Written Question
Monday 7th July 2025
Asked by:
Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of consignments of products of animal origin are subject to sanitary and phytosanitary checks (1) when entering the UK and (2) when exported from the UK to the EU, and what these checks entail.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) checks on products of animal origin entering Great Britain are risk-based and focus on high and medium risk consignments, prioritising those that present the highest food safety and biosecurity risks. Port Health Authorities and relevant local authorities also have the power to inspect goods at their discretion or if they are deemed to pose a risk to biosecurity. Consignments of low-risk animal products are also subject to intelligence-led controls. The checks conducted will vary according to each individual consignment and commodity type and may range from visual inspections to lab sampling as appropriate. Defra does therefore not hold information on the precise proportion due to the dynamic nature of our biosecurity controls.
The EU determines the checks that are required for SPS goods entering the EEA at their Points of Entry. Exporters to and importers into the EU are obliged to present their goods to an appropriate Border Control Post, where the selection for checks is made. This data is held by the EU. GB imports are similarly required to present goods for checks at an appropriate BCP but clearance mechanisms are in operation to allow most of them to enter the UK without stopping at a BCP.
Written Question
Monday 7th July 2025
Asked by:
Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether exports of live animals (1) from Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland and (2) from the Republic of Ireland to Northern Ireland require an Intra Trade Animal Health Certificate.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock
- Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As has long been the case, such certification is required for export of bovine, ovine/caprine, porcine and poultry animals in both directions.
Speech in Lords Chamber - Mon 21 Nov 2022
Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill
"My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Baroness, Lady Bennett of Manor Castle. Since my wife is always accusing me of verbal pedantry, I suppose I should feel some sympathy for the noble Baroness’s opening argument, which seems semantic in essence—that the words “precision breeding” in the …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Bill
Speech in Lords Chamber - Mon 22 Mar 2021
Direct Payments to Farmers (Reductions and Simplifications) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021
"My Lords, unlike all those who have spoken from home, I am old enough to have been vaccinated and feel relatively secure in this place, but it is comforting to know that many of them are so much younger than they look.
As is usual with debates on agriculture, this …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Direct Payments to Farmers (Reductions and Simplifications) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021
Written Question
Wednesday 10th March 2021
Asked by:
Lord Lilley (Conservative - Life peer)
Question
to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the findings which informed the Environment Agency’s “reasonable worst case scenario for climate", referred to by the Agency's Chief Executive Sir James Bevan on 23 February.
Answered by Lord Goldsmith of Richmond Park
Sir James Bevan’s speech was underpinned by published evidence from a variety of national and international reports that includes the UK Climate Projections 2018 announced by the Secretary of State for Defra in November 2018. The Environment Agency has recently published research showing an upward trend in extreme floods at two-thirds of their river level monitoring stations and that this trend is 90% certain at over a fifth of locations.
Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 09 Feb 2021
UK Shellfish Exports
"My Lords, is not this and other measures taken recently by the EU to punish the UK for leaving its jurisdiction a flagrant abuse not only of the EU’s own laws but of several international laws such as the WTO SPS agreement, which states that WTO members
“shall accept the …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: UK Shellfish Exports
Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 22 Sep 2020
Agriculture Bill
"My Lords, I rise to support the amendments proposed by my noble friend Lord Trenchard and agree with what he, and my noble friends Lady Noakes and Lady Neville-Rolfe, have said. However, listening to this debate, I have occasionally felt the House has been transported back to the debates on …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Agriculture Bill
Speech in Lords Chamber - Tue 28 Jul 2020
Agriculture Bill
"My Lords, I declare an interest in a small agricultural holding in France and, more seriously, in the WTO, in whose creation I played a part when I was Secretary of State for Trade and Industry.
As many noble Lords have mentioned, the Government have pledged not to reduce health, …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Agriculture Bill
Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 23 Jul 2020
Agriculture Bill
"My Lords, I will be brief, because much of what needs to be said has already been said. I sympathise with the intent of Amendment 221 but, like my noble friend Lady McIntosh, I would prefer something less prescriptive.
I will focus briefly on Amendment 226 and (1)(b) of the …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Agriculture Bill
Speech in Lords Chamber - Thu 23 Jul 2020
Agriculture Bill
"My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble and learned Lord, Lord Wallace. I support what he said about ending the absurdity of allowing beef to be labelled as British or Scottish if it is merely packaged in this country. I cannot understand why that has ever been …..."Lord Lilley - View Speech
View all Lord Lilley (Con - Life peer) contributions to the debate on: Agriculture Bill