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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the UK's standards for pesticides are protected and maintained in international trade agreements.

Our trade agreements will respect the regulatory autonomy of the Parties and decisions on standards will remain a matter for the UK Government and devolved administrations, including on pesticides.

We will maintain our high human health and environmental standards when operating our own independent pesticides regulatory regime after the transition period. We will ensure decisions on the use of pesticides are based on careful scientific assessment and will not authorise pesticides that may carry unacceptable risks. The statutory requirements of the EU regime on standards of protection will be carried across unchanged into domestic law.

The Government is clear that in all of our trade negotiations we will not compromise on our high environmental protection, animal welfare and food standards.