The UK government have announced further details of the UK's upcoming Forest Risk Commodities Regulations. See their press release here.
The secondary legislation which will be laid as soon as parliamentary time allows will set out in detail how this provision of the Act will be implemented:
- regulating 4 critical forest-risk commodities initially: soy, palm oil, cocoa and relevant cattle products (excluding dairy)
- regulating all relevant organisations with a global annual turnover of over £50 million
- allowing exemptions for organisations that use 500 tonnes or less of each regulated commodity in the reporting period
- giving industry organisations a grace period to prepare for regulation
- The regulator will work in close partnership with other agencies and Devolved Administrations, with the power to impose fines on organisations found to be in breach of the regulation.
The regulations and guidance will be out in the New Year. There will likely be a 9 month period to prepare, from statutory instrument to implementation and we expect compliance will be business friendly e.g. annual reporting. We currently don't know what compliance will look like in full and how UK FRC regs will be applied in Northern Ireland (i.e. UK FRC regs vs EUDR).
The BRC are very supportive of this legislation and will continue our work with Defra to raise any member concerns, particularly on the application in Northern Ireland and the make the implementation period the smoothest transition possible.
Andrew Opie, Director of Food and Sustainability at the British Retail Consortium, said:
Retailers welcome the announcement on UK Deforestation Due Diligence legislation. This will give confidence to British retailers and their customers alike, helping retailers meet their ambitious targets on deforestation and enable a greater supply of deforestation-free products in the UK.
Tackling deforestation requires global cooperation and we look forward to seeing further detail as to how the legislation will align with European proposals.