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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether it his Department's policy to reach a sanitary and phytosanitary agreement with the EU.

The UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) remains the starting point for our new relationship. The sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) chapter of the TCA puts in place a framework that allows the UK and the EU to take informed decisions to reduce their respective SPS controls, with a commitment to avoid unnecessary barriers to trade.

We are open to discussions with the EU on steps we can take to reduce trade friction; however, these cannot be on the basis of dynamic alignment with EU rules, as this would compromise UK sovereignty over our own laws.