Brexit: Food Standards Regulations

Baroness Jones of Whitchurch Excerpts

Tuesday 4th September 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I can tell the noble Baroness that we will do everything necessary to make sure we maintain the same high standards of protection that we have now.

[Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Lab)]

My Lords, if there is a no-deal outcome, the UK will no longer have access to EU safety assessment data for food products on which we currently rely. Given that 10,000 containers of food come from the EU daily, are the Government intending to inspect each of them at the ports or are they going to let them through with minimal checks, in which case, surely we are risking a public health scandal as a result?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

We hope for and expect to have arrangements meaning that we can continue to access systems such as the Rapid Alert System for food and feed. This is one of the ways we gain such information. Sharing such information in the trade of food is obviously mutually beneficial. We are, of course, planning for non-participation. This means looking for other kinds of agreements with both EU and international bodies to make sure that food alerts can be shared and that we can provide that level of safety.