Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the contract between his Department and BFS Group Ltd for the supply of food to prisons in England and Wales, what proportion of eggs used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were sourced from within the UK.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
100% of eggs supplied by BFS Group in the service of HMPPS food contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were sourced from within the UK.
2022-23 | VOLUME | % of Volume |
TOTAL Eggs | 9,109,080.00 |
|
UK | 9,109,080.00 | 100.00% |
EU | - | 0.00% |
Asked by: Emily Thornberry (Labour - Islington South and Finsbury)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to the contract between his Department and BFS Group Ltd for the supply of food to prisons in England and Wales, what proportion of eggs used by BFS Group in the service of that contract over the course of financial year 2022-23 were (a) free range eggs, (b) barn eggs and (c) colony-laid eggs.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The HMPPS Food supply contract supplied eggs in the following volumes for 2022-2023.
2022-23 | VOLUME | % of Volume |
TOTAL EGGS | 9,109,080.00 |
|
FREE RANGE | 432,360.00 | 4.55% |
COLONY | 8,676,720.00 | 95.25% |
During this time, some free-range eggs may have been housed in barns due to the Avian Influenza regulation requirements but not purchased as Barn eggs.
Asked by: Martyn Day (Scottish National Party - Linlithgow and East Falkirk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the level of risk to human health of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs originating from industrial farms.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Resistant bacteria and/or resistance genes can transfer between people and animals in both directions. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate, along with other governmental partners, conducts two surveillance schemes for AMR in animals, including regular monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species: pigs and poultry. The results of these surveillance schemes are published annually in the UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales and Surveillance Report.
Since 2014, the UK has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55% since 2014, and over this same period the UK have seen overall trend of decreasing antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from animals. The UK has a cross-government contingency plan in place which acts as an early warning system for resistant bacteria found in animals with potential risk to animal and public health.
Asked by: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing compensation to businesses that can demonstrate that they have (a) been unable to trade as normal and (b) had their trading activities severely limited as a result of avian influenza restrictions.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We are aware that the current unprecedented outbreak of Avian Influenza (AI) has created challenges for poultry and egg producers. We are working with the industry to support continued business activities.
In October 2022 we announced new support for the poultry industry to assist farmers and producers with the impacts of AI. This includes a change to the existing AI compensation scheme allowing us to provide swifter payments to help stem any cash flow pressures and give earlier certainty about entitlement to compensation. Any other compensation available to producers would come from the payout of private AI insurance policies and we are working with the industry to support continued access to insurance for those that require it.
We have also introduced market support measures to assist businesses impacted by AI. These included:
Following a reduction in the risk levels, the lifting of the Avian Influenza Prevention Zone mandatory housing measures on the 18 April 2023 will come as welcome news to producers. This means that from 18 April, eggs laid by birds with access to outside range areas can return to being marketed as ‘free range’ eggs.
We continue to monitor the impacts of Avian Influenza on the poultry and egg sectors.
Asked by: Tom Randall (Conservative - Gedling)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the level of risk to human health of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs originating from industrial farms.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Resistant bacteria and/or resistance genes can transfer between people and animals in both directions. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate conducts two surveillance schemes for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals, including regular monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species such as pigs and poultry. The results of these surveillance schemes are published annually in the ‘UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales and Surveillance Report’ which can be found at the following link:
Since 2014, the United Kingdom has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing AMR in bacteria from animals. The UK has a cross-Government contingency plan to mitigate the risk to public health of resistant bacteria found in animals, a copy of which can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Giles Watling (Conservative - Clacton)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate she has made of the (a) proportion of egg production that will be cage-free by 2025 and (b) cost to the poultry sector of a ban on the use of cages for laying hens.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The proportion of eggs that come from caged hens has steadily decreased from 47% of total throughput in Q4 2017, to around 25% at the end of Q4 2022. No recent estimate of the proportion of egg production that will be cage-free by 2025 or the costs to industry of any ban on their use has been made.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he has made an assessment of the level of risk to human health of antimicrobial-resistant superbugs originating from industrial farms.
Answered by Maria Caulfield - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade) (Minister for Women)
Resistant bacteria and/or resistance genes can transfer between people and animals in both directions. The Veterinary Medicines Directorate conducts two surveillance schemes for antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in animals, including regular monitoring of AMR in major food-producing species: pigs and poultry. The results of these surveillance schemes are published annually in the UK Veterinary Antibiotic Resistance and Sales and Surveillance Report, which can be found at the following link:
Since 2014, the United Kingdom has reduced sales of veterinary antibiotics by 55%, and over this same period the UK has seen an overall trend of decreasing AMR in bacteria from animals. The UK has a cross-Government contingency plan to mitigate the risk to public health of resistant bacteria found in animals, which can be found at the following link:
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Exeter (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the differences in environmental and animal welfare standards in the UK, Australia and New Zealand, and the impact of these differences on British farmers, given the UK–Australia and UK–New Zealand free trade agreements.
Answered by Lord Benyon - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Government has been clear that any access to UK markets agreed through trade agreements will be fair and reciprocal, taking into account sectoral sensitivities and differences in food production standards. For example, within the UK-Australia Free Trade Agreement we secured the exclusion of pork, chicken and eggs from tariff liberalisation reflecting the importance of animal welfare to the UK and the level of trade between Australia and the UK on these products.
In both our negotiations with Australia and with New Zealand, we carefully considered the potential impacts on British farmers and secured a range of different measures to protect them. These measures include tariff rate quotas for several sensitive agricultural products, product specific safeguards and a general bilateral safeguard mechanism providing a temporary safety net for all products.
The Government has published full impact assessments for the UK-Australia and UK-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement’s, which include impacts on the agricultural sector.
We remain committed to upholding the UK’s high environmental, food safety and animal welfare standards through trade. The independent Trade & Agriculture Commission concluded that our agreements with Australia and New Zealand do not undermine the UK’s robust domestic protections. Neither agreement creates any new permissions or authorisations for imports from Australia or New Zealand. All products imported into the UK will, as they do now, have to comply with our import requirements.
Asked by: Ian Byrne (Labour - Liverpool, West Derby)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of food labelling practices by supermarkets; and if she will bring forward legislative proposals requiring supermarkets to label the country of origin on food packaging.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Country of origin information is already required for all prepacked food where its omission would be misleading to consumers, and is required for fresh and frozen meat of beef, sheep, goat, pigs and poultry, as well as for uncut fresh fruit and vegetables, honey, olive oil and wine. For processed food, where the origin of the primary ingredient is different to that of the food itself and the origin of the food is given, an indication that the origin of the primary ingredient is different or the specific origin must also be provided. In any case, where an origin or provenance is given or indicated including when provided voluntarily this must always be accurate. Shops and supermarkets will often label their British cheese, hams and bacon when they are made from British milk and meat, helping shoppers easily identify and buy great British produce.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to help protect the domestic poultry industry from unfair competition from other countries which have lower energy costs or lower production standards.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government is proud of the high food safety and animal welfare standards that underpin our high-quality Great British produce. We put British farming at the heart of our trade policy and have no intention of undercutting our own reputation for quality by lowering our standards in pursuit of a trade deal.
In all trade agreements we negotiate, we will stand up for British farming and aim to secure new opportunities for the industry. We will always look to ensure that UK Free Trade Agreements are fair and reciprocal, and that any ‘opening up’ does not cause an unwanted downturn for domestic producers.
We are also working hard to support a thriving and profitable domestic industry. In December 2022 I hosted a roundtable for UK egg producers to discuss the challenges that the industry has been facing due to the increase in input costs. We have relaxed marketing rules on the sale of defrosted seasonal poultry products and allowed concessions to the sale of free-range eggs impacted by Avian Influenza housing restrictions. In addition, since November 2022, the poultry industry has been able to access the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS). In January 2023 the Government announced the Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS) that will replace EBRS when it comes to an end on 31st March 2023. This new scheme will run until 31st March 2024. Following a review of the EBRS, the Government will target a higher level of support under the EBDS at the most energy and trade intensive sectors – which are primarily manufacturing businesses – in addition to the broader EBDS support. Poultry meat processing falls within the remit of the Government’s Energy Intensive Industries exemption scheme and will therefore also qualify for the enhanced level of support.
We continue to keep the sector under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which monitors UK agricultural markets including price, supply, inputs, trade and recent developments.