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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 36240 on Zoos: Animal Breeding, how many civil servants are working on negotiating a UK-EU Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary agreement.

On 19 May the UK and EU announced the terms of the Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Agreement that we will now negotiate, in addition to the Government announcing recent deals with India and the USA, and further deals in the pipeline. These deals will make agrifood trade with key markets cheaper and easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers, and boosting exports. Defra’s trade staff work flexibly across trade deals according to demand.