Trade Bill — New Clause 11 — Standards for Imported Agricultural Goods After Transition Period for Leaving the European Union — 20 Jul 2020 at 21:00

The majority of MPs voted not to require imported agricultural goods to meet animal health and welfare, environmental, plant health, food safety and other standards which are at least as high as those which apply to United Kingdom produced agricultural goods.

MPs were considering the Trade Bill[1].

The proposed new clause rejected in this vote was titled: Import of agricultural goods after IP completion day and stated:

  • (1) After IP completion day, agricultural goods imported under a free trade agreement may be imported into the UK only if the standards to which those goods were produced were as high as, or higher than, standards which at the time of import applied under UK law relating to—
  • (a) animal health and welfare,
  • (b) protection of the environment,
  • (c) food safety, hygiene and traceability, and
  • (d) plant health.
  • (2) The Secretary of State must prepare a register of standards under UK law relating to—
  • (a) animal health and welfare,
  • (b) protection of the environment,
  • (c) food safety, hygiene and traceability, and
  • (d) plant health
  • which must be met in the course of production of any imported agricultural goods.
  • (3) A register under subsection (2) must be updated within seven days of any amendment to any standard listed in the register.
  • (4) “Agricultural goods”, for the purposes of this section, means anything produced by a producer operating in one or more agricultural sectors listed in Schedule 1.
  • (5) “IP completion day” has the meaning given in section 39 of the European Union (Withdrawal Agreement) Act 2020.”

The rejected new clause was accompanied by the following explanatory statement from its proposer:

  • This new clause would set a requirement for imported agricultural goods to meet animal health and welfare, environmental, plant health, food safety and other standards which are at least as high as those which apply to UK produced agricultural goods.
  • [1] Parliament's webpage on the Trade Bill

Debate in Parliament |

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Party Summary

Votes by party, red entries are votes against the majority for that party.

What is Tell? '+1 tell' means that in addition one member of that party was a teller for that division lobby.

What are Boths? An MP can vote both aye and no in the same division. The boths page explains this.

What is Turnout? This is measured against the total membership of the party at the time of the vote.

PartyMajority (No)Minority (Aye)BothTurnout
Alliance0 10100.0%
Con335 (+2 tell) 2093.1%
DUP0 6075.0%
Green0 10100.0%
Independent1 10100.0%
Lab0 177 (+2 tell)088.6%
LDem0 10090.9%
PC0 30100.0%
SDLP0 20100.0%
SNP0 46095.8%
Total:336 249091.7%

Rebel Voters - sorted by constituency

MPs for which their vote in this division differed from the majority vote of their party. You can see all votes in this division, or every eligible MP who could have voted in this division

Sort by: Name | Constituency | Party | Vote

NameConstituencyPartyVote
Simon HoareNorth DorsetCon (front bench)aye
Neil HudsonPenrith and The BorderCon (front bench)aye

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