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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department has made an assessment of the effectiveness of voluntary corporate commitments in preventing deforestation in UK supply chains.

We have not made a comprehensive assessment of the contribution of voluntary corporate commitments in the estimated 22% reduction in UK consumption-driven global deforestation between 2017 and 2022.

However, there is some evidence that voluntary commitments are having a positive impact. For instance, in 2022, 86% of palm and palm kernel oil imported to the UK was certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil, driven in part by supermarket sustainability pledges.

We recognise the urgency of taking action to ensure that UK consumption of forest risk commodities is not driving deforestation and will set out our approach in due course.