My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady McIntosh of Pickering. I congratulate the noble Baroness, Lady Young of Old Scone, on moving this amendment so eloquently, and the other speakers in this group for their contributions—albeit that they have been very brief. I regret that mine is not going to be brief.
I have added my name to this amendment, along with the noble Lord, Lord Randall of Uxbridge, and the noble Earl, Lord Devon, because I feel it is really important. There is undoubtedly an approaching gap in the legislation. The current Covid-19 pandemic should be a wake-up call to the fact that disease stemming from both wild and domestic animals is attributable in some countries to modern agricultural practices that are unsustainable and increase the risk of zoonotic disease. This is very serious in some countries. In the UK we have high standards of animal welfare, but our practices on land management and soil protection need closer monitoring.
The Minister has, on many occasions, reiterated that the Bill is a framework Bill only. This has led to it being silent on the role of regulation, which is extremely unwise as there is a regulatory gap which it is vital to plug. Without regulation, important environmental protections currently provided through the EU CAP, such as preventing hedgerows from being cut during the bird-breeding season and protecting watercourses and soils, will be absent after Brexit.
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The cross-compliance protections under the GAEC are good but not extensive. The new environmental regulatory framework to be consulted on this autumn is unlikely to be in place until 2024, but the Minister indicated in Committee that direct payments could be delinked as early as 2022.
This gap could have a very detrimental effect on our countryside and contradicts the Conservative manifesto promise to
“legislate to ensure high standards of … environmental protection and leave the natural environment in a better state than we found it.”
Unless the regulatory system is fully up and running by 2022 and includes the GAEC rules, there will be a gap in environmental protections, as the noble Earl, Lord Devon, indicated.
The Government have also indicated that in future the voluntary ELMS could be used to pay farmers and land managers to undertake activities that are currently treated as basic requirements under GAEC rules. We cannot pay farmers extra money to carry out the most basic environmental protections; only those who truly engage with ELMS and go the extra mile should receive financial rewards. This would be a weakening, not a strengthening of environmental protection and restoration.
I am extremely disappointed that the Government appear to be back-tracking on their environmental protections. It would appear that this was all warm words and no regulation to back it up. I ask the Minister what the Government intend to do about the cross-compliance gap. I hope that he will accept this amendment, and if not give us very concrete reasons why.