Explanatory note

This Order, which comes into force on the day following the day on which it is made, is made by the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with the agreement of the National Assembly for Wales, under section 1 of the Regulatory Reform Act 2001. Article 3 removes burdens on processors of, and those bodies substantially representative of growers of, home-grown sugar beet by repealing, in so far as it extends to England and Wales, section 68 of the Food Act 1984 (“the 1984 Act”). That section obliges inter alia the Secretary of State and the National Assembly for Wales (“the Ministers”), after consulting such processors and representative bodies, to prepare an annual programme for the carrying out of research and education in matters affecting the growing of home-grown beet. The sugar beet industry is currently required by means of an agreement with the Ministers to provide the latter with that programme. Section 68 also confers on the Ministers the power to provide, by means of an order, for the collection of contributions from processors and growers in order to carry it into effect.

Article 4 makes a consequential amendment to section 69 of the 1984 Act by re-enacting the definition of “home-grown beet” otherwise lost by the repeal of section 68, and article 5 makes a consequential repeal to the Food Safety Act 1990.