Law Commission to review Wales’s Agricultural laws

ON TUESDAY (April 16), the Law Commission launched a new project and began preliminary research

into agricultural law in Wales.

At the Welsh Government’s request, the Law Commission is undertaking a review of agricultural law in Wales, with the potential to unify it under a single, comprehensive code.

Such a code would simplify and modernize the law and significantly improve its accessibility.

However, the project’s scope will not extend to policy reform or a review of the substance of agricultural policy in Wales.

The law which governs the agricultural sector in Wales is spread across a patchwork of legislation, making the law difficult to access and, in places, hard to understand.

Agriculture is a devolved area of law in Wales. That means the power to make legislation governing the Welsh agricultural sector rests with the Welsh Parliament (the Senedd Cymru). However, this hasn’t always been the case, and agricultural law in Wales comes from different lawmaking bodies, namely the UK Parliament and the Senedd Cymru.

In addition, some of the agricultural laws enacted by the European

Union (EU) whilst the United Kingdom was a member of the EU have been incorporated into the national law that applies to Wales.

Agricultural law in Wales may, therefore, contain provisions that apply to Wales only, to England only, or to both England and Wales.

Some of that legislation dates back almost eighty years and, in places, uses outdated language. Some enactments will also contain provisions that have been repealed or may be redundant in practice.

The project is currently in the scoping stage, which means the Law Commission will conduct a detailed analysis of the current law to determine what a code of agricultural law for Wales might look like.