Clause 1 - Amendment of Weeds Act 1959 - to provide for the control of ragwort
Equine Welfare (Ragwort Control) Bill
9:45 am
Mr John Greenway (Ryedale, Conservative)
I am grateful to the Minister and to colleagues for what they have said.
The Bill refers to ''the Minister'', and I am grateful for the hon. Gentleman's explanation of that. It is worth noting that parliamentary counsel employed by the British Horse Society and parliamentary counsel employed by the Minister's Department came to the same conclusion. I pay tribute to them and thank them for their help.
With those comments, I hope that the Committee will accept the amendments before us.
Amendment agreed to.
Amendment made: No. 2, in
clause 1, page 2, leave out lines 8 to 18 and insert—
'''1A Code of practice: ragwort
(1) The Minister may make a code of practice for the purpose of providing guidance on how to prevent the spread of ragwort (senecio jacobaea L.).
(2) Before making the code the Minister must consult such persons as he considers appropriate.
(3) The Minister must lay a copy of the code before Parliament.
(4) The Minister may revise the code; and subsections (2) and (3) apply to the revised code.
(5) The code is to be admissible in evidence.
(6) If the code appears to a court to be relevant to any question arising in proceedings it is to be taken into account in determining that question.''.'.—[Mr. Greenway.]
Clause 1, as amended, ordered to stand part of the Bill.