Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 8
Eighth Report - Seafood and meat exports to the EU
Published 29 Apr 2021
Paragraph 41
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Seafood and Meat Exports to the EU All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
While the Seafood Disruption Support Scheme helped to compensate some SME seafood businesses for the teething problems they faced in January, it did not offer compensation to businesses who had incurred costs preparing for the new trading environment with the EU. The arbitrary £100,000 cap on claims also meant that some larger businesses are still faced with losses. We welcome the Seafood Response Fund as a better way of supporting seafood exporters with the initial costs incurred from adjusting to the new trading regime. Both schemes demonstrate Defra’s commendable engagement with the seafood sector. The Government should take a flexible stance on the size of the £23 million funding envelope, and the cap on individual payments, once it has analysed the applications received in order to ensure that seafood exporters receive the necessary support to overcome the teething issues 32 Seafood and meat exports to the EU from the new trading arrangements with the EU. Defra should create similar schemes to support meat exporters during the initial period of the new trading arrangements with the EU.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Eighth Report - Seafood and meat exports to the EU (HC 1189), paragraph 41, 29 April 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 12 July 2021 (deadline 29 June 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Government states that it is "fully committed to supporting meat and seafood exports", but declines or has "no plans" on several recommendations, including a public certification service and extending the Movement Assistance Scheme to EU exports.
- On the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, it says the SPS chapter puts in place a framework to reduce SPS controls, and that frictionless trade "would require regulatory alignment with the EU", which it says would undermine regulatory autonomy.
- On certification, it says it has "no plans" to change the commercial Official Veterinarian market. Rather than publishing a comparative report, it is engaging with other countries. It has no current plans to ask the RCVS to admit vets to the temporary register for export health certification roles, but will "monitor the situation".
- On support schemes, it does "not consider support schemes for meat exporters are needed" on current market conditions, but says this "will be kept under regular review". It has "no plans to extend the MAS scheme" to exports to the EU or non-EU countries.
- It sets out phased import controls from October 2021, with physical checks at Border Control Posts from January 2022 and further checks from March 2022. Defra "will continue to report to the Committee" on progress.