The AWB was abolished in the Conservative led government's "bonfire of the quangos" after the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 (ERRA).
[3][6][7] Unite's General Secretary Len McCluskey said the AWB's abolition would drive pay down further, at the benefit of supermarkets.
[6][7] Liberal Democrats' Spokesman for Agriculture Andrew George[8][9] was one of two Lib Dem rebels who voted for a pro-AWB amendment to the ERRA.
Despite the bill passing in the Assembly, it was blocked by then UK Attorney General, Dominic Grieve, who claimed it was not a devolved matter.
[13][15] As of 2012, the Agricultural Wages Board consisted of 21 members and was appointed as such:[16] Each of the devolved countries in the United Kingdom currently maintains a counterpart to the AWB: