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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Border Target Operating Model on levels of food supply in (a) 2024, (b) 2025 and (c) 2026.

The resilience and reliability of food supply chains is a key objective of the Government as set out in last year’s Government Food Strategy. In implementing this new control regime for the first time on EU imports, we will carefully monitor the range of potential risks, including those that may impact food supply-chains.

We will work with importers to try to manage those risks in a structured way. We recognise that this new model for importing Sanitary and Phytosanitary goods will require some businesses and their supply-chains to adapt their business models. We do not expect food shortages.