My Lords, I shall say a few words about Amendment 54 in my name. Basically, all the amendments in my name are a result of the report on the Bill from the Delegated Powers and Regulatory Reform Committee. Amendment 54 relates to the fact that in Clause 25(1), there is a power to
“prescribe circumstances in which the health or welfare of a relevant animal … is … to be regarded … as being adversely affected by any precision bred trait.”
The amendment questions what “adversely affected” is all about, because the Bill is not clear. Clauses 11 and 15 use this phrase when the applicant is applying to the Secretary of State and the Secretary of State can make the decisions.
The report on the Bill from the Delegated Powers Committee accepts that the affirmative procedure is involved and the memorandum provides the justification for the power of the Secretary of State to decide whether an animal is
“adversely affected by any precision bred trait.”
But the committee called the memorandum
“vague and inadequate. Where the Government propose that an important term used in a Bill is not to be defined in the Bill itself but is instead to be defined subsequently in ministerial regulations, we expect a convincing justification for this. In our view, what is meant by the health or welfare of an animal being ‘adversely affected by precision bred traits’ for the purposes of the Bill is not a ‘technical issue’—and the Government themselves acknowledge this in the Memorandum.”
In short, the committee’s report states in paragraph 29 that
“defining the circumstances in which the health or welfare of an animal is to be regarded as ‘adversely affected by any precision bred trait’ for the purposes of the Bill is significant in policy terms and is a matter of public interest; it is therefore important that any such definition is subject to an appropriate level of parliamentary scrutiny; leaving the definition entirely to ministerial regulations (albeit subject to the affirmative procedure) therefore demands a convincing justification; the Government have failed to provide this; and accordingly, unless the Minister can provide the House with a convincing justification for it, the power in clause 25(1) is inappropriate.”
This amendment gives the Minister an opportunity to tell us what is meant by
“adversely affected by any precision bred trait.”
It must not be kept a secret. It has got to be open and transparent so that people understand it.