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

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have made any recent assessment of the development of the English sparkling wine industry.

The UK has a thriving domestic wine industry, with our sparkling wines standing out as among the best available today. This reputation has been built by our vineyards and winemakers, who recognised the UK climate and its geology as being ideal for the production of high-quality sparkling wine. This potential is stimulating further interest and investment in the sector, which has seen vineyard hectarage increase by a phenomenal 70% in the last five years. We now have approximately 800 vineyards, producing in the region of 10 million bottles a year, enabling our wines to be sold throughout the UK and in at least 30 markets globally.

Working with the reforms that allowed us to remove VI-1 certificates, Officials from the Cabinet Office Brexit Opportunities Unit and Defra are in the process of engaging with stakeholders as part of a deep dive review of the remaining wine sector rules we inherited from the EU. Areas under active consideration for reform include giving wine producers greater scope to develop products for the low and no alcohol sector and removing restrictions on bottle sizes. Defra will announce further details and bring forward regulatory reforms for consultation in due course. We aim to create rules that protect what we have but maximise the Brexit freedoms that allow our domestic wine and viticulture sectors, and our wine trade to innovate and flourish.