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 Booker takeover by Tesco on small farmers and growers.

The Competitions and Markets Authority (CMA) has a duty to assess the effect of mergers on competition. Last year the CMA investigated the anticipated acquisition of Booker by Tesco and concluded that this merger does not raise any competition concerns.