Consultation outcome

Agricultural and Horticultural Development Board (AHDB) reform

This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government

Applies to England, Scotland and Wales

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Detail of outcome

On 17 November 2021 the UK government and devolved governments issued a joint public consultation on proposals to deliver legislative reforms to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Order. The consultation applied to the whole of the United Kingdom where levy is collected by AHDB and closed at midnight on 10 January 2022. The consultation proposed changes to deliver the recommendations from the 2018 Request for Views on the future of the AHDB and respond to the outcome of the recent ballots on the future of the levy in the horticulture and potato sectors across Great Britain. The proposed changes sit alongside improvements already underway to the structure and governance of AHDB to deliver a more efficient and focused organisation giving value for money and greater accountability to levy payers in the future.

The UK and devolved governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland have joint responsibility for the AHDB Order, and we have worked jointly to produce this summary analysis of responses to the consultation and to agree the next steps on each of the proposals as set out in this report.

Feedback received

Detail of feedback received

We received 476 responses to the consultation. 470 responses were provided to the citizen space survey consultation questions and 6 email responses were received. A quantitative and qualitative analysis of the citizen space responses to each of the consultation questions is summarised under each of the headings in this report. The 6 email responses have been analysed and summarised separately.


Original consultation

Summary

Seeking views on reforms to end AHDB statutory levies in the horticulture and potato sectors and provide a more accountable AHDB.

This consultation was held on another website.

This consultation ran from
to

Consultation description

We want to know what you think about proposals to reform the AHDB to end statutory levies in the horticulture and potato sectors in their current form in Great Britain.

We also want your views on proposals to improve the accountability of the AHDB to other levy paying sectors through a new regular vote on what the levy will be spent on.

In addition, we want your views on enabling the AHDB to operate in other (non-levy paying) agricultural sectors so they can manage services such as export market development where there is demand from industry for this.

Updates to this page

Published 17 November 2021
Last updated 8 March 2022 + show all updates
  1. Added summary of responses and final outcome.

  2. First published.

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