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 ensure the maintenance of food suppliers in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The UK’s high degree of food security is built on access to a range of sources including strong domestic production and imports from other countries. This will continue to be the case whether we leave the EU with or without a deal.

Defra Ministers and officials meet regularly with the food industry to understand the potential impacts of leaving with no deal at the end of October and support contingency planning by the industry. This includes working with Defra’s long established Food Chain Emergency Liaison Group (FCELG). The FCELG membership is drawn from across the agri-food chain industry sectors from farm to fork.