Call for Evidence

The UK Government has published provisional draft Common Frameworks in the following DEFRA areas:

• Agricultural support
• Animal health and welfare
• Air Quality
• Plant varieties and seeds
• Integrated pollution prevention and control: developing and setting of Best Available Techniques (BAT) provisional common framework
• Fertilisers
• Plant health
• Organics
• Chemicals and pesticides
• Fisheries management and support: provisional common framework
• Food compositional standards and labelling: provisional common framework
• Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and Fluorinated Greenhouse Gases (F-gases): provisional common framework

These Common Frameworks have been devised and agreed between the UK Government and the relevant devolved administrations.

To inform the Committee’s consideration of these Frameworks, we invite written views on some or all of those listed above. In writing your submission, you may wish to address some or all of the following questions:

1. To what extent do the Common Frameworks create a suitable basis for ensuring UK-wide consistency in decision-making and for managing divergence?
2. Do they strike the right balance in terms of respecting devolved competence and allowing each government of the UK to support their food and farming sector, but without creating the risk of unfair competition between the four nations?
3. Are there any potential practical challenge that could arise from the operation of the Common Frameworks?
4. What is the impact of their operation on key stakeholders?
5. Any other notable observations relating to the content of the framework(s) that may warrant Committee scrutiny.

The deadline for written submissions is 15 April 2022 at 17.00.