The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, as demonstrated throughout the Covid-19 response. Our high degree of food security is built on supply from diverse sources; strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes. We produce 60% of all the food we need, and 74% of food which we can grow or rear in the UK for all or part of the year. Through international trade, UK consumers have access to food products that cannot be produced here, or at least not on a year-round basis. This supplements domestic production, and also ensures that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply.

This year, early season grass growth has generally been sufficient for good cutting and grazing, with some regional variation. Whilst growth in some areas is now being impacted by the hot dry conditions, this is not unusual at this point in the summer and livestock farmers have a range of options available to them when grass growth declines. Some farmers will need to supplement livestock diets with additional conserved forage or cereals based feeds, but good early silage cuts and the current strong prices for the dairy, beef and sheep sectors should help support this. Promising forage maize crops across the majority of the UK should further bolster winter forage stocks when the maize harvest commences in the coming months.

The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s first harvest report of the 2022/23 season reports that the dry weather has enabled farmers to make a good start on the winter barley and oilseed rape harvest, particularly in southern and eastern regions of England, and where possible on winter wheat. To overcome the high temperatures, farmers have been working late at night and early in the morning and grain cooling has been required. It is still too early to understand whether the hot weather has impacted yields or crop conditions.

Defra has well established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains.

We continue to keep the weather situation and any subsequent impact on grass growth and the arable harvest under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which Defra and the Devolved Administrations set up to monitor the UK market situation across all key agricultural commodities. We have also increased engagement with the industry to supplement Government analysis with real-time intelligence. This provides the Government with the best possible intelligence on how the sector is performing.

Defra provides a five-day air pollution forecast and health advice in the form of recommended actions that could be taken according to current air pollution levels. The annual 'Air Pollution in the UK' report provides information and assessment of significant periods of air pollution across the UK. The report covering the 2022 heatwave period and any associated air pollution episode will be published in September 2023.

Water companies have a statutory duty to provide a continuous supply of wholesome water. They are legally required to have robust plans in place to maintain the supply of water in a range of hazards, including heatwaves. Water companies use a range of measures to manage higher water demand expected during heatwaves and respond to any disruption. These measures include ensuring their networks are prepared, customer communications to help manage demand, re-routing of water via their networks, and the provision of alternative water supplies, for example via tanker deliveries. In the event of disruptions, water companies also maintain priority access registers, which vulnerable customers can register with for provision of bottled water.

We issued reminders to animal owners that it is their responsibility to have plans in place to ensure their animals' welfare in extreme weather. This included publishing content on protecting companion animals in hot weather, and direct messaging from the Chief Veterinary Officer and the Animal and Plant Health Agency focused on transporting livestock and horses. Comprehensive guidance is available online at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/keeping-farm-animals-and-horses-in-extreme-weather on protecting animals in hot weather, including advice on checking on animals more regularly, ensuring all animals have easy access to water on a daily basis, and not transporting animals in temperatures over 30 degrees.

The UK has a highly resilient food supply chain, built on supply from diverse sources including strong domestic production as well as imports through stable trade routes ensuring that any disruption from risks such as adverse weather or disease does not affect the UK's overall security of supply. Defra has well-established ways of working with the industry and across Government to monitor risks that may arise. We continue to keep the extreme weather situation under close review, including through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group, which Defra and the Devolved Administrations set up to monitor the UK market situation across all key agricultural commodities. We have also increased engagement with the industry to supplement Government analysis with real-time intelligence. This provides the Government with the best possible intelligence on how the sector is performing.

Given the health threat and the impacts observed in summer 2021, additional work has been taken forward by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and the Department of Health and Social Care to raise awareness of the health consequences of hot weather and enable professionals, organisations and individuals to plan, mitigate and respond to hot weather episodes effectively. These include:

• Updating the materials related to hot weather risks on the Heatwave Plan for England collection page. These provide sector specific guidance on actions to take during a heatwave to safeguard patients and service users.
• Publishing the 2022 Heatwave communications toolkit and social media assets which have been shared with UKHSA regional communications, cross-government partners and local government to support consistent and clear messaging on heat-health.
• Holding a Heatwave and Summer Preparedness Stakeholder event in April 2022 to around 1000 participants across the health and social care sector and other Government departments to allow them to take early mitigating action.
• The Extreme Heat National Severe Weather Warning Service (NSWWS) warnings, operated by the Met Office, are intended to warn the public and emergency responders and include the impacts of severe heat outside of the health sector. An Extreme Heat NSWWS will only be issued should a severe or prolonged hot weather episode be forecast.
• Ensuring all Local Resilience Forums have the guidance, sector specific action sheets and related resources from the Heatwave Plan for England before summer to allow time for incorporation into their wider planning for summer 2022.
• UKHSA weekly situational awareness meetings with the Met Office feeding into the cross-government Summer Resilience Network, chaired by the Cabinet Office to ensure awareness and a wider system response across the Government.

Climate change and exposure to air pollution, caused through the effects of desertification, excessive deforestation, poor public waste management and bush burning, are major health risks for the population of Nigeria. Within this context, a robust and sustainable health system is crucial to provide access to essential healthcare, including lifesaving maternal and child health services.

As part of our Presidency of COP26, the UK developed and is delivering the COP26 Health Programme, which aims to enable transformational change in health systems globally that protects both people and the planet. Under this programme, Nigeria made an ambitious commitment to build a climate-resilient and low-carbon sustainable health system. This includes a plan to achieve net carbon zero and to minimise human exposure to air pollution by 2035. Through our core voluntary contribution to the World Health Organization and The Global Fund, the UK is now supporting Nigeria's Ministry of Health to design and develop a climate resilient health strategy that includes management of medical waste and use of renewable energy at primary health care facilities for maternal and newborn services.

Officials from the Welsh Government were first engaged by their counterparts in the Cabinet Office and the Met Office with respect to the possible severity of the current heatwave on 7 July 2022.

The First Minister for Wales was directly engaged by Cabinet Office Ministers on 14 July 2022.