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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions officials in his Department with responsibility for the UK leaving the EU have had with (a) port authorities, (b) major retailers, and (c) haulage firms on the volume and nature plant and animal materials imported to the UK from EU countries; and on what dates those discussions took place.

My officials talk regularly with a wide range of stakeholders, including the groups mentioned.

From a Port Health Authority perspective (which will include the Food Standards Agency and the Animal and Plant Health Agency) there have been five Official meetings:

Three have been chaired by Border Delivery Group and took place on the 28th February, 1st May and 2nd July 2018.

Two have been chaired by the Biosecurity and Food Project directorate and took place on the 9^th February and 15^th March 2018.

Alongside these official meetings, various informal meetings and workshops have taken place.