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

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to ensure that (1) farms, (2) food producers, (3) manufacturers, and (4) packagers, remain in business during this period of heightened energy costs in order to prevent a food shortage.

While no national government can control the global factors pushing up the cost of energy, we will continue to support British business.

The Energy Bill Relief Scheme will provide a price reduction to make sure that all businesses, including chemical companies, and other non-domestic customers are protected from excessively high energy bills over the winter period. Non-domestic customers do not need to take action or apply to the scheme - support will automatically be applied to bills.

In addition, we have more than doubled our support for high energy usage businesses, reduced employer national insurance, slashed fuel duty, introduced a 50% business rates relief for eligible high street businesses and put the brakes on bill increases by freezing the business rates multiplier - worth £4.6 billion over the next five years.

HM Government is also supporting businesses to improve their energy efficiency by at least 20% by 2030. This could deliver up to £6 billion in cost savings by 2030.

We have extended the Energy Intensive Industries Compensation Scheme by three years and more than doubled its budget.

The United Kingdom has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the COVID-19 response. It is well equipped to deal with situations with the potential to cause disruption.