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

To ask Her Majesty's Government which of the issues raised by the Real Bread Campaign in their submission to DEFRA, published in September 2021, ahead of the first meeting of the Bread and Flour Technical Working Group, will be included in the forthcoming public consultation and review of the Bread and Flour Regulations.

Defra, alongside the Department of Health and Social Care, the Food Standards Agency in Northern Ireland and Wales, Food Standards Scotland and the Scottish and Welsh Governments, have been conducting jointly a review of The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and The Bread and Flour (Northern Ireland) Regulations 1998 to ensure the regulations are fit for purpose and support UK industry while protecting consumers. To assist the review, Defra convened a technical working group made up of a wide range of relevant stakeholders including the Real Bread Campaign, to help identify and explore the issues around the regulations which cover the compositional requirements of bread and flour. We are now preparing to consult jointly on proposals to update the Bread and Flour Regulations 1998. The consultation is subject to a cross-government agreement process in England and ministerial agreement in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. It is therefore not possible to say definitively what will be included in the consultation, but we hope to be able to publish proposals shortly.