EU-UK SPS Agreement: Food-related Standards

Lord Markham Excerpts

Monday 18th May 2026 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Markham]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to maintain regulatory flexibilities and innovation in fields such as novel foods and precision fermentation in the proposed EU-UK sanitary and phytosanitary agreement to harmonise food-related standards.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question standing in my name on the Order Paper, and declare an interest as chair of a biotech company.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Baroness Hayman of Ullock) (Lab)]

My Lords, as part of the SPS agreement, the EU has accepted that there will need to be a number of areas where we need to retain our own rules. The details of those are subject to negotiation, but we have been clear about the importance of being able to support the use of new and innovative technologies such as novel foods.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her Answer, and I am very encouraged by her response, because in this area I have seen first-hand how we have used our innovation and flexibility to create inward investment and a world-leading industry. Can I take from the noble Baroness’s Answer that we are adopting a similar approach to what Switzerland did, which achieved integration while getting carve-outs in key areas—the so-called Swiss cheese approach—and we plan to do that here as well?

[Baroness Hayman of Ullock (Lab)]

Of course, while the negotiations are ongoing—there are regular meetings, and it is reaching an intensive phase—I am afraid I cannot give any detail at all. However, as I said before, as a sovereign country we need to choose to align where it is in our national interest, but at the same time we need to ensure that where we have areas where we believe we need to be able to do our own thing, if you like, we are in a position to do so. But, as I say, those negotiations are still ongoing.