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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will take steps to ensure that there is representation of independent (a) environmental experts and (b) clinicians on the Food Strategy Advisory Board.

We are forming a partnership between government and stakeholders from across the food system as we develop the food strategy. This partnership includes academics, charities, key thinkers, civil society organisations and consumer groups as well as industry representatives.

Health experts and civil society are represented in the membership of the Food Strategy Advisory Board announced in March, including Professor Chris Whitty as Chief Medical Officer for England at the Department for Health and Social Care, Professor Susan Jebb as Professor of Diet and Population Health at Oxford University, Anna Taylor of the Food Foundation and Ravi Gurumurthy of NESTA.

We will conduct a series of of targeted stakeholder engagements that will include civil society organisations, environmental non-Government organisations, and citizen groups alongside the farming and the food industry