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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment has been made of the ability of UK suppliers to meet demand for domestic food consumption in the event of trade disruptions arising from the UK leaving the EU without a deal.

The UK Government has well established ways of working with the food industry. The industry is experienced in dealing with scenarios that can affect food supply and Defra Ministers and officials meet with them regularly to support their contingency planning as we prepare to leave the EU.

The UK’s high degree of food security is built on access to a range of sources including robust supply chains across a range of countries, in addition to strong domestic production. Consumers have access to a wide range of food products when they shop and this will continue once we leave the EU. If we have to leave with no deal, there will not be an overall shortage of food in the UK. While we are reliant on imports of certain salad vegetables at this time of year, our market profiles clearly demonstrate strong UK winter production of many root vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, swedes, turnips, parsnips and leeks.