Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the reclassification of coastal waters as Class A waters from Class B waters was explicitly requested by Government Ministers or reclassified as a result of a routine review.
Defra has worked at pace with the Food Standards Agency (FSA) over the past few months to explore the potential for re-classification of harvesting areas on a seasonal basis where supported by the testing data, to enable more businesses to export live bivalve molluscs to the EU from Class A waters. Existing procedures allow local authorities and harvesters to request a review of shellfish waters. The FSA has additionally revised its procedures so that it will proactively consider seasonal classifications. The outcome of this review was reflected in the classifications listing published on 31 March 2021 on the FSA’s website at:
https://www.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/media/document/classification-list-1-april-2021_0.pdf.