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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support and assistance they will give to pig farmers in England who are in financial difficulty; and what assessment they have made of the support given by the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive to pig farmers in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

We continue to work closely with the pig industry to help them respond to challenges caused by the pandemic, including the loss of exports to the Chinese market for certain pig processors, disruption to CO2 supplies, and a temporary shortage of labour in the processing sector. This has led to a growing backlog of pigs on farms.

We have provided a package of measures to help address these unique circumstances, aimed at reducing the backlog of pigs on farms. The package includes temporary work visas for pork butchers, and Private Storage Aid and Slaughter Incentive Payment schemes to facilitate an increase in the throughput of pigs through abattoirs. We are also launching a UK-wide review of supply chain fairness in the pig sector. We will be engaging with industry on this with a consultation expected later this year.

Minister Prentis has chaired two Roundtables – on 10 February and 3 March - with representatives of the pig sector from across the UK. Following this, Minister Prentis also met with representatives of the agricultural banking sector to discuss the current situation in the pig sector. The banks confirmed that they are working closely with impacted pig farmers during this exceptionally challenging period and remain keen to be supportive.

The support provided to pig producers by the Scottish Government and Northern Ireland Executive is to address very specific circumstances their pig producers have encountered. While we work closely with the Devolved Administrations, agriculture is a devolved policy and responsibility for the setting up of agricultural support schemes in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is the responsibility of the respective administrations.