Clause 44 - Enforcement powers in connection with pesticides
Natural Environment and Rural Communities Bill
4:00 pm
Colin Breed (Shadow Minister, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs; South East Cornwall, Liberal Democrat)
I do not want to reiterate what the hon. Member for South-East Cambridgeshire (Mr. Paice) said, but I sense a certain déjà vu. I was on the Committee that considered the Animal Health Act 2002, and powers of enforcement were much debated and disputed. They were hugely draconian. Perhaps some proportionate enforcement was justified then, because we were looking back to the foot and mouth crisis, when it was sometimes difficult to gain entry to property to inspect animals and ensure that slaughter was arranged quickly, for everyone’s benefit and to avoid the spread of the disease. However, I think that every member of the Committee considered the original drafting of the provisions unreasonable, even in light of that terrible, tragic episode, which hit agricultural and rural communities so hard.
We must bear in mind what the powers are for. We do not need them to allow us to enter premises with the speed that was required for the testing of animals for foot and mouth. Most people recognise that there is sometimes a need to enter properties, particularly if they are empty or the relevant person cannot be reached, but the powers must be proportionate. We ought not to lift powers from one piece of legislation to another and pass them through willy-nilly.
As we discussed in our debates on clause 43, we are talking about possession, rather than use and about intent. There is time for proper, proportionate and reasonable powers to be drafted. The issue revolves around three points, the first of which is justification. There must be clear justification. I compare the Bill to the Animal Health Act again. In the Act, a suspicion that an animal might well be affected may be enough, but in relation to this legislation, inspectors should have proper justification for entering premises.
The second point is about giving notice. In such circumstances, people should be given some notice. Some might argue that people might then run away and hide evidence, but I think that some notice might be appropriate.
A third point to consider is the time of day or night, about which the measure says nothing. Are we really going to allow inspectors to bang on people’s doors at 6 am to see whether there is a pot of pesticide in the barn? The enforcement powers should have some reasonableness to them, so that we do not move down the line of having some sort of police state. Even those who justifiably want to enter premises probably feel that they ought not to charge in without notice at any time of day or night in interrogation mode.
There is scope for the Government to recognise that we are discussing issues of possession and intention and that a relatively small number of incidents will be caught by the measure. We are not talking about the huge problems that were involved with foot and mouth. I hope that the Minister is prepared to reconsider the powers, even at this stage, and make them more reasonable and proportionate.