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

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Gardiner of Kimble on 5 March (HL1872), why they have adopted the EU's legislation on the use of growth hormones in food production; and what caused the change in policy held by previous governments on that legislation within the Council of European Agricultural Ministers.

As a Member State, the UK transposed EU Council Directive 96/22/EC (as amended) into domestic law ‘Animals and Animal Products (Examination for Residues and Maximum Residue Limits) (England and Scotland) Regulations 2015', with similar legislation for Wales and Northern Ireland.

The law reflects UK Government policy on the use of growth hormones in food production and remains in force now we have left the EU.

The UK is committed to maintaining our current high food safety and animal welfare standards and these protections will continue now we have left the EU.