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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether (1) beef, and (2) lamb, from Australia which has been (a) reared using antibacterial infusions, and (b) fed unrestricted amounts of GM produce, will be allowed into the UK as a result of the recently announced trade deal.

The UK is rightly proud of our world-leading food, health and animal welfare standards. As we have previously made clear, we will not compromise on these standards in our trade negotiations.

Our deal with Australia does not change any of our existing import requirements. All meat, and other animal products, imported into the UK under this deal will continue to be subject to clear controls on limits of veterinary medicine residues, including antimicrobials. Moreover, we have agreed to cooperate with Australia on combatting antimicrobial resistance. This demonstrates our commitment to values-based trade policy and is a very positive step.

Our rules on genetically modified (GM) organisms also remain in place and only authorised GM material will be permitted for import from Australia. However, it is important to clarify that products such as milk and meat derived from animals fed GM feed are not themselves GM organisms. Here in the UK we import approximately 3 million tonnes of authorised GM feed per year - approximately 70% of our total animal protein feed requirement. UK animal products fed with such feed are then exported in the same manner as those fed on non-GM diets and the same is true with Australian animal products. The industry operates in this way regardless of our trade agreement and it presents no weakening of standards on GM.