Supplementary Memorandum by the Welsh Assembly Government
Minister for Environment, Planning and Countryside -
July 2003
|
| Introduction |
|
1. I have pleasure in submitting further
written evidence on the specific issues raised in the
Commission's letter of 23 May 2003. This supplements
the formal written evidence submitted by my predecessor
last November.
|
| TRANSFER OF ANIMAL HEALTH AND WELFARE POWERS |
|
2. Following an inter-Group scoping study
within the Assembly Government, conducted in co-operation
with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural
Affairs (Defra), the following animal health and welfare
powers have provisionally been identified for transfer:
|
Functions in Primary Legislation
(including all functions in secondary legislation
made under each Act listed)
|
• Animal Health Act 1981 (as amended and extended
by Animal Health Act 2002)
|
• Slaughterhouses Act 1974
|
• Bees Act 1980
|
• Pig Industry Levy Act 1983
|
Functions in Secondary Leg islation
|
• Welfare of Farmed Animals (Slaughter and Killing)
Regulations 1995
|
• The Products of Animal Origin (import and
Export) Regulations 1996
|
• The TSE (Wales) Regulations 2002
|
| 3. Primary legislative powers will remain the prerogative
of the UK Parliament. |
|
4. The proposed transfer of powers project
makes no provision for the transfer of programme budgets.
These will remain unified at the GB level in recognition
of Great Britain as a single epidemiological area for
the purposes of animal disease and welfare as well as
the UK's formal position as the Member State of the
EU. Discussions are on-going regarding the transfer
of running costs but the scope is necessarily limited
given the very small and dispersed nature of the functions
relative to those held by Defra.
|
|
5. The transfer of powers is currently
on schedule for a planned effective date of April 2004.
A Project Board has been set up and is taking forward
the transfer and its resource issues. Recruitment and
accommodation programmes have been drawn up and are
ready to begin (the recruitment of a Veterinary Policy
Unit, being set up in order to provide independent veterinary
advice to Welsh Ministers, has already started). In
parallel, work is continuing on the case to be put to
the Committee for the Nations and Regions (CNR) as the
prelude for the Order-making activity later in the year.
Legislating for the transfer depends on the outcome
of consideration by the CNR.
|
| 6. It is relevant and important to recognise that Great
Britain remains a single epidemiological area. In order
to ensure continuing effective working relations and consistency
between the different administrations, as well as maintaining
the integrity of Great Britain as a single epidemiological
area, a State Veterinary Service Management Board, on
which the Assembly Government is represented, has been
established. A GB-wide Animal Health and Welfare Strategy
has also been developed. |
| COMMON LAND LEGISLATION |
| 7. In February 2000 a Consultation Paper was issued
in England and Wales in respect of, among other things,
the agricultural management of common land. The responses
were analysed and in July 2002 the Government issued its
conclusions in the form of the Common Land Policy Statement;
it can be viewed at: http://www.defra.gov.uk/wildlifecountryside/issues/commonlleaislation/clps.pdf. |
| 8. The Statement provided for the setting up of a Stakeholder
Working Group (SWG) to make recommendations on the agricultural
management of common land. The Working Group was convened
last November, and issued its report in April 2003. The
report may be viewed at www defra aov uk/wildlife-countryside/issues/common/legislation/swareportapr03.pdf. |
| 9. The intention is to carry out a consultation exercise
in England and Wales by the end of September at the latest
on the Government's proposals, formulated after having
taken into account the SWG's recommendations, -for the
agricultural management of common land. Whatever conclusions
are reached following that consultation exercise, primary
legislation will be required to achieve reforms to the
law relating to common land. The ability to take this
forward will clearly depend upon the availability of Parliamentary
time. As with all new demands on Parliamentary time, however,
there can be no guarantee that any legislation which may
be needed as a result of this exercise could be accommodated
within the Parliamentary timetable. |
| 10. It is not correct to say that the legislative process
is well advanced. The formulation of policy and proposals
is well advanced but it will not be until the further
consultation exercise has been completed that the work
on preparing legislation can begin. |
| 11. The argument that legislation is likely to be a
higher priority for the Welsh Assembly Government than
the UK Government because of the higher proportion of
common land in Wales does not really hold water. It is
true that the Welsh agriculture strategy "Farming for
the Future: a new direction for farming in Wales" identifies
this as a key action. However, the problems identified
by the original consultation exercise affect England and
Wales and it should be noted that it is Defra that has
taken, and continues to take, the lead on the issue of
improving the management, etc of common land. Furthermore,
the UK Government and Welsh Assembly Government have made
clear, and publicly, the intention to bring forward legislation
to address a wide range of common land issues. The Assembly
Government had intended to bring forward primary legislation
in the current Parliamentary Session to deal with issues
relating to agricultural management and over-grazing on
Commons in Wales. The bid for legislation was withdrawn
in the light of Defra's commitment to seek legislative
time because of the obvious advantage of dealing with
our concerns in a more comprehensive approach put forward
by Defra. |
| 12. It is not possible to indicate, at this stage, how
many clauses are likely to be in any new bill nor how
complex it would be. What must be borne in mind, however,
is that any proposed legislation would have to replace
complex legislation accumulated over many hundreds of
years. There is every likelihood, therefore, that the
proposed legislation would be quite complex itself. |
| 13. In view of the range of issues to be covered, the
fact that those issues affect both England and Wales and
Defra's commitment to bid for a legislative opportunity
in 2004-2005, it is considered inappropriate to seek Wales-only
legislation to deal with these issues. |
| INSHORE FISHERIES POWERS |
| 14. There are two tiers of fisheries management within
inshore waters around Wales. The first tier, which covers
the 0-12 miles sea area is covered by EU, UK and Welsh
Assembly legislation and implemented by Defra's Sea Fisheries
Inspectors acting on behalf of the Welsh Assembly Government.
The second tier, covers the 0-6 mile, and is covered additionally
by Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs) legislation in the
form of local byelaws. Sea Fisheries Committees (SFCs)
are committees of local government and it is the Committees'
officers that enforce the byelaws independently of the
Assembly Government. SFCs decide what additional measures
are required to conserve fisheries in their areas, but
their byelaws, after public consultation, have to be considered
and as appropriate confirmed by the Assembly Government. |
| 15. The starting point for any long- term strategy for
sustainable sea fishing in the UK is the EU's Common Fisheries
Policy. The Policy has recently been reviewed and the
Assembly Government, along with the other UK Fisheries
Departments, is currently assessing the impact that proposed
changes will have on the UK industry. That assessment
is being led, at the behest of the Prime Minister, by
a Cabinet Office Strategy Group, which is due to report
its findings by the end of the year. However, early evidence
from this initiative and existing evidence from work undertaken
by the WDA in preparing a commercial fisheries strategy
for Wales, which was published earlier this year, makes
clear the importance of inshore fisheries in the 0-6 mile
zone. This is particularly true in Wales where inshore
under 10 meters vessels, fishing mainly for shellfish,
make up the bulk of the Welsh fleet. |
| 16. If these inshore fisheries are to remain viable
then effective management is essential. As indicated above
the main management tool for these inshore fisheries are
SFC byelaws. Membership of an SFC is voluntary and the
decision whether or not to be in membership, or the amount
of funds which are allocated to an SFC by each constituent
member council, has more to do with that councils competing
financial priorities than the needs of the local fisheries.
An indication of the problem is the inordinate difficulties
faced by the Assembly Government, over the last five years,
in resolving a financial package between member councils
of one of the two Welsh SFCs. To add to the SFCs problems,
the powers, which underpin SFC management bylaws, are
outdated and restrict the options for appropriate management
regimes. The result is that important fisheries are not
to be afforded the management that they require if they
are to be sustainably maintained. |
| 17. The remedies to these problems are generally straightforward
but they can only be achieved by amending the Sea Fisheries
Regulation Act 1966. Despite regular requests over many
years by the Assembly Government and by Defra for amendments
to be made to the Act, our attempts have been thwarted
by a lack of parliamentary time. If the Assembly Government
had those powers, not only could it address the short
term problems currently being faced by SFCs, but it could
also carry out a radical review of Welsh inshore fisheries
to ensure that we have the best management regime in place
for these very important Welsh fisheries. |
|
|
