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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of recent rises in the price of potatoes on the viability of fish and chip shops.

The Government is aware that the prolonged period of hot dry weather last summer had an impact on yield, growth and quality of horticultural crops, including potatoes, in many parts of the country. We continue to keep the weather situation and any impact on our agri-food sectors under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group (UKAMMG), which was set up by Defra and the Devolved Administrations to monitor the UK market situation across all key agricultural commodities.

Increased food prices are the result of many different factors, including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs, as well as Sterling exchange rates.

The Government has taken action to support businesses with rising input costs such as energy.