Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the impact of import checks on food products arriving from the EU on Christmas supply chains.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Under the Border Target Operating Model, no new controls will be implemented before 31 January 2024, so new controls will not impact Christmas supply chains in 2023.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that the availability of fresh food will not be affected by the implementation of import checks on food products arriving from the EU.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Fruit and vegetable imports have been classified as low-risk meaning they will not require any additional paperwork or checks. We do not expect a significant impact on availability. In implementing this new control regime for the first time on EU imports, we will carefully monitor the range of potential risks, including those that may impact food supply-chains. Where possible we will work with importers to try to manage those risks in a structured way, considering whether there are appropriate contingencies which we can deploy if and when required.
The UK Government will also work closely with our key trading partners, to ensure that the capacity and availability of certifiers for Export Health Certificates does not become a barrier to trade.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of making it a requirement for businesses selling food for consumption outside of homes, for example restaurants and takeaways, to notify consumers of the country of origin meat products.
Answered by Mark Spencer
Food Information to Consumers Regulations apply to all food sold on the UK market, including imported food, and require many foods to declare the origin on the label. For food that is sold out of home, while origin information is not mandatory, it is unlawful to mislead consumers as to the origin of the food or any specific ingredient, and there are no barriers to British meat being labelled as British.
Asked by: Richard Thomson (Scottish National Party - Gordon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it is her Department’s policy to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding between food security agencies in her Department and respective UK devolved agencies and the European Food Security Crisis Preparedness and Response Mechanism (EFSCM) Expert Group.
Answered by Mark Spencer
It is not the Department’s policy to negotiate a Memorandum of Understanding between food security agencies UK devolved agencies (DAs) and the European Food Security Crisis Preparedness and Response Mechanism (EFSCM) Expert Group.
However, recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report (UKFSR) was published in December 2021. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work.
In terms of engagement on food security we engage widely and frequently with both public and private sectors through various fora.
We engage with DAs through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and the EFRA Resilience priority meetings. Routine engagement with DAs also takes place through the Food Resilience Industry Forum (FRIF).
Defra continues to engage with international partners in the G20 Agricultural Market Information System and the World Trade Organization (WTO) to facilitate smooth functioning of the global food trade. G7 Agricultural Ministers are committed to cooperating closely and taking concrete actions to safeguard global food security.
Defra closely monitors markets and supplies through the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group and other industry engagement forums to explore the factors that have contributed to ongoing supply chain pressures. As a result of recent fruit and vegetable supply issues, Defra is considering how government and industry can work together to mitigate these in the short and longer term.