ENGLAND’S AGRICULTURAL Wages Board is to be abolished, UK environment minister Caroline Spelman has announced, amidst a major cull of quangos linked to Defra.

There were immediate calls for the SNP administration in Scotland to follow suit by bringing the curtain down on the Scottish Agricultural Wages Board.

Mrs Spelman revealed the move as part of a package of reforms affecting more than 30 of Defra’s ‘arm’s length’ bodies.

“Times have changed since many of these bodies were set up and much of what they do is now everyday Government business,” said Mrs Spelman.

The dissolution of the AWB also means the end for the Board’s 15 agricultural wages committees, 16 agricultural dwelling house advisory committees and the committee on agricultural valuation.

Reacting to the announcement, Scotland’s shadow cabinet secretary for rural affairs, John Scott, said: “The Conservative led coalition government at Westminster is to be applauded for taking the lead in doing away with the Agricultural Wages Board south of the border.

“The SNP administration at Holyrood must now do likewise and abolish the Scottish Wages Board as soon as possible.

“The fact remains that with the long standing establishment of a national minimum wage, the Wages Board is a body which has long outlived its usefulness, and it would be grossly unfair if the Scottish agriculture sector were to remain burdened by the Board’s decrees. Its abolition is also all the more urgent given the current financial pressures on the Scottish budget.”

Commenting on behalf of NFU Scotland, policy director Scott Walker said: “The decision south of the Border to scrap the AWB in favour of existing employment laws is a victory for common sense that we would be delighted to see repeated here in Scotland. In England and Wales, one set of rules covering wages and working hours will now apply to all workers, regardless of what sector they are employed in, and that is something we should be aspiring to here.”

However, Mr Scott’s Scottish Labour counterpart, Sarah Boyack said she was “deeply concerned” by the Coalition’s move and called for ‘clarity’ over the future of the SAWB.

“The SNP government in Scotland only retained this vital protection for agricultural workers after a strong campaign by Labour and agricultural workers who are members of the Unite trade union,” added Ms Boyack.