Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had discussions with his international counterparts on the potential merits of expanding GPS farm mapping systems in order to identify unusual bouts of production as potential sites of illegal deforestation.

Through the Forest Agriculture and Commodities Trade Dialogue, (co-chaired by the UK and Indonesia), the UK is working with 28 partner countries to deliver a roadmap for action on sustainable trade while protecting forests. This includes commitments to improve and enhance global Traceability and Transparency T&T) systems that provide the basis for certification schemes and assurance of origin of forest risk commodities. Through this policy discussion FACT governments have collectively agreed, as a first step, to commission research to identify data gaps in T&T systems. This will enable the Government to consider how to support countries and stakeholders to identify and access funding, technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen T&T systems.