Draft Plant Health, Seeds, Seed Potatoes and Plant Propagating Material (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026
House of Commons · General Committees · 2 Sep 2026 · 39 speeches · Official Report
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
Chair: † Sir Alec Shelbrooke
† Asser, James (West Ham and Beckton) (Lab)
† Brandreth, Aphra (Chester South and Eddisbury) (Con)
† Coleman, Ben (Chelsea and Fulham) (Lab)
† Dalton, Ashley (West Lancashire) (Lab)
† Davies, Jonathan (Mid Derbyshire) (Lab)
† Dyke, Sarah (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)
Farron, Tim (Westmorland and Lonsdale) (LD)
† Fox, Sir Ashley (Bridgwater) (Con)
† Hughes, Claire (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Wales)
† Jenkin, Sir Bernard (Harwich and North Essex) (Con)
† Kirkham, Jayne (Truro and Falmouth) (Lab/Co-op)
† McIntyre, Alex (Gloucester) (Lab)
† McDonald, Andy (Middlesbrough and Thornaby East) (Lab)
† Moore, Robbie (Keighley and Ilkley) (Con)
† Morgan, Stephen (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
† Strickland, Alan (Newton Aycliffe and Spennymoor) (Lab)
† Yemm, Steve (Mansfield) (Lab)
Aaron Kulakiewicz, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
The following also attended, pursuant to Standing Order No. 118(2):
Wilson, Sammy (East Antrim) (DUP)
Allister, Jim (North Antrim) (TUV)
Lockhart, Carla (Upper Bann) (DUP)
Seventh Delegated Legislation Committee
Wednesday 2 September 2026
[Sir Alec Shelbrooke in the Chair ]
Draft Plant Health, Seeds, Seed Potatoes and Plant Propagating Material (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026
I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Plant Health, Seeds, Seed Potatoes and Plant Propagating Material (Amendment) (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2026. It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Alec. This draft instrument was laid before the House on 22 June. It applies to Northern Ireland only and was developed in close collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs. It is a necessary measure to update Northern Ireland’s domestic legislation and enforcement provisions relating to plant health, ensuring the continued protection of Northern Ireland’s biosecurity and fulfilment of the Windsor framework obligations. As Members will be aware, under the terms of the Windsor framework, limited parts of European Union law falling under annex 2 of the framework continue to apply to Northern Ireland. They include the movement of goods, agrifood standards and animal and plant health. The draft instrument makes no changes to the Windsor framework. It amends six pieces of Northern Ireland legislation covering plant health, seeds, seed potatoes and plant propagating material. The amendments are technical in nature and ensure that Northern Ireland’s domestic legislation remains clear, operable and aligned with requirements that already apply there under the Windsor agreement and framework. These legislative frameworks govern matters such as plant varieties, documentation requirements, traceability and plant health quality...
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. These regulations make necessary amendments to Northern Ireland’s legislation governing plant health, seeds, seed potatoes and plant propagating material and ensure that it operates in accordance with the Windsor framework. Maintaining strong plant health protections is essential to safeguarding Northern Irish growers, Northern Irish food security and the natural environment. An outbreak of a serious pest or disease could have devastating consequences for agricultural production and rural businesses across Northern Ireland. Plant health legislation is included under article 5(4) of the Windsor framework. The amendments in these draft regulations ensure that DEFRA has the necessary powers to enforce the plant health rules applying in Northern Ireland. They update prohibited lists of plants and pests, phytosanitary controls that govern the movement of plants for planting and other objects and conditions in relation to planting material and requirements for reporting and disposing of infected material. The instrument also removes provisions relating to movements between Great Britain and Northern Ireland that are no longer applicable, introduces a GB-NI code for official labelling and makes several technical corrections. These are important protections and the official Opposition will not be opposing the amendments laid today. It is right that DAERA possesses the powers that it needs to enforce the rules properly and...
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. The Minister outlined why these regulations were necessary and gave what, to most on the Committee, would be an acceptable argument: they are to protect biodiversity in Northern Ireland and to ensure that diseased plants are not accessing the Northern Ireland market. But of course, that is not the real reason; the real reason is contained in the regulations themselves. The regulations make it quite clear that they are necessary because Northern Ireland has to be regarded as if it were a member state of the European Union. That is the reason for this legislation. Although we have had Brexit, the vote and the decision to leave the EU, Northern Ireland is still to be treated as if it were a member of the European Union. That is the real reason behind it. We would not need these regulations were it not for EU regulations having to apply to a certain part of the United Kingdom because it is regarded as part of the EU, regardless of the democratic vote of the British people to leave the EU. This is not about protecting biodiversity. Most of the goods affected by this legislation will originate in GB. For years, those goods were able to enter the Northern Ireland market without any damage to the agriculture or nature of Northern Ireland. The implication is that, somehow, the majority of the trade coming across from GB in plants, seed potatoes and so on must be suspect. That is why we have to have these separate...
The Chair
Order. I remind everybody that this is quite a tight set of regulations, so please try to keep your comments focused on what is before us, rather than expanding the arguments to issues surrounding how we may have got here today.
Thank you, Sir Alec; I can do that by taking the Committee precisely to the words of the regulations. Here we are, a Committee of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, supposedly, of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, yet the Committee has been invited to write into six separate regulations affecting these issues in Northern Ireland a declaration to the effect that Northern Ireland is not really part of the United Kingdom, and in fact is someone else’s territory. If anyone is interested, I invite them to look at page 17 of the regulations. Things can be found in numerous places, but on page 17 there is an amendment under part 7 of the regulations to the Plant Health (Official Controls and Miscellaneous Provisions) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2020. At the top of the page, it says: “In these regulations”- these are regulations affecting a part of the United Kingdom- “any reference to a member State is to be read as if Northern Ireland were a member State of the European Union…any reference to the Union”- that is the EU- “or Union territory is to be read so as to include Northern Ireland.” What we are putting into legislation that applies to Northern Ireland and the standards that apply to a range of materials and goods is a formal legal declaration that my part of the United Kingdom is not in truth a part of the United Kingdom. According to this, I am to be read as being part of the EU’s territory. I say to every member of this Committee: if the regulations said that about...
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I concur with my right hon. Friend the Member for East Antrim and the hon. and learned Member for North Antrim. This instrument has been presented as a technical one, but there is nothing insignificant about creating new criminal liability under laws imposed on Northern Ireland by the European Union. The regulations amend six separate areas of Northern Ireland law, covering vegetable plants, ornamental plants, forestry material, seed potatoes, fruit plants and official plant health controls. As the Committee has heard, the constitutional language is extraordinary. The instrument states that Northern Ireland is to be read as if it were a member state of the European Union. It replaces references to UK standards with references to European Union standards. In relation to forest reproductive material, Great Britain is classified as an “EU-approved third country”. That is certainly not a tidying up of legislation; it writes Northern Ireland out of its own country and into the regulatory territory of the European Union. Most seriously, regulation 7 inserts a new list of EU instruments into Northern Ireland law and makes non-compliance with them an offence. The instrument expressly states that references to those EU laws include those laws “as amended from time to time.” In other words, future changes made in Brussels can alter the rules with which Northern Ireland businesses must comply, without any vote in this House...
I thank the shadow Minister for his contribution and his constructive engagement on these matters, and all Members who have shared their insights and views. The shadow Minister noted that there has been no public consultation on this instrument because there is no legal duty to do so. However, DAERA has worked closely with DEFRA to engage with relevant stakeholders on the wider plant health requirements under the Windsor framework, including through the relevant working groups and, I can assure him, through engagement with the Ulster Farmers Union. There is ongoing engagement with relevant stakeholders, and strong relationships are in place. The shadow Minister asked about the impact on trade. I assure all Members that the instrument introduces no new requirements for traders and will not have any impact on trade.
Will the Minister give way?
I will make some progress. A number of Members made broader points about constitutional matters. I appreciate the strength of feeling on the wider constitutional issues, but I assure all Members that the instrument respects Northern Ireland’s integral position as part of the United Kingdom. It is a UK-made and UK-scrutinised piece of legislation, operating within the scope of the UK’s international commitment to introducing and applying domestic legislation to Northern Ireland. It upholds the UK Government’s commitment to implementing the Windsor framework. The Windsor framework is the legal framework currently in force, and this instrument operates within it. That is a clear improvement on the Northern Ireland protocol and the best workable solution to Northern Ireland’s unique circumstances in the long term. Let me turn back to the specifics of the statutory instrument. It serves only to update Northern Ireland’s plant health legislation to ensure that it is clear, operable and accurate. That not only gives clarity to DAERA in the vital roles that it delivers in protecting Northern Ireland’s biosecurity, but gives clarity and stability to Northern Ireland stakeholders, ensuring that all parties play their part in doing what is necessary to maintain plant health in Northern Ireland. By ensuring that the requirements of this instrument are correct and clear, we ensure that there are no legislative gaps or room for confusion in dealing with the complex plant health...
Committee rose.