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 is taking to safeguard the (a) animal welfare (b) environmental and (c) food safety standards of imports from third countries in the event of the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The Government is proud of this country’s high standards of animal welfare, environmental protection and food safety and these will not be watered down when we leave the EU. Our existing UK legislation will continue to apply and the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 will convert EU law as it applies at the point of leaving the EU, into UK law. All existing standards at the point of leaving the EU will, therefore, continue to apply both domestically and to imported goods.