Environment Bill — House of Commons, 2021-05-26
Topic: Agriculture
Rosalie Winterton (Labour, Centre-left): With this it will be convenient to discuss the following: New clause 19—Labelling scheme for the environmental sustainability of food— "(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision for a scheme requiring food manufacturers to label foods offered for sale in the United Kingdom to indicate the environmental sustainability of their origins (2) That scheme must make provision for a kitemark indicating the environmentally sustainable origins of a food (3) The kitemark may be applied to:— (a) raw food commodities, (b) processed food products, and (c) the ingredients of processed food products (4) The definition of ‘environmentally sustainable origins’ under the scheme must incorporate an assessment of whether the agricultural or manufacturing processes involved in the production of a food— (a) protect the habitats of species listed internationally as endangered, (b) avoid biodiversity loss, (c) avoid deforestation, and (d) avoid significant increases in net carbon emissions (5) The scheme may make provision for— (a) enforcement, and (b) civil sanctions in relation to labelling and use of the kitemark (6) Regulations under this section are subject to the affirmative procedure (7) Before making regulations under this Act, the Secretary of State must consult— (a) the Scottish Ministers, (b) the Welsh Ministers, and (c) the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (8) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a draft statutory instrument containing the proposed scheme before the end of the period of one year beginning with the day this Act receives Royal Assent." New clause 24—Prohibition on burning of peat in upland areas— "(1) A person must not burn specified vegetation on land in England which is within an upland area on peat (2) In this section— ‘specified vegetation’ means heather, rough grass, bracken, gorse or vaccinium, and ‘upland area’ means all the land shown coloured pink on the map marked as ‘Map of Upland Area in England’ held by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs but does not include the land coloured pink in the Isles of Scilly(a)." The new clause extends the coverage of the peat burning ban from the 142,000 ha of upland peat currently covered to the full 355,000 ha of upland peat in England. New clause 28—Labelling scheme for the informed purchase of environmentally sustainable food— "(1) The Secretary of State must by regulations make provision for a scheme requiring food manufacturers to label foods offered for sale in the United Kingdom to indicate the environmental sustainability of their origins (2) The scheme in subsection (1) must make provision for a kitemark indicating the environmentally sustainable origins of a food (3) The kitemark may be applied to— (a) raw food commodities, (b) processed food products, and (c) the ingredients of processed food products (4) Food labelling under the scheme must include a declaration about food miles, which is defined as the distance travelled from the country, or in the case of domestically produced food the region, of origin (5) The declaration in subsection (4) must be given in words and numbers, but may also be presented using graphical forms or symbols provided that the graphical forms or symbols meet the following requirements— (a) they are based on scientifically valid consumer research and do not mislead the consumer as referred to in Article 7 of the retained Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council as amended in the Food (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019; (b) their development is the result of consultation with a wide range of stakeholder groups; (c) they aim to facilitate consumer understanding of the contribution or importance of the environmental impact of the food; (d) they are supported by scientifically valid evidence showing that such forms of presentation are understood by the average consumer; (e) they are objective and non-discriminatory; and (f) their application does not create obstacles to the free movement of goods (6) The scheme may recommend to food business operators the use of one or more additional forms of presentation of the environmental indications that they consider as best fulfilling the requirements laid down in paragraphs (a) to (f) of subsection (5) (7) The scheme may make provision for— (a) enforcement, and (b) civil sanctions in relation to labelling and use of the kitemark (8) Regulations under this section are subject to the affirmative procedure (9) The Secretary of State must lay before Parliament a draft statutory instrument containing the proposed scheme before the end of the period of one year beginning with the day this Act receives Royal Assent." New clause 29—Review of public health effects— "(1) The Secretary of State must review the public health effects of the provisions of this Act and lay a report of that review before the House of Commons within six months of the passing of this Act (2) A review under this section must consider— (a) the effects of the provisions of this Act on air pollutant levels across the UK, (b) the effects of the provisions of this Act on different socioeconomic groups and population groups with protected characteristics as defined by the 2010 Equality Act, (c) the effects of the provisions of this Act on life expectancy and healthy life expectancy in the UK, and (d) the implications for the public finances of the public health effects of the provisions of this Act." Before I call the shadow Minister, I should say that there will be a four-minute time limit on Back-Bench contributions.