Written questions by Lavery.

Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment her Department has made of the UK’s overall level of food self‑sufficiency, and what steps are being taken to increase domestic production of key staples.

UK self-sufficiency has remained broadly stable for several decades. In 2024, the UK was 65% self-sufficient for all food; 77% for food that can be produced here. In most scenarios, strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes ensures a supply of food is maintained and can withstand disruptive events. The picture is nuanced, and moving to a higher level of self-sufficiency does not automatically make the UK more food secure. In December 2025, the Secretary of State announced the Farming & Food Partnership Board in response to the independent Farming Profitability Review led by Baroness Minette Batters. The Board will bring together farming, food, retail, finance and Government to take a strategic farm‑to‑fork approach to improving farming profitability and strengthening UK food production. It will oversee sector plans aimed at boosting productivity, reducing costs and opening new markets in ways that support health and environmental goals.

Food and Rural Affairs, what steps she is taking to support controlled‑environment agriculture, regenerative farming and other sustainable methods.

The Government has allocated a record £11.8bn to sustainable farming and food production over this parliament. Defra is targeting public money where it delivers most value, supporting farmers and land managers to help restore nature and boost farm productivity. Support includes the Sustainable Farming Incentive offer for 2026, which will be more focussed, more transparent and fairer, so that as many farmers as possible can benefit from agreements. It will open in two windows, the initial window from June 2026 being for small farms and farms without existing Environmental Land Management revenue agreements. Defra will reopen the Capital Grants offer in July. This new round will make £225 million available to farmers to buy equipment or services that help them make farming and environmental improvements across England. Defra has also announced £120 million will be available in farming grants for 2026 to boost productivity and innovation across the agricultural sector.

Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing food mile targets in food networks.

An assessment of the potential merits of food mile targets has not been made. The Good Food Cycle highlighted the importance of strong and resilient local food systems. It is important to note that ‘food miles’ alone are not a reliable measure of a product’s total environmental impact. For most foods, the production stage represents the largest share of emissions rather than transport. Through the Food Data Transparency Partnership, the Government is working to improve the consistency, accuracy and accessibility of environmental impact data across the food sector. This includes the standardisation of scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions reporting, covering emissions generated across supply chains, including those associated with transport. The Government is also working to strengthen local food systems and support integration of local business into supply chains, particularly for public procurement.

What steps are being taken to develop domestic processing and recycling of critical minerals.

The Government’s 2025 Critical Minerals Strategy sets out clear steps to expand domestic processing and recycling. We are harnessing UK strengths in midstream processing and advanced recycling, supported by strong research institutions and government-backed financing such as DRIVE35, the National Wealth Fund and UK Export Finance.The Strategy also includes an ambition for 20% of UK demand to be met through recycling by 2035. Government intends to publish the Circular Economy Growth Plan soon to further strengthen circularity and recovery.New funding of up to £50 million will be made available later this year to support critical mineral projects, including projects in midstream processing and recycling. Further detail will be announced later this year.

What assessment his Department has made of UK energy resilience to disruption to global gas or electricity markets.

The UK benefits from a strong and diverse security of supply and we continue to monitor the situation in the Middle East closely. The Government works with Ofgem, the National Energy System Operator and the Gas and Electricity System Operators to monitor the energy supply horizon and ensure industry continues to have the tools required to manage supply and demand. The Government is strengthening energy security by reducing dependency on volatile global fossil fuel markets and delivering a diverse, secure and clean energy system based on renewables and nuclear, backed up by unabated gas to be used only when essential.

What analysis his Department has undertaken of the UK’s level of reliance on imported critical minerals essential for battery production, semiconductors and renewable energy technologies.

The 2025 Critical Minerals Strategy sets out the UK’s vision for securing the critical minerals that are essential for our advanced manufacturing, clean energy, defence, and digital and technology sectors. In 2025, the UK imported £13.4 billion of critical minerals and their derivatives from the rest of the world. The Department is assessing the UK’s reliance on other countries, and working with international partners and industry to address this.

What steps he is taking to support (a) SMEs and (b) strategic industries in the context of reducing dependence on global supply chains.

We are establishing a new Supply Chain Centre within the Department for Business and Trade which will lead the government's efforts to strengthen the resilience of supply chains critical to the UK's security and prosperity. The Supply Chain Centre will collaborate with industry to ensure the UK is prepared for future disruptions.The Department has also brought its SME support into the Business Growth Service, providing UK businesses with the tools they need to start, scale and compete globally through business.gov.uk.Our Industrial Strategy focuses on boosting investment, driving economic growth and supporting high quality jobs, while enhancing economic security through stronger capability, diversified suppliers and strategic international partnerships.

What assessment he has made of the UK’s preparedness for medicine shortages caused by future pandemics or international disruptions.

The resilience of United Kingdom supply chains is a key priority, and the Department and NHS England are committed to helping to build long term supply chain resilience for medicines. We are continually learning and seeking to improve the way we work to both manage and help prevent supply issues and avoid shortages.The Department, working closely with NHS England, is taking forward a range of actions to further improve our ability to mitigate and manage shortages and strengthen our resilience. As part of that work, we continue to engage with industry, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, and other colleagues across the supply chain as we progress work to co-design and deliver solutions. However, medicine shortages are a complex and global issue and everyone in the supply chain has a role to play in addressing them, and any action will require a collaborative approach.The Department also undertakes significant proactive risk evaluation to assess readiness against threats that could lead to potential disruption of medical supply chains. As part of this, the Department has participated in and led on a number of preparedness exercises, spanning across nationwide loss of power, cyber-attacks, and global pandemics, to test and improve our ability to respond to supply disruption.In early August, the Department published a policy paper, Managing a robust and resilience supply of medicines, which provides greater transparency of the supply chains we rely on, the actions we take to protect patients from medicines shortages when they occur, and the steps we are taking to enhance resilience in our supply chains. This paper is available at the following link:https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/managing-a-robust-and-resilient-supply-of-medicines/managing-a-robust-and-resilient-supply-of-medicines

What plans his Department has to accelerate domestic renewable generation, including offshore wind, tidal energy, green hydrogen and geothermal.

Accelerating renewable generation is one of this Government’s missions and that’s why we published the Clean Power Action Plan. There are a range of interventions this Government made since coming to power, including lifting the onshore wind ban in England and the significant progress already made to deliver a solar rooftop revolution. The Contracts for Difference (CfD) mechanism is one of our main levers to intervene and in Allocation Round 7, we secured a record 14.7GW of renewable capacity, including 8.4GW of offshore wind, and four new tidal stream projects totalling 20.9MW. We look forward to more capacity being released under future CfDs. We are supporting 10 green hydrogen projects across England, Scotland and Wales through the first Hydrogen Allocation Round. The Government recognises the renewable resource that the UK has for geothermal energy and is pleased to see innovation in both heat and power applications.

What steps he is taking to help increase domestic manufacturing capacity in (a) grid components, (b) pharmaceuticals, (c) advanced materials and (d) other essential sectors.

Last year this government published our 10-year Modern Industrial Strategy, setting out our long-term approach to strengthening domestic capability across strategically important sectors. Alongside it we published several sector plans. The Advanced Manufacturing Sector Plan, sets out our support for six ‘frontier’ manufacturing industries, including advanced materials. It also outlines cross-cutting measures aimed at boosting manufacturing overall, including for component manufacturers and foundational industries.The Life Sciences Sector Plan sets out support for the pharmaceuticals industry, while the Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan shares our priorities for the UK’s clean energy economy, including how we’re tackling and improving grid connections.

What proportion of NHS medicines and medical devices depend on overseas supply chains, and what action is being taken to strengthen domestic manufacturing capacity.

Given the complexity and global nature of medical supply chains, the Department does not collect definitive data on the proportions of products dependent on overseas supply chains. Many products rely on components sourced from overseas. For example many active pharmaceutical ingredients, the biologically active components that produce the intended therapeutic effect in medicines, have a license for manufacturing in India, Germany, China, Italy and the United States of America, and many of our finished medicine products have a license for manufacturing in India, and Germany, as per Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency licensing data in 2022. The Government is taking forward a package of measures to strengthen domestic life sciences manufacturing capacity and reduce reliance on overseas supply chains. This includes committing up to £520 million through the Life Sciences Innovation Manufacturing Fund to support capital investment in United Kingdom based manufacturing of human medicines, medical diagnostics, and medical technologies. Alongside this, the Life Sciences Transformational Research and Development Investment Fund supports large‑scale, innovative research and development projects that create new or expanded research and development capabilities and strengthen the UK’s research base. This sits alongside the Life Sciences Sector Plan, a ten‑year mission led jointly by the Department of Health and Social Care and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, which includes action to improve National Health Service innovation and adoption, clearer procurement routes into the NHS, reformed incentives to support innovation, and faster regulatory approval for new medicines and technologies. These measures are reinforced through the Government’s Industrial Strategy, which identifies life sciences as a priority growth sector and focuses on creating a pro‑business environment that supports investment and strengthens UK manufacturing capability.

Whether he plans to publish an updated National Resilience Strategy covering food, energy, health, critical minerals and supply chain vulnerabilities.

The Government published the Resilience Action Plan on 8 July 2025 to set out its resilience strategy. It set out three core objectives to improve the UK’s resilience to the full range of risks we face: (1) continually assess how resilient the UK is in order to target interventions and resources; (2) enable the whole of society to take action to improve their resilience; and (3) strengthen the core public resilience system. These objectives inform a series of activities to deliver greater resilience across the whole of society. Designated Lead Government Departments are responsible for leading work to identify risks within their sectors and ensuring that planning, response and recovery arrangements are in place.

What lessons his Department has learned about the impact of recent global conflicts and pandemics on UK strategic autonomy.

The UK National Security Strategy is clear that we need to increase our preparations for potential threats, from future pandemics to energy and supply chain disruption. The UK's alliances and partnerships are critical to our safety and our collective security is a source of significant strength. But it must be delivered in the right way, mitigating against areas of over-dependence and moving instead towards interdependence.We are embedding lessons from COVID-19, including those of the COVID-19 Inquiry. The largest ever national pandemic response exercise was conducted last year, testing coordination efforts across all regions and nations of the UK and we published the new Pandemic Preparedness Strategy in March 2026, alongside £1 billion of investment in health protection.

Whether he plans to update national resilience standards for (a) transport, (b) water, (c) energy and (d) digital infrastructure.

Responsibility for updating standards for individual infrastructure sectors sits with the Lead Government Departments for those sectors. In the 2025 Resilience Action Plan, the Cabinet Office committed to mapping the standards that apply to Critical National Infrastructure sectors, which includes transport, water, energy and some aspects of digital infrastructure. This work is ongoing. Cabinet Office will work with relevant departments as they identify and address any gaps in resilience standards that emerge from that mapping.

Communities and Local Government, if he will set out what support his Department and Cabinet colleagues makes available to local authorities to develop community energy schemes, local food production and emergency preparedness plans.

In the recently published Local Power Plan, Government recognises that limited capacity and capability are major barriers for local government to participate in small-scale energy projects. Backed by up to £1 billion and working in partnership with local government, Great British Energy (GBE) has committed to support at least 1000 local and community energy projects by 2030. The Good Food Cycle recognises the key role that regional and local food systems can play in supporting delivery of the growth, health, sustainability, and food security/ resilience outcomes of the Good Food Cycle. We know the best solutions often come from the ground up. That is why the Good Food Cycle sets the ambition to use local community initiatives to harness a stronger food culture to support our health, sustainability and resilience outcomes. Improving the food environment will support healthier and more environmentally sustainable food sales, and access to all for safe, affordable, healthy, convenient, and appealing food options. Defra is developing a programme of work to support local, hyper-local and community-based interventions around access to healthy and affordable food in priority locations. MHCLG and CO run a local capabilities assessment programme which assesses emergency preparedness planning for specific response capabilities across the 38 Local Resilience Forums (LRFs). This work helps inform national government on local preparedness gaps and identify actionable areas for improvement. The Civil Contingencies Act (2004) places a duty on all local authorities to cooperate with other agencies (e.g. police, fire & rescue, health), operating as a Local Resilience Forum, to prepare and maintain plans for the key risks facing their area. In addition, local authorities are expected to have business continuity plans that will assist them to continue to operate when emergencies impact them directly.

Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of climate‑driven global crop failures, droughts and energy system strain on UK national security.

On 20 January, the Government published the Nature Security Assessment, which found that severe degradation or collapse of critical global ecosystems would be highly likely to result in impacts such as water insecurity and reduced crop yields. These findings inform cross-government resilience and national security planning, helping the UK anticipate and manage systemic risks arising from climate and nature loss. The UK Food Security Report 2024 similarly sets out that, while UK production and trade remain stable, climate change, nature loss and water pressures pose increasing risks to long-term food system resilience. These assessments sit alongside the Government’s five-yearly Climate Change Risk Assessment, most recently published in 2022, which considered risks to both the food and energy sectors. Maintaining secure and resilient food and energy systems is a core Government priority, supported by the UK National Adaptation Programme, which provides the framework for identifying and addressing climate change impacts across critical sectors.

What estimate he has made of the number of patients who have experienced disruption to repeat prescriptions as a result of postal delays.

The Department does not collect data on the number of patients who have experienced a delay in receiving a prescription.Pharmacy contractors in England are required by the NHS Terms of Service to dispense medicines and appliances ordered on National Health Service prescriptions with reasonable promptness. Reasonable promptness is not defined by a fixed number of days or hours but requires pharmacies to consider clinical needs of a patient and what is operationally feasible. Where a delivery company is involved as a third party, it remains the responsibility of the NHS pharmacy contractor to ensure they continue meeting their NHS Terms of Service.

What steps he is taking to mitigate patient safety risks arising from delayed delivery of NHS clinical correspondence through the postal system.

The Government recognises the importance of timely delivery of National Health Service clinical correspondence and the risks to patient safety because of delayed or lost correspondence.The monitoring of patient correspondence is the responsibility of individual NHS providers and integrated care boards (ICBs).Recognising the need to embrace digital solutions, as outlined in the 10-Year Health Plan, the NHS is transitioning to a digital-first model for patient communications, with the NHS App becoming the primary channel for messaging. This will improve accessibility, efficiency, and overall patient experience. The 10-Year Health Plan is available at the following link:https://www.england.nhs.uk/long-term-plan/#In the last year, over 88 million messages were read in the NHS App. By the end of March 2026, NHS England are aiming to send over 270 million messages digitally-first via the NHS App.Digital-first does not mean digital-only. Letters will continue to be sent to patients who need them. All providers of NHS funded care or adult social care must have regard to the accessible information standard. It means they should ensure that disabled people and people with impairments or sensory loss can access and understand information about NHS and social care services, and receive the communication support they need to use those services.

What assessment he has made of the potential impact of postal delays on patients who rely on written communication from the NHS, including (a) older people, (b) disabled people and (c) patients without access to digital services.

No assessment has been made of the potential impact of postal delays on patients who rely on written communication from the National Health Service, including older people, disabled people, and patients without access to digital services.The NHS is shifting patient communications to a digital‑first model, with the NHS App becoming the primary channel for patient messaging. This modernised approach aims to reach patients quickly and conveniently, putting messages in a single place, and helping to reduce reliance on traditional posted letters.However, the digital‑first model does not mean digital‑only, as accessible formats like braille, easy read, and traditional letters will continue where appropriate to meet individual patient needs. Where patients are to continue receiving written communication, it remains important that these are received in a timely manner.

What guidance he has issued to (a) NHS trusts and (b) GP practices on the use of alternative communication methods in areas affected by Royal Mail delays; and what assessment he has made of its effectiveness.

The monitoring of National Health Service patient correspondence, including appointment letters, is the responsibility of individual NHS providers. Data is not held centrally on the reasons why an appointment is registered as a ‘did not attend’. This includes whether appointments have been missed specifically because a letter has not been received by the patient. Data is also not held on the number of patient samples sent via Royal Mail that have been rendered unusable due to late arrival at laboratories in each of the last five years. Therefore, no estimate has been made of the number of NHS appointments missed as a result of delays in the delivery of appointment letters by Royal Mail in the last 12 months, nor of the cost of repeat appointments, sample kits, and additional clinical activity caused by postal delays. No assessment has been made of the potential impact of routine cases becoming urgent as a result of appointment letters being delayed in the post. No assessment has been made of the potential impact of postal delays on the timely delivery of referral letters between primary and secondary care. No guidance has been issued to NHS trusts and general practices on the use of alternative communication methods in areas affected by Royal Mail delays.The Government’s focus on shifting from ‘analogue to digital’ will streamline information and communication processes, including by improving the NHS App. This will make it easier and quicker for patients to access information about their appointments, to cancel and reschedule appointments and to receive correspondence on NHS test results. 96% of acute trusts in England now allow patients to view appointment information via the NHS App if they wish, reducing reliance on physical letters. Usage has increased significantly, with the App now supporting approximately eight million patient–trust interactions per month, an increase of 82% compared to a year ago. It also saves staff time to focus on providing high quality, non-digital communication for those who want and need it.