Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what controls are in place to assess whether antimicrobial use records, medicated feed records, and veterinary treatment records, in beef export supply chains are complete, reliable, independently audited, and capable of being traced to individual animals or batches.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Countries approved to export beef to Great Britain must have Defra-approved veterinary medicine residue control plans and submit annual reports for assessment. The Food Standards Agency publishes annual reports of import sampling under the National Monitoring Programme on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the Assessment of Veterinary Antimicrobial Residues in Feedlot Soils in Argentina, published in the scientific journal Antibiotics on 3 September; and what action, if any, they intend to take as a result.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Supplementing the response to QWA HL3864, countries approved to export beef to Great Britain must have Defra-approved veterinary medicine residue control plans and submit annual reports for assessment. The Food Standards Agency publishes annual reports of import sampling under the National Monitoring Programme on GOV.UK.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they expect to publish the Circular Economy Growth Plan.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This Government is committed to delivering a more circular and resilient economy for good growth in every place. Defra established a Circular Economy Task Force to co-design its approach and will outline its next steps shortly.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to publish a full assessment of the interaction between Great Britain’s import policy in relation to Mercosur, the Windsor Framework, and the movement of meat and meat-containing products from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay can export meat to Great Britain. Under Windsor Framework arrangements, meat moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland via the red lane must comply with EU import requirements. Imported meat processed in Great Britain can move to Northern Ireland under the Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme.Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they intend to establish a formal real-time information-sharing system involving the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland (DAERA), the Food Standards Agency, the European Commission and the Government of Ireland for the exchange of import alerts, laboratory findings, establishment suspensions, food recalls and certificate failures affecting products of animal origin.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK is negotiating a Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement with the EU which will strengthen cooperation on biosecurity and public health. Access to relevant EU agencies, systems and databases will enable real-time information sharing on SPS risks, including food safety issues, emerging threats and disease outbreaks. The precise arrangements, including for Northern Ireland, remain subject to ongoing negotiations.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what safeguards are in place to prevent meat or meat ingredients admitted into Great Britain under production standards or import conditions that differ from those applying in the European Union from entering supply chains serving Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Rest of World meat and composite meat products, subject to animal and plant health rules, have country of origin requirements, regardless of how they enter Northern Ireland. These requirements are verified by standard movement procedures before entering Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) is designed to ensure that retail food products that move from Great Britain (GB) to Northern Ireland do not move on to the European Union. Products moved outside of NIRMS require certificates to show they can move into the EU.
Where a product is transformed and sufficiently processed in GB, GB is the origin of the product for the purpose of NIRMS, regardless of the origin of the individual ingredients.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure the verification of the origin of meat ingredients in composite and prepared foods, including burgers, sausages, nuggets, pies, sandwiches and ready meals, that are moved from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Rest of World meat and composite meat products, subject to animal and plant health rules, have country of origin requirements, regardless of how they enter Northern Ireland. These requirements are verified by standard movement procedures before entering Northern Ireland.
The Northern Ireland Retail Movement Scheme (NIRMS) is designed to ensure that retail food products that move from Great Britain (GB) to Northern Ireland do not move on to the European Union. Products moved outside of NIRMS require certificates to show they can move into the EU.
Where a product is transformed and sufficiently processed in GB, GB is the origin of the product for the purpose of NIRMS, regardless of the origin of the individual ingredients.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the use of monensin in cattle feed and cattle-finishing systems in Mercosur countries; and whether they will publish the evidence and analysis relied upon in reaching that assessment.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra has received guarantees from Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay that beef exported to Great Britain (GB) is not from cattle treated with certain antimicrobial medicinal products. Defra is conducting an in-country audit of Brazil’s controls, the report of which will be published. Bolivia is not approved to export beef to GB.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition regarding food resilience and soil health.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra liaised with the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition regarding nutrition and emergency planning in 2024, resulting in an item at the committee’s 20 June 2024 meeting. Defra has continued to be in contact with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition in following years to enable consideration of infant feeding and nutrition to support planning for food supply disruptions.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with devolved administrations and local government regarding food security in the UK.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Ministers from all four nations discuss food system issues through the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In addition, officials have regular engagement on a wide range of food security and resilience issues.