How will a future Sanitary and Phytosanitary Agreement (SPS) deliver for the UK’s food, farming and environmental obligations?
The Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland command a wide remit across public health, agricultural, environmental and disease control aspects of food standards.
With the prospect of the SPS Agreement in the offing, MPs on the EFRA Committee are keen to understand how the two organisations manage their core functions across different governments and their respective departments. Some responsibilities currently sit with the Department for Health and Social Care as well as DEFRA.
One imminent challenge will be the forthcoming SPS Agreement, an agri-food deal which will establish a UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary Zone. Since the UK left the EU, the organisations have expanded to absorb new responsibilities. MPs will explore how the agencies are prepared and resourced to implement the outcomes of negotiations with the EU by the planned conclusion of 2027.
Meeting details
From November 2025, the agri-tech sector will be able to apply for authorisation to grow, sell and import precision-bred seeds, plants, food and feed. This is a way of changing the DNA of plants or animals in a precise way using techniques including gene-editing.
Although The Genetic Technology (Precision Breeding) Regulations 2025 set out the requirements of the new regulatory framework, the secondary legislation to implement the act for animals has not been laid. MPs will explore the development of draft guidance and understand the impact of this England-only legislation to the rest of the UK.
The Committee will press the food standards agencies on their responsibilities regarding illegal personal meat imports, following their recent reports on biosecurity at the border. The Government’s food strategy, published in July, will also be up for discussion.