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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps his Department has taken to support UK wine producers.

UK wine producers are exceeding the targets they have set themselves for increasing the number of bottles produced and vineyards planted to 3,000 hectares and 10 million bottles by 2020. The Government commissioned research on how best to support the industry to continue to meet these targets in the face of climate change. Recent support from Defra for the UK wine industry also includes amending the English Protected Designation of Origin and Protected Geographical Origin Wine Schemes to ensure the unprecedented harvest did not damage producers of specialty wines.