Draft:Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023

The Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023 (Welsh: Deddf Amaethyddiaeth (Cymru) 2023) is an Act of the Senedd Cymru which aims to promote the focus of sustainable land management in agriculture in Wales. The Act was introduced on 26 September 2022 and granted royal assent on 17 August 2023. The Act sets out four sustainable land management objectives and creates powers for Welsh ministers to provide agricultural support payments in relation to these objectives. The Act also includes provisions to provide agricultural tenants with a route to dispute resolutions, provides Natural Resources Wales the power to add conditions to amend, suspend or revoke felling licenses to prevent felling that would contradict other environmental legislation, and prohibits the use of snares and glue traps.

Sustainable Land Management
The Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023 requires that Welsh ministers must exercise functions relating to support for or regulation of agriculture or ancilliary activities in the way they consider best contributes to achieving sustainable land management (SLM).

The Act defines SLM through four objectives:


 * 1) To produce food and other goods in a sustainable manner
 * 2) To mitigate and adapt to climate change
 * 3) To maintain and enhance the resilience of ecosystems and the benefits they provide
 * 4) To conserve and enhance the countryside and cultural resources and promote public access to and engagement with them, and to sustain the Welsh language and promote and facilitate its use.

Power to Provide Support
The Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023 provides Welsh ministers with the powers to provide support for agriculture and ancillary activities. This will primarily be provided through the Sustainable Farming Scheme. The Act allows for the checking, monitoring and enforcing of any support, as well as setting out reporting requirements. The two levels of mandatory reporting will be an Annual Report which will provide details on all support provided during each financial year, and an Impact Report, produced every five years which will assess the impact and effectiveness of all support.

Powers to Modify Legislation Relating to Support
In relation to powers to modify legislation relating to financial and other support, the Act:


 * Replaces the time limited powers in the Agriculture Act 2020 for Welsh Ministers to modify the financing, management, and monitoring of the Common Agricultural Policy.
 * Provides powers to modify, while honouring existing, rural development payment schemes entered into prior to European Union (EU) Exit which extend beyond Exit day.
 * Replaces the time limited powers in the Agriculture Act 2020 for Welsh Ministers to modify retained direct EU legislation relating to apiculture and subordinate legislation relating to that legislation.

Intervention in Agricultural Markets
The Act provides Welsh ministers the powers to declare exceptional market conditions in agricultural markets and provide financial assistance to food producers following such a declaration.

Agricultural Tenancies
The Act amends the Agricultural Holdings Acts 1986 and the Agricultural Tenancies Act 1995 to provide tenants under both Acts with a route to dispute resolution in circumstances where their landlord may be unreasonably withholding consent to a matter which requires consent under the tenancy, or to a request to vary a restrictive clause in the tenancy agreement, where the request is made to enable the tenant to request or apply for financial support, and additionally in the case of the 1995 Act complying with a statutory duty.

Forestry and Wildlife
The Agriculture (Wales) Act 2023 amends the Forestry Act 1967 to provide for the addition of conditions focussed on environmental protection and conservation to felling licences and introduce new powers for Natural Resources Wales to amend, suspend or revoke felling licences once granted. It also makes provision to prohibit the use of snares for capturing wild animals and the use of glue traps for capturing non-human vertebrates.

Sustainable Farming Scheme
The Sustainable Farming Scheme (SFS) will be the primary vessel for delivering financial support for agriculture and ancillary activities as set out in the Agriculture (Wales) Act.

Structure
The scheme will have three distinct layers, each aiming to support the farmer to achieve Sustainable Land Management outcomes, rewarding farmers who choose to do more. The first layer sets out universal actions that must be carried out by farmers who join the scheme and will entitle them to a baseline payment, as well as technical support, access to tools, advice and guidance. The second layer sets out optional actions which may be more complex to deliver and need to be tailored to each farm, with payment received for delivery of these actions. The third layer sets out collaborative actions at a landscape, catchment or national scale, such as creating interconnected habitats, developing supply chain opportunities, or sharing knowledge and innovation. The final consultation on the SFS concluded on March 7 and the Welsh Government is considering the responses. The Welsh Government is seeking to introduce the universal layer of the scheme in 2025, with the remaining layers of the scheme being rolled out up to 2029.

Response
The current proposals for the SFS set out in the latest consultation have been controversial amongst Wales’ farming and agriculture sectors and beyond. The Welsh Government has faced calls from the Welsh Conservatives and Plaid Cymru for its final consultation on the scheme to be scrapped and to lay another consultation on an entirely redesigned scheme. Contentions largely surround the 17 universal actions required by all those participating in the scheme, and the scheme rules requiring at least 10% of land on each farm to be managed as habitat and 10% under tree cover. The Welsh Government has faced warnings that these additional requirements on farmers in order to obtain subsidies will negatively impact the productivity and viability of many farming businesses. These sentiments have been expressed in a number of farmer protests, including the protest outside the Senedd of thousands of farmers on Wednesday, February 28. It has also been warned by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg that, due to the prevelance of the Welsh language amongst Wales' farming communities, the potential economic harms the scheme could have on the agricultural sector could also negatively impact the language and culture of Wales.

Others responded to the scheme more positively, with Wales Environment Link (a network of environmental, countryside and heritage non-governmental organisations) saying the scheme will ensure financial stability for farmers while ensuring a change in approach to tackle the climate change and nature loss. Organisations such as the Soil Association argued that the 10% tree requirement rules are not contradictory to farm productivity, highlighting benefits of tree cover such as shading and sheltering animals and thus reducing heat stress and milk yield loss.