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

To ask His Majesty's Government what engagement they are undertaking with producer countries as they develop an approach to implementing Schedule 17 to the Environment Act 2021 so that it delivers robust due diligence standards while ensuring that smallholder producers are meaningfully supported and not disadvantaged.

The UK Government works closely with producer countries bilaterally and through key international platforms, such as the Forest, Agriculture and Commodity Trade (FACT) Dialogue. FACT convenes 28 major producers and consumers of globally traded agricultural commodities to agree collective actions that protect forests and other vital ecosystems, while promoting sustainable trade and development. A core focus of FACT is the inclusion of smallholder farmers in international value chains - an issue that was central to recent meetings we convened with the Government of Malaysia.

The UK also provides direct support to smallholder farmers through its Overseas Development Assistance. For example, we are co-funding the National Initiatives for Sustainable and Climate Smart Oil Palm Smallholders programme alongside the Netherlands. This helps smallholders improve the sustainability of the palm oil sector. We also support the Living Income Community of Practice, an alliance of partners developing data and tools aimed at lifting smallholders out of poverty.

We will set out our approach to addressing UK consumption of forest-risk commodities in due course.