Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure the long-term resilience of food supply chains.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK has a resilient food supply chain and is equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Defra and the Food Standards Agency have joint responsibility for food as a Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sector. Defra assesses the potential risks to the food supply chain, as outlined in the National Risk Register (NRR). Defra works with Cabinet Office, as leads for the NRR, and the wider resilience and CNI community across Government to ensure impacts to food supply are considered in risk assessments and contingency planning.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions his Department has had with (a) supermarkets and (b) food producers to mitigate the risk of shortages in key food staples.
Answered by Daniel Zeichner - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra works with industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise and carries out extensive, regular and ongoing engagement with supermarkets and producers in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many businesses have ceased trading since 4 July 2024; and what proportion of these closures were in the (a) hospitality, (b) retail and (c) construction sectors.
Answered by Georgia Gould - Parliamentary Secretary (Cabinet Office)
The information requested falls under the remit of the UK Statistics Authority.
A response to the Hon gentleman’s Parliamentary Question of 22nd July is attached.
Asked by: Neil Shastri-Hurst (Conservative - Solihull West and Shirley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what data his Department holds on the proportion of Single Justice Procedure cases where the defendant did not respond to the notice and was convicted in absence.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The Ministry of Justice does not hold data on the number of defendants who failed to respond to a Single Justice Procedure (SJP) notice and were therefore convicted in absence. Information and statistics on plea response for SJP cases is published here: Statistics in development – Single Justice Procedures – GOV.UK.
Defendant engagement is a key part of delivering fair justice. The Ministry of Justice continues to consider ways to support and encourage participation in the SJP process which is why we recently consulted on how the process can be improved. We will set out our plans shortly.