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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she has taken to ensure that animal products originating in Israeli settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory are not imported into the UK with sanitary or phytosanitary certification issued by the Israeli authorities; and when those steps were taken.

Products of animal origin (POAO) imported from third countries must have been produced to standards at least equivalent to those in the European Union (EU). The European Commission's Food and Veterinary Office is responsible for carrying out inspections in the third countries from which POAO is imported. POAO from third countries must:

· come from an approved country;

· come from an approved establishment/plant;

· be accompanied by appropriate animal and public health certification;

· enter the EU through a Border Inspection Post (BIP) where checks are carried out to ensure that import conditions have been met.

Israel is approved for a number of different categories of animal product. This approval is limited to Israel and does not include the Occupied Palestinian Territories.