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Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 (Consequential Provisions) (England and Wales) Order 2006

rose to move, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 (Consequential Provisions) (England and Wales) Order 2006. First Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee. The noble Lord said: I thank the Committee for agreeing to take together these two orders being made under Scotland Act powers. This is well-established practice and continues to make the best use of parliamentary time. The two orders are made under different sections of the Scotland Act. The order concerning animal health is made under Section 104, which allows for necessary or expedient changes in consequence of an Act of the Scottish Parliament. The order relating to the transfer of functions—in this instance, functions concerning the Healthy Start scheme and recent climate change legislation—is made using the powers in Section 63 of the Scotland Act. The power is commonly referred to as an executive devolution order and allows for the transfer to Scottish Ministers of functions that they can then exercise in or as regards Scotland. I hope that it will be helpful to Committee members to give a brief explanation of both orders. The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 (Consequential Provisions) (England and Wales) Order 2006 is made in consequence of the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006, which received Royal Assent on 11 July and is an Act of the Scottish Parliament. The 2006 Act introduces in Scotland a duty of care for all those who are responsible for animals to ensure that their welfare needs are met. The power of courts to disqualify a person who has been convicted of an animal welfare offence from certain activities such as owning or keeping animals, which was previously contained in the Protection of Animals (Amendment) Act 1954, is retained and strengthened in the 2006 Act. By ““strengthened””, I mean that the 1954 legislation contained powers that could be used to disqualify people ““for having custody of”” any animal. The 2006 Act widens the scope of disqualification to catch owning, keeping, arranging to keep, dealing in or controlling animals, whether directly or indirectly. The specific purpose of the order is to maintain reciprocal arrangements on the enforcement of disqualification orders made by the Scottish courts in England and Wales. As was the case with disqualification orders made under the 1954 Act, the order also ensures that a person subject to a Scottish disqualification order made under the 2006 Act is unable to obtain a licence in England and Wales to keep an animal boarding, riding or dog-breeding establishment. That is consistent with the Animal Welfare Act, which was also given Royal Assent this year. It contains provisions—agreed to by the Scottish Parliament in December 2005—allowing recognition in Scotland of disqualification orders made by a court in England or Wales; effectively the mirror image of the order we are discussing today. The Government and Scottish Executive believe that there should be co-operation to ensure that there is no scope for the exploitation of gaps between the animal welfare regimes north and south of the border. Both Administrations support the maintenance of the established principle of reciprocal recognition of court orders. This ensures that those convicted of serious cruelty to animals, and consequently disqualified from keeping animals in one jurisdiction, cannot escape the effect of that disqualification simply by crossing the border into another jurisdiction. The second order before us is the ScotlandAct 1998 (Transfer of Functions to the Scottish Ministers etc.) (No.3) Order 2006. It allows for the transfer to Scottish Ministers of functions in two distinct policy areas. First, the Healthy Start scheme is the replacement for the current Welfare Food Scheme, introduced in Britain to combat food shortages during the Second World War. Latterly, the scheme offered milk and infant formula to low income families. Following a Department of Health review of that scheme, Section 13 of the Social Security Act 1988 was substituted by the Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Act 2003, among other things to enable the Welfare Food Scheme to be replaced by Healthy Start. The new scheme offers vouchers that can be exchanged for milk, fresh fruit and vegetables, and infant formula to pregnant women and children under the age of four in certain low income families. The vouchers can be used in a wide range of participating shops and pharmacies. Under the Welfare Food Scheme, tokens could only be exchanged for milk and infant formula, but the new scheme offers much more flexibility and choice. Although, like the Welfare Food Scheme, Healthy Start is primarily based upon social security benefits, and is therefore reserved, the range of foods and matters relevant to the NHS link closely to devolved health policy. The draft order therefore transfers to Scottish Ministers the functions of prescribing the description of foods to be made available under Healthy Start in Scotland in the future and issuing directions to the health boards that will be administering parts of the scheme in Scotland. The Scottish Ministers will deal directly with reimbursement in relation to Healthy Start vitamins. As with the Welfare Food Scheme, the intention is that contractors for the Department of Health will carry out day-to-day reimbursement functions for Healthy Start food. When dealing with reimbursement of suppliers and beneficiaries in Scotland, the Department of Health will be acting as an agent of the Scottish Ministers. This arrangement will enable the Scottish Ministers to take advantage of economies of scale and will be made possible by a further order under Section 93 of the Scotland Act. It will be made at the same time as this order. It will be subject to the negative resolution procedure and will go before the UK and Scottish Parliaments. The draft order before us today also provides for the transfer to Scottish Ministers of payment and reimbursement functions in relation to Healthy Start food vouchers and Healthy Start vitamins provided to beneficiaries in Scotland. These functions are similar to those currently carried out by Scottish Ministers in terms of Welfare Food scheme reimbursement. The second order transfers to Scottish Ministers functions in Sections 32, 32A and 32B of the Electricity Act 1989 as amended by Sections 23 and 24 of the Climate Change and Sustainable EnergyAct 2006. The sections of the 1989 Act were previously executively devolved to Scottish Ministers and relate to functions allowing for the delivery of renewables obligations (Scotland), or ROS. The ROS is a key driver in increasing renewable generating capacity in Scotland. It works by imposing an obligation on licensed electricity suppliers in Scotland to provide an increasing proportion of the electricity that they supply from qualifying renewable sources, essentially sources of energy other than nuclear or fossil fuels, such as wind, wave power, solar and biomass. As I mentioned, Sections 32, 32A and 32B of the 1989 Act have been amended by the Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Act 2006. These amendments make it easier for small/micro renewable generators to benefit from the support available under the ROS and its UK counterparts. The order therefore transfersthe relevant amended functions to Scottish Ministers. It also transfers functions that will enable such generators to appoint agents to act on their behalf, greatly reducing the administrative burden that some small generators may experience. Finally, the order transfers functions that will enable generators who generate and consume their own electricity to qualify for renewable obligation certificates without having first to sell their electricity to and then purchase it back from an electricity supplier. I hope that noble Lords will agree that both orders are a sensible use of the powers in the Scotland Act and that their very practical impact is something to be welcomed. I beg to move. Moved, That the Grand Committee do report to the House that it has considered the Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 (Consequential Provisions) (England and Wales) Order 2006. First Report from the Statutory Instruments Committee.—(Lord Evans of Temple Guiting.)