No such assessment has been made.

A new national procurement policy statement has been published which sets expectations for government contracts to favour products certified to high environmental standards that British producers are well-placed to meet.

The NHS Eatwell Guide recognises the valuable contribution of plant-based foods and drinks, illustrating that both plant-based products and animal-based products can be part of a healthy balanced diet.

This Government is open to considering all lawful means of achieving its ambition that half of all food purchased across the public sector should be locally produced or certified to higher environmental standards.

A new national procurement policy statement has been published which sets expectations for government contracts to favour products certified to high environmental standards that British producers are well-placed to meet.

Data collection on the extent to which public sector settings are serving food from local sustainable sources is currently underway. The department expect the work to be completed by Summer 2027.

Defra is considering the policy options available to deliver further on its ambitions for public sector food, including potentially updating the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services.

Ministers from all four nations discuss food system issues through the Inter-Ministerial Group for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. In addition, officials have regular engagement on a wide range of food security and resilience issues.

Defra liaised with the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition regarding nutrition and emergency planning in 2024, resulting in an item at the committee’s 20 June 2024 meeting. Defra has continued to be in contact with the Department of Health and Social Care and the Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition in following years to enable consideration of infant feeding and nutrition to support planning for food supply disruptions.

I will of course raise the points made by my noble friend and the noble Lord, Lord Patel, about funding for universities. But, as I mentioned, it is worth saying more broadly that the life sciences sector leads the drive for investment into the UK economy. For example, the sector raised the third-highest amount of equity finance in 2023 among comparator countries, leaving us behind only the United States and China. That gives some idea of the status and the activity in the UK, and I am glad that we continue to build on it.

There is no international consensus on the legal basis of the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, and no agreement on either the definition of the right or its scope. The UK supported United Nations General Assembly Resolution 76/300 on the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, accompanied by an explanation of vote which referred to this lack of consensus. This Government has no current plans to introduce legislation on the right but is monitoring discussions exploring a new instrument at the international level to enshrine the right, including at the Council of Europe. Officials have previously raised this with the Devolved Governments and will consult with them ahead of any formal international negotiations.

NHS Supply Chain has worked closely with the Department to support the implementation of its value based procurement (VBP) guidance. Within the Total Cardiology and Vascular Solutions Framework, the Department’s methodology has been piloted on a national procurement and integrated into the non-financial evaluation criteria, with appropriate adaptations made to reflect the specific clinical and operational requirements of the specialty. Value-based assessment criteria and associated non-financial questions have been included where supplier claims can be objectively assessed ensuring a fair, transparent, and equitable evaluation process.

Extensive pre-market engagement was undertaken between March 2025 and September 2025, providing suppliers, customers, clinical associations, and professional bodies with the opportunity to share insights, feedback, and observations on the proposed procurement strategy and overall approach. Communication has been conducted in forms such as team meetings, face to face meetings, and email exchanges with all stakeholders, including clinicians. Draft versions of the VBP questions were circulated during this period to support supplier readiness and to enable meaningful challenge and feedback in advance of tender publication. NHS Supply Chain clinical and category teams engaged extensively with key clinical stakeholder groups, including members of the British Heart Rhythm Society, members of the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, and NHS England Device Working Groups, to inform the development and refinement of the VBP criteria. The final questions focus on areas where value can be clearly evidenced, including clinical outcomes, innovation, sustainability, social value, and whole-system costs and efficiencies.

While the NHS Supply Chain has successfully incorporated VBP principles into the cardiology and vascular framework evaluation, a key challenge remains the limited availability of standardised Patient Reported Outcome Measures, clinical registries, and other robust outcome datasets to enable consistent and comparable assessment of supplier value claims. Consequently, VBP evaluation has been focused on evidence that can be objectively assessed at the tender stage, with a clear commitment to further validate and measure value throughout the lifetime of the framework as more comprehensive clinical, operational, and patient outcome data becomes available. This approach balances fairness and transparency in procurement with the longer-term ambition of embedding a mature, evidence-based value assessment model across the specialty.

NHS Supply Chain has worked closely with the Department to support the implementation of its value based procurement (VBP) guidance. Within the Total Cardiology and Vascular Solutions Framework, the Department’s methodology has been piloted on a national procurement and integrated into the non-financial evaluation criteria, with appropriate adaptations made to reflect the specific clinical and operational requirements of the specialty. Value-based assessment criteria and associated non-financial questions have been included where supplier claims can be objectively assessed ensuring a fair, transparent, and equitable evaluation process.

Extensive pre-market engagement was undertaken between March 2025 and September 2025, providing suppliers, customers, clinical associations, and professional bodies with the opportunity to share insights, feedback, and observations on the proposed procurement strategy and overall approach. Communication has been conducted in forms such as team meetings, face to face meetings, and email exchanges with all stakeholders, including clinicians. Draft versions of the VBP questions were circulated during this period to support supplier readiness and to enable meaningful challenge and feedback in advance of tender publication. NHS Supply Chain clinical and category teams engaged extensively with key clinical stakeholder groups, including members of the British Heart Rhythm Society, members of the British Cardiovascular Intervention Society, and NHS England Device Working Groups, to inform the development and refinement of the VBP criteria. The final questions focus on areas where value can be clearly evidenced, including clinical outcomes, innovation, sustainability, social value, and whole-system costs and efficiencies.

While the NHS Supply Chain has successfully incorporated VBP principles into the cardiology and vascular framework evaluation, a key challenge remains the limited availability of standardised Patient Reported Outcome Measures, clinical registries, and other robust outcome datasets to enable consistent and comparable assessment of supplier value claims. Consequently, VBP evaluation has been focused on evidence that can be objectively assessed at the tender stage, with a clear commitment to further validate and measure value throughout the lifetime of the framework as more comprehensive clinical, operational, and patient outcome data becomes available. This approach balances fairness and transparency in procurement with the longer-term ambition of embedding a mature, evidence-based value assessment model across the specialty.

The Government keeps the funding and wider arrangements that support the resilience and preparedness of health supply chains, including blood supplies, under review.

Through implementation of Value-Based Procurement (VBP), the Department and NHS England are prioritising resilience in future purchasing decisions. VBP enables consideration of a broader range of factors than upfront cost alone, including patient outcomes, workforce benefits, efficiency, and supply chain considerations.

Alongside this, the Government has committed up to £520 million through the Life Sciences Innovative Manufacturing Fund to support investment in the manufacture of medicines, medical diagnostics, and medical technologies in the United Kingdom. The fund is intended to strengthen domestic manufacturing capability and support wider private investment in UK life sciences manufacturing.

Specifically on blood stocks, NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) is responsible for the blood service in England, working closely with the Department to review the criticality and resilience of blood services. NHSBT is taking forward a Blood Supply Chain and Conflict Preparedness Programme to strengthen resilience during routine operations and incidents, including mass casualty events, cyber-attacks, power outages, and conflict scenarios. The Joint Blood Stocks Working Group, jointly chaired by the Department and NHSBT, is also considering measures to support longer-term blood supply resilience. It is due to report in autumn 2026.

More broadly, the Government actively monitors emerging threats to supply resilience and has established shortage management procedures in place to help mitigate patient impact. These include buffer stocks, sourcing alternative products, and use of the Express Freight Service, a global logistics contingency to transport goods in a critical supply disruption.

Defence Medical Command (DMedC) has completed a detailed assessment of the requirement for blood to support military operations across a range of scenarios, including warfighting at scale. This work supports the ongoing strategic partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to assess and strengthen the resilience of the UK's blood supply in support of national defence planning. Further, the UK is leading work within NATO to improve how blood and blood products are collected, stored, and shared among NATO allies.

DMedC and NHSBT have signed a strategic partnership which will help innovate battlefield transfusion in an era of drone warfare. The joint research will drive research, improve urgent transfusion care in complex environments, and have dual use capability, which improve both military and civilian healthcare. This partnership underpins our commitment to providing the very best medical support to our people, wherever they serve.

The Defence Investment Plan has set out £20 million investment in battlefield blood products with £10 million for dried blood products, supporting the Blood Far Forward programme which enables life-saving blood transfusion care closer to the battlefield by reducing reliance on refrigeration, and £10 million for Tranexamic Acid (TXA) autoinjectors, which allows blood-clotting medication to be administered rapidly on the battlefield improving survival from severe blood loss.

Defence Medical Command (DMedC) has completed a detailed assessment of the requirement for blood to support military operations across a range of scenarios, including warfighting at scale. This work supports the ongoing strategic partnership with NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) and the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) to assess and strengthen the resilience of the UK's blood supply in support of national defence planning. Further, the UK is leading work within NATO to improve how blood and blood products are collected, stored, and shared among NATO allies.

DMedC and NHSBT have signed a strategic partnership which will help innovate battlefield transfusion in an era of drone warfare. The joint research will drive research, improve urgent transfusion care in complex environments, and have dual use capability, which improve both military and civilian healthcare. This partnership underpins our commitment to providing the very best medical support to our people, wherever they serve.

The Defence Investment Plan has set out £20 million investment in battlefield blood products with £10 million for dried blood products, supporting the Blood Far Forward programme which enables life-saving blood transfusion care closer to the battlefield by reducing reliance on refrigeration, and £10 million for Tranexamic Acid (TXA) autoinjectors, which allows blood-clotting medication to be administered rapidly on the battlefield improving survival from severe blood loss.

This Government is committed to the effective implementation of all of its international obligations, including those under the Aarhus Convention. The UK continues to carefully consider decisions taken by the Parties to the Convention concerning the UK.

Defra works closely with the devolved governments on issues relating to the Aarhus Convention.

The UK is not required to provide a plan of action to the Aarhus Convention Compliance Committee. As such, no deadline has been missed. We will continue to provide updates to the Committee on relevant developments. Updates from the UK are available on the UN website here.