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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of sanitary and phytosanitary regulatory friction on wholesale food prices.

Defra's published assessment of controls introduced under the Border Target Operating Model estimated an increase in annual consumer food price of less than 0.2 percentage points in total over three years, however, did not look at wholesale prices specifically.

This Government recognises that SPS regulatory friction can increase costs for food producers and retailers, and is negotiating an SPS Agreement with the EU to make agrifood trade cheaper and easier.