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 imposing an all-England restricted zone from 1 July 2025 in response to the bluetongue virus on (a) livestock markets and (b) other businesses (i) in Wales and (ii) along the Wales-England border.

From 1 July 2025 the restricted zone for bluetongue will be extended to cover all of England. This change is being made because the area of England where disease has been found is now too large for movement restrictions to remain an effective and proportionate way of controlling the disease.

Disease control is a devolved matter, and it is for the devolved administrations to assess their disease risks and respond accordingly. However, Defra and the Devolved Governments work closely together with the aim to provide, where possible, a consistent and coordinated response across the UK. A key forum for this is the Animal Disease Policy Group, which is a UK-wide policy decision making group. Defra and Devolved Governments also engage closely with industry to inform policy development and implementation through the Livestock Core Group.

The Government recognises that keepers and businesses can also be affected not only by the impacts of bluetongue disease on animals, but also by disease control measures. That is why Government seeks to minimise these burdens where safe to do so using exemptions under licenses, whilst maintaining the integrity and efficacy of measures intended to mitigate the risk of disease spread.