The Government of Barbados under the National Agricultural Health and Food Control Programme is seeking to strengthen the agricultural health and food control system. In that regard, the following three new pieces of legislation have been drafted:
1. The Plant Protection Bill, 2021.
This Bill will replace the current Plant Protection Act, Cap 268, 2007.
2. The Animal Health and Veterinary Public Health Bill, 2021.
Currently, many Acts focus on various aspects of animal health and veterinary public
health. This new Bill represents an overarching piece of legislation for the management of animal health and veterinary public health.
3. The Food Safety and Quality Bill, 2021.
This new Bill will allow food safety to be managed through a primary piece of legislation bringing prominence to food safety rather than the current status where food safety is managed through several primary level legislations and a series of secondary pieces of implementing Regulations.
These Bills will ensure that Barbados’ legislation in these three areas are in keeping with international requirements. In addition, they are fashioned under the model legislation drafted for the CARICOM region that aims to harmonise legislation across the Member States of CARICOM.
The pieces of legislation have been shared with many stakeholders for their review and comments. The draft Bills can be found on the following website: agriculture.gov.bb.