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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of declaring (a) Orchidaceae, (b) Dendranthema, (c) Dianthus, (d) Gypsophila and (e) Solidago from the EU as medium risk on the floristry industry.

The new import health control regime aims to achieve the lowest regulatory obligation for businesses, consistent with the need to protect biosecurity and public health and to safeguard the UK’s reputation for high regulatory standards.

We will work closely with trade partners to ensure that the process and rationale for categorisation of commodities is understood and seen to be robust and fair. However, it should be noted that categorisation is based on the UK’s risk assessment, not stakeholder feedback.