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 he has had with representatives of (a) the Welsh Government and (b) other devolved administrations on the farming industry after the UK leaves the EU.

Ministers and officials are in regular contact with ministers and officials from all of the Devolved Administrations. The Secretary of State last met Ministers from the Scottish and Welsh governments and senior officials from Northern Ireland on 14 May 2018.

I have also met stakeholder representatives from the Devolved Administrations on 21 March, at one of a series of roundtable meetings held during our agriculture consultation, “Health and Harmony: the future for food, farming and the environment in a Green Brexit” which ended on 8 May.

Agriculture is a devolved responsibility, and it is the government’s intention that each administration has the freedom to design policies that support the individual characteristics of their agricultural sector and their environment. The government has committed to work closely with the Devolved Administrations to deliver an approach that works for the whole of the UK and reflects the needs and individual circumstances of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.