Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many tonnes of beef and veal were (a) imported to the UK and (b) exported from the UK in each of the last five years.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases this information monthly, as a National Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com).

Classification codes (according to the Harmonised System) are available to assist in accessing published trade statistics data in the UK Global Tariff.  Goods moving to and from the UK are identified by an eight-digit commodity code. These are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff.

Beef and veal fall within headings 0201 and 0202 dependant on whether the beef is fresh/chilled or frozen. The full commodity codes would depend on the specific cuts of beef.  Items containing prepared meat, for example sausages are listed in heading 16XX.

The amount of beef and veal exported from and imported to the UK for the last five years is available from the above uktradeinfo website.