Forests: Environment Protection

(asked on 22nd November 2021) - View Source

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will consult on the removal of (a) beef, (b) rubber, (c) cocoa and (d) timber from UK supply chains when linked to illegal deforestation as part of the use of forest risk commodities in commercial activity provisions in the Environment Act 2021.


Answered by
Rebecca Pow Portrait
Rebecca Pow
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
This question was answered on 25th November 2021

The UK Government has introduced world-leading due diligence legislation through the Environment Act to tackle illegal deforestation in UK supply chains. The new law will make it illegal for larger businesses to use key forest risk commodities produced on land illegally occupied or used in their UK commercial activities. The UK Timber Regulations already prohibit the placing on the market of illegally harvested timber or timber products. To avoid overlapping with this regime, timber and timber products are therefore not in scope of the new provisions.

Secondary legislation is needed to set out key details on how the due diligence provisions will be implemented, including which commodities are regulated. Providing these details in secondary legislation allows us to take a phased approach to the introduction of regulations.

The UK Government will launch a consultation shortly to seek evidence and views to inform how the provisions will be implemented, including which agricultural commodities should be introduced through secondary legislation.

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