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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect on the Northern Ireland Protocol of the proposals in Schedule 16 of the Environment Bill on the use of forest risk commodities in commercial activity.

We are introducing world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Bill to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. These amendments achieve that by regulating businesses, which is a reserved policy area in Scotland and Wales and transferred in Northern Ireland. We are working closely with Devolved Administrations including Northern Ireland colleagues to allow these measures to extend across the UK.

The Northern Ireland Protocol sets out arrangements for Northern Ireland in light of the UK’s withdrawal from the European Union. It exists to ensure that the progress made in the 22 years since the Belfast (Good Friday) Agreement is secured into the future. The protocol applies specified provisions of European Union law in Northern Ireland. It also puts in terms to maintain unfettered access to the rest of the UK market for Northern Ireland businesses and to ensure that trade flows as smoothly as possible. The due diligence provisions in the Environment Bill will not have an impact on the principles or obligations set out in the Protocol, and we will continue to monitor its implementation to ensure this continues to be the case.