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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress he is making to ensure that the UK will maintain food standards in trade policy after the transition period.

Defra has worked closely with the Food Standards Agency and Department of Health and Social Care to ensure that the regulatory regime for food safety remains robust now the UK has left the European Union, in order to protect public health and retain the confidence of consumers and international trading partners. We will continue to ensure that without exception all imports of food meet the stringent food safety standards required of our domestic producers and we will not compromise on this in trade negotiations. Our Food Standards Agency’s independent advice will ensure this will remain the case.

We will keep our existing UK legislation, and the EU (Withdrawal) Act 2018 will carry over EU law into UK law. Now that we have left the EU the UK will take its own sovereign decisions on standards and regulations in line with the principles of the World Trade Organization’s Agreement on the Application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures and other relevant internationally recognised guidance. The Government remains committed to promoting robust food standards nationally and internationally, to protect consumer interests and ensure that consumers can have confidence in the food they buy.