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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble n 15 May (HL3775), whether they will now answer the question put, namely, why they have adopted the EU's legislation on the use of growth hormones in food production; and what caused the change in policy held by previous governments on that legislation within the Council of European Agricultural Ministers.

As a Member State, the UK fulfilled its obligations of EU membership and implemented EU Council Directive 96/22/EC (as amended) into domestic law. UK policy was always to implement EU law as required.

Although the UK expressed some concerns with the robustness of the scientific evidence underpinning the EU ban at the time, it has always been fully implemented in the UK and this will continue, now we have left the EU.