Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential impact on UK (a) consumers (b) producers of aligning the UK's tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in food with Morocco with those applying to the EU.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK–Morocco Association Agreement provides the framework for our £4.6 billion annual bilateral trade relationship, including trade in agri‑food products. Under Article 18 of the Agreement, both parties committed to meet and consider further tariff liberalisation for agriculture and fisheries products. Three rounds of discussions have taken place, most recently in October 2025. Both sides have agreed to work towards a mutually beneficial and balanced outcome.
As part of the wider approach to strengthening agri‑food trade with North Africa, we are also engaging with partners such as Egypt and Tunisia to ensure our agreements remain modern, balanced and supportive of UK producers and consumers. These discussions reflect our commitment to deepening trade relationships across the region.
Any future changes to our trading arrangements will be designed to support UK producers, strengthen the resilience of our food supply chain and ensure that consumers continue to have access to a wide range of affordable, high‑quality food.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the potential impact of tariffs on produce from North Africa on levels of cost to UK consumers of (a) tomatoes (b) lettuce (c) blueberries (d) cucumbers (e) olives (f) olive oil.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK–Morocco Association Agreement provides the framework for our £4.6 billion annual bilateral trade relationship, including trade in agri‑food products. Under Article 18 of the Agreement, both parties committed to meet and consider further tariff liberalisation for agriculture and fisheries products. Three rounds of discussions have taken place, most recently in October 2025. Both sides have agreed to work towards a mutually beneficial and balanced outcome.
As part of the wider approach to strengthening agri‑food trade with North Africa, we are also engaging with partners such as Egypt and Tunisia to ensure our agreements remain modern, balanced and supportive of UK producers and consumers. These discussions reflect our commitment to deepening trade relationships across the region.
Any future changes to our trading arrangements will be designed to support UK producers, strengthen the resilience of our food supply chain and ensure that consumers continue to have access to a wide range of affordable, high‑quality food.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade in foodstuffs with Morocco she plans to remove following the 2019 Association Agreement.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK–Morocco Association Agreement provides the framework for our £4.6 billion annual bilateral trade relationship, including trade in agri‑food products. Under Article 18 of the Agreement, both parties committed to meet and consider further tariff liberalisation for agriculture and fisheries products. Three rounds of discussions have taken place, most recently in October 2025. Both sides have agreed to work towards a mutually beneficial and balanced outcome.
As part of the wider approach to strengthening agri‑food trade with North Africa, we are also engaging with partners such as Egypt and Tunisia to ensure our agreements remain modern, balanced and supportive of UK producers and consumers. These discussions reflect our commitment to deepening trade relationships across the region.
Any future changes to our trading arrangements will be designed to support UK producers, strengthen the resilience of our food supply chain and ensure that consumers continue to have access to a wide range of affordable, high‑quality food.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will provide the market value of pedigree cattle by breed used to determine compensation for bovine TB in each month since the scheme began.
Answered by George Eustice
We are not able to provide this information for all months since the current scheme began in 2006 as the processing time required would incur disproportionate costs. However, the attached spreadsheet contains details of the pedigree breeds, and average prices paid for cattle, in each month of 2018 which was used to support TB table valuations.
Please note the animals were sold at auction market in the previous month to the Compensation Month shown. The prices shown are subsequently rolled over a six month period for the purpose of TB pedigree table valuations.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will list the number of pedigree cattle sold in each month since the scheme began that determined the compensation offered to farmers with cows testing positive for TB.
Answered by George Eustice
The attached spreadsheet contains the rolling six month numbers of pedigree calved cows, used to support TB table valuations, since the adoption of the current compensation categories in July 2012. Categories included are:
Beef sired Pedigree Female 24 - 36 months calved
Beef sired Pedigree Female > 36 months calved
Dairy sired Pedigree Female 18 - 36 months calved
Dairy sired Pedigree Female 36 - 84 months calved
Dairy sired Pedigree Female > 84 months calved
Data between 2006 and 2012 is not available in this format.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how much compensation has been paid to owners of pedigree cattle testing positive for bovine TB i each month since that scheme began.
Answered by George Eustice
The attached table shows the total amount of compensation paid to keepers in England for pedigree animals compulsorily slaughtered for bTB control purposes in each month since February 2006, when the current scheme began. Please note that the months detailed in the table reflect when the animals were slaughtered, which may not always correspond to the date compensation payments were made.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the relative importance of (a) open market and (b) private sale values of pedigree cattle in the determination of compensation for bovine TB.
Answered by George Eustice
A vast amount of sales data (for around 1.4 million cattle) is collected through the year from open market sales and used to determine the monthly TB compensation rates in England. Under Defra’s table valuation based system, compensation paid reflects the average market sale prices in the 51 cattle categories we use. The categories are based on an animal’s age, gender, type (beef or dairy) and pedigree status. Only sales data for pedigree cattle is used to determine compensation rates for owners of pedigree herds.
We do not have access to private sales valuation data.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to reduce the number of cattle destroyed as a result of false positive Gamma blood tests.
Answered by George Eustice
The interferon-gamma test is a supplementary blood test that has been used alongside the primary tuberculin skin test in Great Britain since 2006 in order to maximise the detection of TB-infected animals in certain herds affected by TB breakdowns.
No diagnostic test is perfectly accurate and there is a trade-off between the sensitivity and specificity of a test. The interferon-gamma test is more sensitive than the skin test, which means it is less likely to miss TB-infected animals (approximately 1 in 10 infected animals compared with 1 in 4 for the skin test). However, it is less specific than the skin test (on average 3-4 false positives per 100 disease-free animals tested). Even so, it is incorrect to assume that all interferon-gamma positive animals with no visible lesions of TB at slaughter represent false positive results.
That is why the interferon-gamma test is, with few exceptions, only used in fully confirmed (lesion and/or culture positive) TB breakdown herds. In such herds the predictive value of a positive interferon-gamma test result is maximised and the cost of taking out low numbers of false positive animals is outweighed by the benefit of earlier and more complete detection of all TB-infected animals in the herd. This in turn reduces the risks of repeat (recurrent) TB breakdowns in the same herd and spreading the disease to other herds as a result of the incomplete elimination of all the infected animals.
In 2018/2019, over £4 million has been allocated to Defra’s bovine TB research and development programme, which includes research on improved and novel diagnostic tests for bovine TB.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate he has made of the number of pedigree cows traded (a) on the open market and (b) privately.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government does not collect information on the number of pedigree cows traded on either the open market or privately.
Asked by: Andrew Murrison (Conservative - South West Wiltshire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on which dates in 2018 (a) Ministers and (b) officials met with Irish counterparts to discuss the Voisinage Agreement.
Answered by George Eustice
The UK Government remains committed to the principles behind the Voisinage Agreement and to continued cooperation between Northern Ireland and Ireland. I wrote to Minister Creed, the Irish Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, on 6 June to reiterate our concerns about the suspension of the Voisinage Agreement by Ireland. The Secretary of State further raised the issue with Minister Creed when they met on 13 June. Defra officials have also raised the matter with Irish counterparts on separate occasions.