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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to increase UK food production.

The recently published Government Food Strategy puts food security at the heart of our vision for the food sector. Our aim is to broadly maintain the current level of food that we produce domestically and boost production in sectors where there are the biggest opportunities – such as horticulture and seafood.

Our farming reforms are designed to support farmers to produce food sustainably and productively, alongside delivering environmental improvements which we all benefit from.

Alongside this, we are investing over £270 million in innovation by 2029 to support agricultural productivity. Our £48 million Farming Investment Fund is supporting more than 43,000 farmers this year, providing grants towards the cost of equipment and technology, as well as large capital items, to improve productivity.

We have also awarded grants, through the Future Farming Resilience Fund, to organisations who help farmers and land managers adapt to the agricultural transition.

The Government has committed to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. We published the first UK Food Security Report in December 2021, which will serve as an evidence base for future policy work.