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 has taken to ensure that a comprehensive food security strategy will be in place when the UK leaves the EU.

Food is one of the UK’s 13 critical infrastructure sectors and Defra produces an annual Sector Security and Resilience Plan working closely with industry sectors.

The UK has a high degree of food security, as demonstrated by the 2010 UK Food Security Assessment. It is a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of food security, including household food security. It draws on a wide range of indicators which are updated with varying frequency that we monitor on an ongoing basis. We have just commenced a review of the overall assessment.

Leaving the EU provides us with a major opportunity to set up new frameworks for supporting our farmers to grow more, sell more and export more great British food. We will work with all those who have an interest in the future of food and farming as we develop a new approach that works for our industry.