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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what research her Department is funding on the effects of climate change on agricultural production in the UK; and if she will make a statement.

Under the Climate Change Act 2008, the Government has a statutory role to produce, on a five-yearly cycle, an assessment of the risks and opportunities for the UK arising from climate change. The first Climate Change Risk Assessment was published in 2012. Work is underway on the second CCRA, for which Defra is funding the Adaptation Sub-Committee of the Committee on Climate Change to produce the underpinning Evidence Report by July 2016. This will include an up-to-date review of evidence on the effects of climate change on agriculture, and all other sectors. The CCRA Government Report will be laid before Parliament no later than January 2017.