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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to introduce a National Food Security Council.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources, strong domestic production and imports through stable trade routes.

Defra already has well established ways of working with the industry. Ministers and officials meet with the food industry, through forums such as the F4 industry group (comprising the Food and Drink Federation, British Retail Consortium, National Farmers Union and Hospitality UK), the Food Supply Chain Resilience Planning Group, the Retailer Forum and the Food Resilience Industry Forum, in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.

Recognising the importance of this subject, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK Food Security Report was published in December 2021. This report will serve as an evidence base for future policy work.