Asked by: Peter Bedford (Conservative - Mid Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with representatives of the agricultural sector on the potential impact of proposed changes to Agricultural Property Relief and Business Property Relief on the number of farm estates in the UK.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government regularly and actively engages with representatives from the farming industry through regular meetings and discussions, ensuring we listen to their views, understand their concerns, and take their feedback into account.
At the November 2025 budget, the Chancellor announced that any unused allowance for the 100% rate of agricultural property relief and business property relief will be transferable between spouses and civil partners from 6 April 2026. The Government has taken this action after listening to feedback from stakeholders, who have called strongly for this change to the planned reforms to reduce complexity and remove an unfairness for widows/widowers.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Department's policy paper entitled Animal Welfare Strategy for England, published on 22 December 2025, whether her Department plans to publish a timetable for the introduction of dog licences for dog breeders.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Under the Animal Welfare (Licensing of Activities Involving Animals) (England) Regulations 2018, anyone in the business of breeding and selling dogs and/or who breeds three or more litters in a twelve-month period needs to have a valid licence from their local authority.
The Government is committed to ending puppy farming and the low welfare breeding of dogs. As part of the Animal Welfare Strategy, the Government has committed to launch a consultation on dog breeding reform. Next steps will be announced in due course.
Asked by: Ian Roome (Liberal Democrat - North Devon)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to ensure imported meat does not adversely impact disease prevention in farming and animal disease prevention zones.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Meat import controls include measures to prevent spread of animal disease such as veterinary health certification and border control post checks.
On farm biosecurity plays a key role in protecting farms from exotic diseases and can mitigate the risk of spread of such diseases in the event of an outbreak. Defra is working closely with the devolved governments, the livestock industry and veterinary bodies to improve the UK’s response and raise awareness of the risks of introduction of exotic disease.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on developing the proposals in the 2024 Fairer Food Labelling consultation.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in the animal welfare strategy, the Government is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information on how their food was produced. To support this, the department will continue working with relevant stakeholders, including the farming and food industry, scientists and NGOs to explore how improved animal welfare food labelling could provide greater consumer transparency, support farmers and promote better animal welfare. Defra will set out next steps in due course.
The Government will continue to review origin labelling and aim to use the outcomes of the Fairer Food Labelling consultation as supporting evidence for future labelling policy.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will convene an expert group of industry representatives, animal welfare organisations and other stakeholders to advise on developing a method of production labelling scheme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
As set out in the Government’s animal welfare strategy, the department is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information on how their food was produced. To support this, Defra will continue working with relevant stakeholders, including the farming and food industry, scientists and NGOs to explore how improved animal welfare food labelling could provide greater consumer transparency, support farmers and promote better animal welfare. The Government will set out next steps in due course.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps her Department is taking to reduce the risk to non-farmed animals of disease transmission from the nearby presence of a fish farm.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s disease control measures seek to contain the number of animals that need to be culled, either for disease control purposes or to safeguard animal welfare. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) are responsible for the delivery of aquatic animal health controls in England and Wales. The FHI maintains a comprehensive programme of inspections to assess farmed fish health, designed to prevent the introduction and spread of the most serious listed and emerging diseases, and ensure that all aquaculture production businesses operate under approved biosecurity plans. These plans must take account of the potential for infectious disease transmission to wild aquatic animals and set out measures to minimise that risk.
The recently published Animal Welfare Strategy for England set out that we will commission the Animal Welfare Committee’s advice on the welfare of farmed fish prior to slaughter. Amongst other things this project will consider the effects of stocking densities. The Animal Welfare Strategy also commits to introduce humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish into legislation, subject to consultation.
Asked by: Vikki Slade (Liberal Democrat - Mid Dorset and North Poole)
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 will take to improving the health of farmed fish during production; and if she will give consideration to increasing spacing to reduce the risk of disease transmission between fish.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
Defra’s disease control measures seek to contain the number of animals that need to be culled, either for disease control purposes or to safeguard animal welfare. The Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science (Cefas) and the Fish Health Inspectorate (FHI) are responsible for the delivery of aquatic animal health controls in England and Wales. The FHI maintains a comprehensive programme of inspections to assess farmed fish health, designed to prevent the introduction and spread of the most serious listed and emerging diseases, and ensure that all aquaculture production businesses operate under approved biosecurity plans. These plans must take account of the potential for infectious disease transmission to wild aquatic animals and set out measures to minimise that risk.
The recently published Animal Welfare Strategy for England set out that we will commission the Animal Welfare Committee’s advice on the welfare of farmed fish prior to slaughter. Amongst other things this project will consider the effects of stocking densities. The Animal Welfare Strategy also commits to introduce humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish into legislation, subject to consultation.
Asked by: Fleur Anderson (Labour - Putney)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent discussions she has had with retailers and animal welfare organisations on introducing method of production labelling on domestic and imported animal products.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Department engaged with a range of animal welfare stakeholders as part of the development of the animal welfare strategy, which was published in December 2025.
As set out in the strategy, Defra is committed to ensuring that consumers have access to clear information on how their food was produced. To support this, we will continue working with relevant stakeholders, including the farming and food industry, scientists and NGOs to explore how improved animal welfare food labelling could provide greater consumer transparency, support farmers and promote better animal welfare.
Asked by: Adam Jogee (Labour - Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps she has taken to support dairy farmers in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The UK dairy sector is highly resilient and adaptable and continues to supply healthy and affordable products, both capitalising on the opportunities and rising to the challenges it has faced in recent years.
Following a recent period of enhanced profitability for the UK sector, supply of dairy is currently exceeding demand on both our domestic and wider global markets. This is resulting in reductions to UK farmgate milk prices.
Ensuring fairness in supply chains is key for UK dairy farmers and supporting the sustainability of the sector. The Fair Dealing Obligations (Milk) Regulations 2024, which fully came into force on 9 July 2025, improve fairness and transparency, requiring dairy contracts to include clear terms on pricing, termination, and prohibiting unilateral changes. However, these regulations are not intended to set prices.
Asked by: Nick Timothy (Conservative - West Suffolk)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans she has to merge the Groceries Code Adjudicator and the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator as part of her Department's Farm Profitability Review.
Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The department is committed to an evidence-based approach to regulating the supply chain and to ensuring that producers and businesses are treated fairly. The statutory review of the effectiveness of the Groceries Code Adjudicator by the Department for Business and Trade is currently under way, and any future decisions will be informed by its findings.
The Government is carefully considering all of the recommendations made in the independent Farming Profitability Review, including those relating to the roles and governance arrangements of the Groceries Code Adjudicator and the Agricultural Supply Chain Adjudicator. A Government response to the review will be set out as part of the Farming Roadmap.