Defra officials have defended the government’s record on food resilience, after MPs criticised the department’s preparedness for supply-side shocks.
In an often-combative evidence session on food supply resilience for a Commons Public Accounts Committee inquiry on Thursday, Defra permanent secretary Paul Kissack rejected claims by MPs that it was “massively behind the curve” on the issue and that it lacked sufficient plans for food supply disruption.
Citing a damning recent report by the National Audit Office, which criticised Defra for failing to keep pace with evolving global threats to food supply and its lack of engagement with industry, committee member Rupert Lowe MP said Kissack was “deluding” himself by claiming the department was “getting an enormous number of things right” on supply chain resilience.
Kissack had insisted, despite the NAO report’s criticism, that Defra’s oversight of the food system was “not broken”, but conceded there were “various things that I’d like to improve”.
He pointed to the establishment of the new Food Preparedness Group (FPG), which met for the first time earlier this month (and brings senior figures from across the food sector to draw up emergency plans to tackle the rising threat of cyber-attacks, climate change and geopolitical shocks) as a key example of Defra’s work on resilience and industry engagement.
Kissack additionally cited work on the government’s Good Food Cycle strategy, where work was underway to develop ten priority “outcomes” for a healthier, more affordable, sustainable, and resilient food system in England – which was due to be published early next year.
Defra’s most senior civil servant also addressed criticism from the NAO report over the department’s supply chain disruption ‘playbook’, by stressing it was an internal plan not intended for sharing with industry. Forums such as the FPG would instead form a clearer national framework that would run through various different scenarios.
On food production, Kissack faced more criticism over the rapid opening and closing of the latest Sustainable Farming Incentive window last month, which stopped taking applications after just six hours, leaving farmers “high and dry”, according to the NFU.
Both Lowe and committee chair Sir Geoffrey Clifton Brown slammed the running of the scheme, with Lowe calling the controversy a “charade” and a “buggers muddle”.
But in response, Kissack said the funding pot had been increased by 40% since the first window earlier this year.
And while acknowledging the swift closure of the SFI window had caused “huge levels of irritation, frustration, anger and stress”, he stressed “demand from farmers far exceeds the finite sum of money that we have to pay them”, adding “we need to work out what do we do in that scenario”.
Kissack also acknowledged gaps in local response planning for food supply shortages, particularly those on low incomes who would struggle to stockpile emergency supplies – as has been suggested by Defra secretary Angela Eagle.
Clifton-Brown concluded that there was “a lot of worry” over funding and supply disruption, while urging Defra to “recognise the despair in the farming industry, and do all it can to reassure farmers that there is a future”.
Thursday’s hearing followed an evidence session on Monday which saw British Retail Consortium corporate affairs director Jim Bligh call for a “mapping out exercise” to identify “where we have weaknesses and where we don’t”.
His comments were echoed by Food & Drink Federation director of sustainability Balwinder Dhoot, who told MPs the challenges faced by British farmers meant “food production is moving overseas”.
“There is volatility and costs that are out of government control. Wars, climate, third countries putting tariffs on. Then there’s things government can control,” Dhoot said.
The rising cost of energy and other inputs, plus packaging regulations were hitting both farmers and their customers, “which means they are less able to invest in farming”, he added.
“Food security resilience is about a partnership it needs government and industry to work together, both in terms of shocks but also building long term resilience of the system.”
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