Draft Free-Range Egg Marketing Standards (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024

The Committee consisted of the following Members:

Chair: Carolyn Harris

† Asser, James (West Ham and Beckton) (Lab)

† Beavers, Lorraine (Blackpool North and Fleetwood) (Lab)

† Costigan, Deirdre (Ealing Southall) (Lab)

† Dewhirst, Charlie (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)

Farron, Tim (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)

† Fortune, Peter (Bromley and Biggin Hill) (Con)

† Foster, Mr Paul (South Ribble) (Lab)

† Fox, Sir Ashley (Bridgwater) (Con)

† Gilmour, Rachel (Tiverton and Minehead) (LD)

† Hudson, Dr Neil (Epping Forest) (Con)

† Narayan, Kanishka (Vale of Glamorgan) (Lab)

† Niblett, Samantha (South Derbyshire) (Lab)

† Poynton, Gregor (Livingston) (Lab)

† Smith, Jeff (Lord Commissioner of His Majesty’s Treasury)

† Vaughan, Tony (Folkestone and Hythe) (Lab)

† Yang, Yuan (Earley and Woodley) (Lab)

† Zeichner, Daniel (Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs)

Jonathan Edwards, Committee Clerk

† attended the Committee

Fourth Delegated Legislation Committee

[Mrs Carolyn Harris in the Chair]

Draft Free-Range Egg Marketing Standards (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024

09:25:00

I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Free-Range Egg Marketing Standards (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2024. It is Wednesday morning, so we must be here again, Mrs Harris. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair. The draft regulations were laid before the House on 21 November 2024, and will amend the existing legislation governing egg marketing standards to enable free-range eggs to be marketed as such for the duration of mandatory housing measures that restrict laying hens’ access to open-air runs. Currently, when free-range hens are placed under mandatory housing measures due to disease outbreaks such as avian influenza, the existing egg marketing regulations allow their eggs to continue to be labelled as free-range for only 16 weeks. This is known as the 16-week derogation period. If the mandatory housing measure lasts for longer than 16 weeks, eggs from those hens have to be labelled and sold as barn eggs. The requirement for egg producers and packers to re-label free-range eggs as barn eggs once the 16-week derogation period is exceeded is difficult to implement in modern automated pack houses, adding significant logistical and packing cost to the industry, so the statutory instrument will remove the 16-week derogation period so that free-range egg producers and packers can label and market the eggs as free-range for the duration of a mandatory housing measure, however long that might last. Under mandatory housing measures, egg producers still have the higher operating costs of maintaining their free-range egg system, with the additional cost of having to ensure that hens are also temporarily housed indoors. The normal laying period of a productive free-range laying hen in the UK is around 90 weeks. The SI will remove the derogation that will affect only a small part of a laying hen’s productive life, with all the other free-range criteria, except access to open-air runs, still needing to be met. In 2024, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the Scottish Government held a joint consultation on the proposed changes, and 70% of respondents supported the removal of the 16-week derogation. The removal of the derogation has already come into force in Scotland. Following their own consultation exercise, the Welsh Government have announced that they will also introduce legislation to remove the derogation. In 2023, the European Union amended its egg marketing standards regulations to remove the 16-week derogation period. Through the Windsor framework, this also applies to free-range eggs produced in Northern Ireland. Without the SI, the introduction of any mandatory housing measures that last longer than 16 weeks—for example, during an avian influenza outbreak—would be detrimental for English free-range egg producers and result in an increase in the importing of free-range eggs from the EU and Northern Ireland. This could have a significant negative long-term impact on the English free-range egg industry. The SI will restore alignment with the EU and Northern Ireland, and will also ensure that free-range egg producers and packers do not incur additional costs for adhering to Government-imposed housing requirements. Unfortunately, outbreaks of avian influenza usually occur during the winter months, as was the case in 2021-22 and 2022-23, resulting in the introduction of housing measures for poultry that, in both those cases, lasted longer than the 16-week labelling derogation period. They lasted for an additional six weeks in 2021-22 and seven weeks in 2022-23. It is, then, imperative that the SI is in place for the rest of the winter period and beyond. We continue to uphold the high standards expected by UK consumers and businesses. The change in the statutory instrument will safeguard our important British egg industry. I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.

09:29:00

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Mrs Harris. I thank the Minister for bringing the draft regulations to the Committee. I am pleased to say that we, His Majesty’s most loyal Opposition, are supportive of the statutory instrument and offer no objections. The initial consultation conducted by the previous Conservative Government in January 2024 demonstrated strong support for the proposals, leading to this statutory instrument. Current marketing standards allow hens to be housed for 16 weeks before their eggs are required to be re-labelled as barn eggs. Recent avian influenza outbreaks have once again necessitated the introduction of mandatory housing measures for free-range poultry in certain areas, which can sometimes exceed the 16-week limit. Consequently, producers adhering to these essential measures have been penalised through the loss of their free-range status. In the previous Parliament I served on the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, and we looked into this issue extremely closely and fed our work in to the Government. I am pleased that the previous Government responded positively, and that the new Government have picked up the baton. The changes in the statutory instrument will remove the 16-week derogation period, thereby protecting producers who are doing the right thing by responsibly housing their birds under the chief veterinary officer’s instructions during the imposition of avian influenza controls. I should declare an interest: I am a veterinary surgeon so I have a strong personal and professional interest in this subject. The changes are made in the knowledge that once the restrictions are lifted, the birds will be back out and free-range. Furthermore, they will ensure that English free-range producers maintain parity with the EU, where the 16-week time limit was removed from egg marketing standards legislation in 2023, as the Minister articulated. This will create a level playing field for our producers and reduce the likelihood of English free-range eggs being substituted with imported eggs. Although we support the statutory instrument, I do have some questions for the Minister. Before I ask them, I put on the record my thoughts and sympathy for farmers and bird keepers who have been affected by avian influenza outbreaks. The virus is still with us and there are still outbreaks. I also pay tribute to everyone at the Animal and Plant Health Agency. Vets, officials and scientists are working hard on the situation, as they are working on many different disease situations. Avian influenza is with us, bluetongue is still bubbling away, and we now have the real concern of foot and mouth disease having been confirmed in our near neighbour Germany. As a veterinary surgeon, I am all too aware of the devastating impacts that animal disease outbreaks can have. Avian influenza outbreaks obviously affect not only reared domestic birds but wild birds, but there are also significant human impacts, not least on the mental health of those in the frontline. Given the ongoing avian influenza situation, will the Minister outline the additional measures the Government are taking on avian influenza to preserve our nation’s biosecurity? What is the current policy and status in terms of vaccine development and deployment? In addition, will the Minister clarify what steps are being taken to co-ordinate the changes with Welsh authorities? We know they are introducing changes, but we must make sure that we have a consistent approach across the UK. We strongly support these crucial measures and I am grateful that the regulations have been brought to the Committee today.

09:33:00

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for his support. We are very much carrying forward the work of the previous Government. The hon. Gentleman asked about the additional measures to preserve biosecurity and raised the important issues in respect of bluetongue and of foot and mouth disease in Germany. I assure him that all the measures he would expect to be in place are in place. I spoke to the German Minister about foot and mouth last night, and we will update the hon. Gentleman and his colleagues if there are any further developments. We obviously hope that outbreak can be contained. On bluetongue, we held a roundtable yesterday on our approach for the future. I assure the hon. Gentleman that we are very aware of these threats. Anyone who holds the relevant offices is aware that they are of huge concern not just to the farming community but to the wider community. The vaccination against avian influenza of poultry and captive birds, excluding those in licensed zoos, is not currently permitted, as I think the hon. Gentleman knows. Although authorised vaccines are available, they are unlikely to provide full protection for the strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza that are currently circulating in the UK and Europe. At present, while vaccination can help to reduce mortality, it is likely that some vaccinated birds would still be capable of transmitting avian influenza if they became infected. Vaccination is not, then, part of our current approach. The hon. Gentleman asked about the situation in respect of Wales. As I said in my opening statement, the Welsh Government are pursuing similar lines on this matter. With that, I hope we can move to a conclusion. I should add that I understand that there will be concerns that somehow consumers will not get quite what they what they seem to be getting. We are we mindful of that, so to reduce the risk of consumers feeling misled, we will encourage retailers to place signage near where eggs are displayed, to inform consumers of the imposition of mandatory housing measures and their impact on the marketing of free-range eggs—notably that, except for access to open-air runs, the rest of the free-range egg criteria continue to be met. This statutory instrument is an important measure to support the British egg industry by making sure it has a level playing field with trading partners such as the European Union that have already adopted similar provisions. On that basis, I commend the draft regulations to the Committee.

Egg-cellent! [Laughter.] Question put and agreed to.

09:36:00