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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to help support the broiler poultry industry.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain which has coped well in responding to the unprecedented challenges the industry, including the poultry sector, has faced in the past few years.

Defra continues to work closely with the poultry sector and has acted where appropriate.

On 28 October 2022 we announced changes to both the AI compensation scheme allowing compensation to be paid to farmers from the outset of planned AI culling rather than at the end and a relaxation to the enforcement of marketing rules allowing the sale of defrosted turkeys, geese and ducks between 28 November and 31 December 2022.

In 2023 and 2024 the poultry sector will continue to be able to access 2,000 seasonal worker visas to meet the pre-Christmas surge in demand for poultry workers.

More widely, the Government has put in place a number of measures which the poultry industry has been able to access, including cuts to VAT and fuel duty and support through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme.

We continue to keep the poultry sector under constant review including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group and our on-going regular engagement with key sector stakeholders.