I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

I refer the Hon Member to the press release cited in his sixteen questions, and to the Darwin Initiative website, which provides further information on the project. This includes its costs and outcomes, and explains why the UK has been funding projects such as this under successive governments since 1993.

Products placed on the UK market must comply with all relevant regulatory requirements, including UKCA marking where applicable. Product safety compliance and enforcement activity is undertaken by market surveillance and enforcement authorities on a proportionate, risk-based and intelligence-led basis.

The Department has not undertaken a vending machine-specific assessment of the adequacy or frequency of such checks, nor made an estimate of the number of non-compliant (a) vending and (b) professional coffee machines entering the United Kingdom.

The Government has a commitment to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16 years old. We ran a 12-week consultation on our proposals for the ban from 3 September 2025 to 26 November 2025. This included proposals on:

- the minimum age of sale for high-caffeine energy drinks;

- the products and businesses in scope of the ban;

- how the ban will apply in vending machines;

- the length of time that businesses and enforcement authorities need to implement the ban; and

- how the ban would be enforced.

We are now carefully considering the consultation responses. We will publish the Government response in due course, setting out the consultation outcome and next steps.

The accompanying impact assessment published on 3 September 2025 estimates the impact of our proposals. The Department engaged with relevant stakeholders, including representatives for the vending sector and enforcement, to inform this. If additional information or evidence provided through the consultation or published online becomes available, we will update our final impact assessment.

HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is responsible for the collection and publication of data on imports and exports of goods to and from the UK. HMRC releases imports and exports information monthly, as an Accredited Official Statistic called the Overseas Trade in Goods Statistics (OTS), which is available via their dedicated website (www.uktradeinfo.com).

From this website, it is possible to build your own data tables based upon bespoke search criteria. To use the tables, you will need the commodity codes for coffee, fish and fish products. These codes are publicly available from the UK Trade Tariff at https://www.gov.uk/trade-tariff. Coffee is classified to Chapter 09 of the Tariff, fish are classified to Chapter 03 and fish products are classified within Chapter 16.

The data on the website will, within limitations, tell you the total value of imports and exports of these products into and out of the UK. It includes the value and weight (kg) of imports and exports. However, it will not identify individual items as this could identify individual importers or exporters. This would be in conflict with Section 18 of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act 2005 (CRCA). CRCA restricts the information that HMRC may disclose publicly on persons making imports and exports.

It will not be possible to distinguish imports and exports specifically from or to Saint Helena because for trade statistics purposes the territory of “St Helena” includes imports from and exports to Saint Helena, Tristan da Cunha and other islands in this area.

If you need help or support in constructing a table from the data on uktradeinfo, please contact uktradeinfo@hmrc.gov.uk.

Engagement continues with trade associations and businesses on the need for further progress, beyond what has already been made, to reduce the sugar content of iced coffee products.

As these products are excluded from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL), guidelines to reduce the sugar content of milk based drinks, including iced coffee products, by 20% by 2021 form part of the voluntary sugar reduction programme. Progress to date shows that sugar and calories in pre-packed milk based drinks sold through retail have reduced by 29.7% and 20%, respectively. Pre-packed milk substitute drinks have reduced sugar and calories by 6.9% and 8%, respectively.

A further report detailing progress on sugar reductions in these products, between 2017 and 2021, is due in 2024. This data will enable HM Treasury to consider whether to take these drinks into the levy, which it committed to when the SDIL came in to force in 2018.

All fresh coffee served is Fairtrade certified.

100% of our tea is certified under the Ethical Tea Partnership (ETP) scheme. For black tea and by value, 85% of the tea we purchase carries Fairtrade accreditation. The remainder is either Rainforest Alliance or UTZ certified.

The Climate Change Committee’s Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk, published in 2021, offers a detailed and up to date insight into the growing risks and opportunities the UK faces from climate change, including risks to food supply chains. This informed our third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3), which was laid in Parliament in January 2022.

Defra is working to develop a third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) that addresses all 61 risks and opportunities identified in CCRA3. This is due for publication in the summer of 2023. For the first time, the NAP3 will include dedicated responses to the 10 climate risks and opportunities facing the UK from climate impacts overseas, including risks to UK food availability, safety, and quality from climate change overseas.

The risks to food production from climate change are particularly high for crops with few varieties, such as arabica coffee. The UK Government has signed the 2022 International Coffee Agreement which champions the global coffee industry, and the UK will help continue its drive for new standards of sustainability for our coffee. This agreement addresses, where appropriate through research, the challenges facing the global coffee sector, including climate change.

The Climate Change Committee’s Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk, published in 2021, offers a detailed and up to date insight into the growing risks and opportunities the UK faces from climate change, including risks to food supply chains. This informed our third UK Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA3), which was laid in Parliament in January 2022.

Defra is working to develop a third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) that addresses all 61 risks and opportunities identified in CCRA3. This is due for publication in the summer of 2023. For the first time, the NAP3 will include dedicated responses to the 10 climate risks and opportunities facing the UK from climate impacts overseas, including risks to UK food availability, safety, and quality from climate change overseas.

The risks to food production from climate change are particularly high for crops with few varieties, such as arabica coffee. The UK Government has signed the 2022 International Coffee Agreement which champions the global coffee industry, and the UK will help continue its drive for new standards of sustainability for our coffee. This agreement addresses, where appropriate through research, the challenges facing the global coffee sector, including climate change.

The UK is delivering programmes to help farmers in the most climate vulnerable countries adapt and build resilience to climate change. For example, the UK-funded Partnerships for Forests programme supports coffee farmers in East Africa to adopt sustainable, climate-resilient practices beneficial for people, climate and nature. The Commercial Agriculture for Smallholder and Agribusiness (CASA) programme enables some 15,000 smallholder farmers in Tanzania to access markets for sustainably grown coffee. With UK support, the global agriculture research organisation CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) is developing technologies and tools to help farmers deal with climate change impacts on coffee. The UK's Just Rural Transition programme helps developing countries to take policy measures designed to enable farmers and rural communities to adopt sustainable agricultural practices.

The UK Global Tariff (UKGT) sets out the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) tariffs. It applies when exceptions, such as preferential treatment under a Free Trade Agreement or the Generalise Scheme of Preferences, do not apply.

The UKGT has been in place since 1 January 2021. In designing the UKGT, the Government balanced the interests of consumers and producers, as well as the UK’s strategic trade ambitions. We continue to monitor its impacts and welcome feedback.

Businesses can provide feedback on specific UK Global Tariff rates or evidence on the tariff in general, using the UKGT feedback form, which can be found here https://www.gov.uk/guidance/tariffs-on-goods-imported-into-the-uk.

We remain in close contact with suppliers, who are clear that current issues relating to the availability of certain fruits and vegetables are predominately caused by poor weather in Spain and North Africa where they are produced. These issues have been caused by unseasonal weather hampering production and harvest during December and January.

We are not aware of any supply vulnerability relating to coffee

While short term supplies of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers might be tight, overall, the supply chain is robust, and we are keeping the market under review through the UK Agriculture Market Monitoring Group.

The capability, levers, and expertise to respond to disruption lie with industry. Government's role is to support and enable an industry-led response. UK Food Security remains resilient, and we continue to expect industry to be able to mitigate supply problems through alternative sourcing options.

The Government has taken steps to support energy costs, cut tariffs to reduce feed costs, improved avian influenza compensation schemes and taken a range of measures on fertilisers.

We work with industry bodies across the horticulture sectors, to monitor and assess the current market situation. We also work with colleagues in the Devolved Administrations at the UK Agricultural Market Monitoring Group (UK AMMG).

I held an industry roundtable with supermarkets on Monday 27 February to explore their plans for a return to normal supplies and contingencies for dealing with these supply chain problems.

Recognising the importance of food security, in the Agriculture Act 2020, the Government made a commitment to produce an assessment of our food security at least once every three years. The first UK food security report was published in December 2021.