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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he has made an assessment of the adequacy of future plant passporting arrangements under the SPS framework.

As announced at the UK-EU Leaders’ Summit on 19 May 2025, the UK and EU have agreed to work towards a common Sanitary and Phytosanitary Area to make agrifood trade with our biggest market easier, cutting costs and red tape for British producers and retailers.

Plants for planting, seed potatoes and some wood and seeds require plant passports when moving within the EU and within GB. The detail of this needs to be agreed with the EU in negotiation, but our assumption is that we will move away from Phytosanitary Certificates for movements between GB-EU and instead use plant passports.

With the principles and framework of a deal agreed, we will now need to negotiate the detail of an agreement. Our aim is to start the detailed negotiations as soon as possible, as we want to see businesses benefit from removing barriers to trade.