My Lords, I want to thank all noble Lords who have spoken. It is always embarrassing when one receives such generous comments, but I want to record my strong appreciation for all that has been said. I also say that the Government have listened closely to this House and its views on trade standards and on other matters raised over—my record says—90 hours of debate on the Bill in this House alone. I want, therefore, to record the tenacity of your Lordships. Many of the principal protagonists are in the Chamber, but there are others whom I would like to record as well who have done so much.
I think that the Government have made significant undertakings to ensure that trade deals are subject to ongoing, informed scrutiny by Parliament. Obviously, this is the beginning of a journey, and I have no doubt that your Lordships are going to keep that, in turn, under close scrutiny.
I acknowledge the campaigning of Minette Batters, the president, and the whole team, of the National Farmers Union—particularly as I am a member of the NFU, so it is good they have done so well, is it not? I was pleased that they acknowledged and welcomed our proposals and—yes—our concessions as a victory for them. I am also pleased that the chair of the EFRA Select Committee, Neil Parish, was pleased about these matters.
I was also very pleased by the comments of a noble Lord who is so experienced in agriculture, the noble Lord, Lord Curry of Kirkharle. I was touched also by the points made by my noble friend Lord Cormack about my ministerial colleagues. I should mention the Secretary of State and my honourable friend Victoria Prentis. A lot of comments have come my way, but I must absolutely tell your Lordships that those two ministerial colleagues have been, in their hearts, very interested and wanting to do what I would call the right thing.
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Parliament will have an ongoing central role in ensuring that deals work for British farmers and consumers. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, that obviously there is a great more work that I know she feels strongly about and we will work together on, but trade deals will be designed to help our farmers—indeed, this is one thing that we have not heard enough of in our consideration—in creating new markets for what we would all accept are top-quality products and the exports that we want to encourage by these trade arrangements around the world. The Government will keep working hard to support our farmers as we pursue new trade opportunities. Indeed, this is the core task of the Trade and Agriculture Commission that will be put on a statutory footing.
The noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, asked a number of questions, and my noble friend Lord Lansley engaged on one of them. Clearly, to ensure that Parliament is made aware of all changes to primary or secondary legislation as a result of an FTA, any primary or secondary legislation required to give effect to an FTA will be subject to the applicable parliamentary scrutiny. Parliament must be, and definitely will be, aware of any such legislation, because we would expect full scrutiny of it and the expected challenge to it.
The noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, also asked about future trade agreement sharing. We will share future trade agreements with relevant Select Committees in advance of them being laid in Parliament through the process set out under CRaG. We will always endeavour to make sure that committees have at least 10 sitting days to read through these on a confidential basis.
On the question from the noble Lord, Lord Grantchester, about the Government providing enough time for meaningful study prior to debate, we are committed to giving Parliament and the devolved Administrations enough time to scrutinise properly any FTA proposals. We would expect any reasonable Government to give time for debate through the usual channels. This Government—and successor Governments —would want that, because scrutiny is a positive contribution to how we trade around the world and ensure that in the agri-food sector, as in other sectors, Britain has something very strong to offer.
The noble Lord, Lord Krebs, and my noble friends Lord Caithness and Lord Lansley, spoke about resources, and I am very conscious of this. I have had a number of conversations with Heather Hancock and Emily Miles of the FSA about these matters. The FSA has doubled the number of risk assessors since 2017. It can draw on the expertise of 100 scientific experts and support staff, and it has recruited 35 additional members to its advisory committees. This is an area that I want to spend continued time upon, because clearly resources at local government level are necessary, as has been mentioned, and the FSA clearly has a prime task to fulfil.
Food standards were mentioned. The FSA and FSS are responsible for standards, and our regulatory agencies remain the voice on these issues, as they already engage with the sector. It is a heavily regulated sector, with statutory agencies at national, devolved and international level, and the work of local authorities. My work encompasses other agencies—including the Veterinary Medicines Directorate and the Animal and Plant Health Agency—as well as the FSA and FSS, and these continue to be the defining voices on those aspects of food standards.
Several other points were made. The noble Baroness, Lady Bakewell, returned to the matter of equivalence, and it has been raised before. I was thinking hard about the points that were made on this as I was pruning some very difficult climbing roses at the weekend—because that is a time to think. I repeat what I said in my opening remarks: our new clause allows us to consider equivalence, but we prefer our wording for reasons of consistency and because we think that our wording embraces a wider scope particularly, as I mentioned earlier, in relation to developing countries. We have to be honest with ourselves: it is in the interests of this country and of developing countries that there is an economic dynamic that allows those developing countries to become more prosperous. If we were to use the words, as in the amendment, “equivalence” and “exceeding”, we would present difficulties that I know the noble Baroness does not intend, because we all want that dynamic of trade around the world.
There is also the point about consistency and why we need to be consistent in maintaining our standards. We could tease this out—the interpretation of equivalence over consistency—but my point, having taken more advice on this, is that we should cover the broadest extent. Equivalence and consideration of equivalence are very much within the scope of the new clause. I hope that will give the noble Baroness an understanding or a view that this is not about discarding equivalence: the wording is deliberately intended to enable us to assess it on a consistency basis.
Having said that, there is further work to be done and we will need to follow up some of the points that have been made—again, we have discussed the TAC—as the work develops. We will clearly work closely with TAC members and its chair, Tim Smith. The group has an extended remit, more details will be shared and we will need to work on further announcements—a point that my noble friend Lady McIntosh spoke about. The extended role of the TAC, which will produce reports on the new FTAs before they are laid in Parliament, is precisely about independent scrutiny, and we will also have the trade advisory groups, including the dedicated agri-food group.
By reporting to Parliament, the TAC will also enable the agri-food chapters of possible new FTAs to be scrutinised with much higher precision, using expert advice from not only the TAC but, conceivably, the FSA and parliamentary Select Committees. As I have said before, I strongly believe that there is more scrutiny of trade arrangements in the agri-food sector in this country than probably any other country in the world, and we should be proud of that.
I will attend to some of the points that have been made in follow-ups. The noble Baroness, Lady Boycott, spoke about public health issues. It is absolutely essential that, whether domestically produced or imported, food is safe for the public: that is why we have a Food Standards Agency and FSS. It is at the absolute heart of why we have, and want to retain, very high standards. We want scrutiny in this country, and it is an area, as the Minister responsible for biosecurity, that I am very hot on.
My noble friend Lord Caithness mentioned enforcement and checks. Again, it is essential that we have checks at the border and checks in our work with other countries to ensure that standards are high.
There are a number of points I may not be able to address here. I was not privy to the Emily Thornberry meeting, so I might need a bit of scrutiny on that.
Regarding the generous comments that have been made, in all the meetings I have had with my noble friend Lord Grimstone, he has been on absolutely the same page. In fact, he has constantly stressed to me the importance for British farmers of the opportunities provided by trade deals. He is absolutely on the same page as all of us in wanting opportunities for the British farmer—not wanting to undersell the British farmer at all. So I will take those messages back to my noble friend and perhaps suggest that all the points that he has made to me are made absolutely clear to your Lordships.
The sooner this Bill is enacted, the sooner we can begin the transformation of our agricultural sector in the context of food production for both home
consumption and export, unlocking environmental health and well-being benefits from rural areas that I know we all want to realise. That point has been made so strongly by noble Lords today and during the 90 hours of consideration. So I believe it is time for the next stage of our work. The Government have brought forward these proposals—indeed, concessions—which have been overwhelmingly welcomed by your Lordships, albeit with some further commentary, as well as, importantly, by farmers and the NFU, by the other place, where there are many agricultural MPs, and also by the noble Lord, Lord Curry, who I see as a symbol of British agriculture. So I ask noble Lords on all sides of the House to support the Motion that I have tabled. I reiterate how profoundly grateful I am and recognise the work of your Lordships in where we have, eventually, fetched up. I beg to move.