PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Agriculture: Public Consultation (18 April 2017)

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Building a Great Future regional stakeholder events for Food, Farming and Fisheries announced by her Department on 6 April 2017, whether the events constitute an official public consultation conducted in line with government guidelines; which stakeholders the events are aimed at; how her Department is publicising the events; and what steps she is taking to ensure a broad range of views are represented.

Asked by:
Kerry McCarthy (Labour)

The 'Building a Great Future' events would have formed part of an extensive stakeholder engagement process to help inform future policy options on food, farming and fisheries. We have aimed to ensure that as many stakeholders as practicable had access to these events. A general election has now been called by the Prime Minister and in accordance with Cabinet Office guidance governing the pre-election period we are pausing our stakeholder engagement on future policy until after the election. These events have therefore been postponed.

They would not have constituted a formal consultation under Cabinet Office guidelines. Formal consultations on policy options will follow in due course.

Answered by:
George Eustice (Conservative)
24 April 2017