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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what arrangements he has planned for agriculture chemicals registration in the event that the UK leaves the EU without a deal.

The EU Withdrawal Act 2018 converts the current EU legislation controlling pesticides used in agriculture into retained law in the UK. This approach will ensure a smooth transition in the event of no deal and provide certainty for consumers, workers and businesses by maintaining existing laws wherever practicable.

It will be necessary to make some minor corrections by statutory instrument but only where this is necessary so that the regulations can continue to work sensibly in a non-EU context, for example, replacing EU processes set out in the regulations with national processes.

We are also planning for the regulatory capacity we would need to implement the regulation of plant protection products in the UK, building on the existing capacity in the Health and Safety Executive’s Chemicals Regulation Directorate.