Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2007

rose to move, That the draft order laid before the House on 13 November be approved. The noble Lord said: My Lords, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board Order 2007 is made under the Natural Environment and Rural Communities Act 2006. It abolishes the existing five levy boards from 1 April 2008 and replaces them with a new board, the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. The order also provides for the establishment of subsidiary companies for each sector. It is intended that companies will be created for six sectors: beef and lamb, cereals and oilseeds, horticulture, milk, pigs, and potatoes. The scope of the new board will be same as the scope of the existing boards, with the exception of the red meat sector, where separate arrangements are being introduced in Scotland and Wales. Restructuring will improve accountability to levy payers, with the sectoral companies having boards made up mainly of levy payers. It will also improve the efficiency of the levy arrangements by providing more scope for co-operation and collaboration across the sectors. The shadow board has already proposed to locate all the boards and companies on one site, at Stoneleigh, with an estimated efficiency saving of £12.7 million over five years. To improve accountability, the order also makes provision for a ballot of levy payers in each sector should 5 per cent of levy payers request such a ballot. However, to allow the levy board and its subsidiary companies time to prove themselves, and bearing in mind the proposed business case for the new organisation, which seeks relocation to Stoneleigh in 2009, it is right that there should be a moratorium on the right of levy payers to call a ballot for the first few years. Levy payers will be able to call for a ballot from 1 April 2012, which will be three years after the relocation and some four years after restructuring. The ballot provision was widely welcomed during the public consultation on the order. The opportunity has also been taken in the order to make improvements to levy collection and reduce the regulatory burden; for example, by removing obligations to register in the horticultural, potato and cereal sectors and by increasing the levy threshold in the horticultural sector. In summary, the order introduces a new structure that should improve the governance, accountability and efficiency of the levy arrangements. Accordingly, I beg to move. Moved, That the draft order laid before the House on 13 November be approved. 2nd Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Davies of Oldham.)