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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the potential threat posed by African Swine Fever to the British agricultural sector.

The Animal Health and Plant Agency has carried out an assessment on the risk of entry of ASF into Great Britain from the EU Member States. The assessment took into account the evolving disease situation in the EU and found the overall risk to be medium. The report also highlighted major consequences for the GB pig industry should there be an incursion of ASF. A UK-wide exercise that simulated an outbreak of ASF was carried out in 2021 to test government contingency plans to contain and eliminate the disease in the event that it reached the UK. The aim of the exercise was to help improve the UK’s animal disease response capabilities through testing plans, instructions and the structures employed in managing an outbreak.