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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether the (a) sale and (b) marketing of meat-branded products that do not contain meat will be permitted under the proposed sanitary and phytosanitary deal with the EU; and whether other types of product may be banned.

part of the UK-EU SPS Agreement currently being negotiated, the Government is making a sovereign choice in the national interest to align in some areas where it makes sense to do so, as set out in the Government’s recently published announcement on legislation in scope. This includes the marketing standards elements of Regulation (EU) 1308/201, which will apply to GB once the agreement is implemented.

The hon. Member refers to the EU’s draft legislation seeking to amend these rules, including proposals to prevent use of meat-related terms for the marketing of products which do not contain meat. This would not prevent these products being sold altogether, only how they are marketed for sale. Defra cannot speculate on what other products may be captured in scope of these proposals as they have not yet been adopted, but the department is monitoring their progress through the EU legislative process.