To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to maintain UK (a) food security and (b) self-sufficiency in key food products.
Answered on
28 September 2021
Food supply is one of the UK's 13 Critical National Infrastructure sectors. Defra and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) are joint Lead Government Departments (LGDs), Defra leading on supply and the FSA on food safety. As such we work closely with the Cabinet Office and other LGDs ensuring food supply is fully incorporated as part of emergency preparedness, including consideration of dependencies on other sectors.
The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption. Our high degree of food security is built on access to a range of sources, including robust supply chains domestically, and from a diverse range of other stable countries. We produce 60% of our entire food supply need, and that increases to 74% for indigenous food that we can grow or rear here in the UK for all or part of the year. These figures have been steady over the past 20 years. UK consumers have access through international trade to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.
Defra and the FSA have well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.
The Government has a duty to report triennially on food security in Section 19 of the Agriculture Act 2020. The reports will cover a range of current issues relevant to food security including the resilience of the food supply chain. The first such report is due to be published before 25th December 2021.