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 make an assessment of the potential merits of empowering the Groceries Code Adjudicator to provide additional protections for farmers who are at risk of unfair practices.

The Government has already launched a review to increase fairness in the fresh produce supply chain in December 2023, building on what we have already got underway to improve transparency and contracts in the pork and dairy markets and the. Following this, we will analyse the responses and consider the need for providing additional protections for farmers at risk of unfair practices.

This review seeks to understand issues relating to fairness in the supply chain across the whole of the UK. If responses indicate there are contractual issues that we believe we should seek to address, the powers in the Agriculture Act apply to the whole of the UK. If regulations are developed, we will engage widely with stakeholders, including the devolved administrations, to ensure that legislation works for all parts of the UK and incorporate special provision for differing circumstances, if necessary.

A parliamentary debate is scheduled for 22 January to debate reforming the grocery supply code of practice to better protect farmers where the issues you’ve raised will be discussed.