Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on how many occasions in the past six months have discussions taken place with the EU Commission on increasing the number of plant species that can be traded between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.

There have been three exchanges of emails with European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in the last six months, regarding UK submissions of additional information for three prohibited high-risk plants: Castanea sativa, Hamamelis mollis and Robinia pseudoacacia. This allowed EFSA to publish scientific opinions for these species on 22 December 2025, 6 January 2026 and 22 April 2026 respectively.

There is usually a delay of a few weeks/months whilst the EU Commission drafts new legislation based on published EFSA opinions, but progress continues at pace. In the last six months the EU has lifted prohibitions, subject to conditions, on a further five species of Prunus (3 October 2025)

Only seven of the 45 High Risk Plant species that the UK has requested market access for, remain prohibited for export to the EU/Northern Ireland.