble Lords have pointed out,
the Bill in its current form fails to provide the regulatory baseline which will be lost when we leave the CAP cross-compliance requirements. For example, when we are no longer bound by the good agricultural and environmental condition standards in England, there will be gaps left in relation to good soil management, hedgerow management and the protection of small water bodies.
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The Bill also misses the opportunity to update the regulations on some of the emerging environmental issues in agriculture, where we are rightly demanding higher standards. For example, there are regulatory gaps on the need for climate change mitigation and adaption, and for the use of integrated pest-management techniques to cut down on the use of pesticides.
Rather than deal with this in a piecemeal way, an overarching framework should be drawn up, which seeks to plug the existing gaps and, more importantly, sets out a new model based on the objectives of the Bill to better manage land in a way that improves the environment. Farm payments are clearly part of this. It would include setting standards and targets for compliance with the regulations. It would need to address the failures of the Environment Agency to have a credible programme of farm inspections. As my noble friend Lady Young’s amendment makes clear, it would also require a detailed programme of consultation, to ensure buy-in from stakeholders and to help deliver behaviour change.
I am grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Worthington, for her support for my amendments, which address the impact of ammonia emissions. Agriculture currently accounts for about 88% of total UK ammonia emissions. These come primarily from livestock manure in slurry in stores and when spread on the land as fertiliser. We are now much more aware of the dangers. As well as having direct health impacts, ammonia reacts in the soil and the air to form other pollutants. This is why the Environment Bill 2020 sets a target of an 8% reduction in ammonia emissions compared to 2005. Although small, we are still way off meeting this target and urgent action is needed in this area. The Agriculture Bill should play its part by bringing intensive beef and dairy production, and outdoor pig operations, into the environmental permitting regime. This would help us to meet those emission reduction targets.
Our amendments also address the scourge of soil degradation, which has already been debated and it was agreed needs urgent attention. It impacts not only on food production outputs but on greenhouse gas emissions, increased flooding and reduced water quality. The amendments would amend the Reduction and Prevention of Agricultural Diffuse Pollution (England) Regulations to place stricter requirements on high-risk crops, to minimise soil erosion and diffuse pollution.
These are very specific amendments, but we agree that they should be considered in a wider regulatory review, as proposed by my noble friend Lady Young. I therefore hope that noble Lords will support them.