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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have for the (1) work, and (2) membership, of the Food Data Transparency Panel; and whether they will invite the Consortium for Labelling for the Environment, Animal Welfare and Regenerative Farming (CLEAR) to join that panel.

To drive positive change through better information, transparency, and accountability, we are launching a transformational Food Data Transparency Partnership. The partnership will provide consumers with the information they need to make more sustainable, ethical, and healthier food choices and incentivise industry to produce healthier and more ethical and sustainable food.

Improving food system data and information is a shared challenge. The partnership will provide a framework to bring together the UK government, including the Department for Health and Social Care, Defra and the Food Standards Agency, Devolved Administrations and representatives from across the whole food supply chain and civil society.

We want to design stakeholders, including industry and civil society, into the fabric of how the programme is run and into how its outputs are developed. The governance structure and process for involvement is being developed and will be announced in the coming months.

Initially, the partnership will develop consistent and defined metrics to measure the health, environmental sustainability, and animal welfare impacts of food. By the end of 2023, in England, we will streamline reporting requirements relating to the production and sale of food and drink. We will consult on implementing mandatory public reporting against a set of health metrics and explore a similar approach to sustainability and animal welfare. We will fully consult on any mandatory measures before they are introduced.