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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues and his counterparts in the EU on securing a bilateral UK-EU SPS agreement that includes products of animal origin, animal by-products, breeding stock, and zoonotic disease control.

We reached an agreement with the EU on SPS measures as part of the TCA in December 2020. This agreement has secured the UK's full autonomy over our public, plant and animal health regime, tailoring it to the unique circumstances of the UK. Since 1 January, there has been no role for EU law or the ECJ in these rules.

This agreement allows the UK and the EU to cooperate on avoiding unnecessary SPS barriers to trade in agri-food goods. The SPS Chapter provides for a framework to agree to trade facilitations going forward, where justified. It is in both parties’ interests to pursue this. Over time, this will help to reduce the burden on businesses from border controls and certification requirements. Taken alongside other elements of the FTA such as zero tariff, zero quota, this represents a good outcome for the UK's agri-food industry, and does not constrain our ability to legislate in these areas.