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 effect of the unresolved UK-EU trade negotiations on the quantity and variety of food to be supplied to Northern Ireland from Great Britain in the first three months of 2021.

We have always acknowledged that there would need to be some additional controls on agri-food movements from Great Britain to Northern Ireland to reflect the island of Ireland’s existing status as a Single Epidemiological Unit. But we have also been clear that these new processes could never be allowed to put food supplies to Northern Ireland at risk. That is why the deal we have reached with the EU and the support that we have put in place do what is necessary to protect and preserve GB-NI agri-food trade from 1 January 2021.