Inquiry to focus on challenges for farming post-Brexit

The House of Lords has launched a new inquiry to decipher the post-Brexit implications for UK farming.

Led by the EU energy and environment sub-committee, the investigation will draw upon evidence from industry and academic leaders on many key components of the agricultural industry, not least international trade, policy creation and support payments.

The inquiry, which begins on Wednesday at 11am, will seek to shed much-needed light upon the vast challenges government will face when disentangling UK farming from the EU. It will also explore any potential opportunities that could arise for farmers and those involved in food production.

“Membership of the EU has allowed the UK to trade freely in agricultural goods and foods with member states and has determined the UK’s external trading relations with the rest of the world,” said a House of Lords spokesperson.

“EU legislation has also governed UK policy on agricultural production, animal welfare, food safety, product standards, environmental protection, funding and rural development.

“The committee will take evidence from key industry representatives, academic experts and government officials in order to identify priorities for a post-Brexit relationship with the EU that will benefit UK farmers.”

Allan Wilkinson, head of agrifoods at the HSBC; Professor Wyn Grant, of Warwick University; and Professor Alan Swinbank, of the University of Reading, will be among the first experts to raise evidence.

The investigation has been created to explore future trading relationships, future agricultural policy and the implications on the regulatory regime that currently underpins farming and agricultural trade.

It will also consider World Trade Organisation rules, subsidy or support funding and the supply of affordable and good-quality food within the UK.

Another House of Lords inquiry, carried out by the migration advisory committee, has already heard about the impact of Brexit on British agriculture, causing a sharp decline in EU migrants willing to undertake seasonal work.

The evidence of “a dramatic change” in availability of EU labour comes as the government’s chief adviser

Gon migration warned that post-Brexit curbs on low-skilled EU migration to Britain would only provide a “modest” boost to wages and employment for British workers. “The results of the first three quarters of the 2016 NFU Labour Provider Survey found that there was a dramatic change in labour availability within the space of nine months, clearly showing the deterioration in the ability to maintain EU labour in the horticulture sector,” said the ENFU during its evidence.

“There was a dramatic change in labour availability”