Resilience of the UK's food supply to disruptions

The committee welcomes responses from anyone with answers to the questions in the call for evidence. The deadline to submit evidence is 11:59pm on 7 October 2026.

What the committee is asking

Scope

We’re interested in evidence that will help the Committee to assess the following:

What level of disruption should UK food and farming be able to absorb, is this currently achievable and, if not, what is needed to achieve it this level of readiness?

In what ways is the UK’s food supply vulnerable, and where would government attention or investment have the greatest impact?

How should responsibility for building, maintaining and paying for a resilient food supply chain be shared between farmers, industry and government, particularly during major disruptions?

Please read the guidance below carefully before submitting evidence.

Do

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If you need help to send us your evidence

We want everyone’s voice to be heard in Parliament. Please contact us if you find it difficult to send us your evidence online.

Why this inquiry exists

The UK’s food supply chain is complex, made up of many privately owned businesses across agriculture, retail, and catering. A catastrophic disruption to the UK’s food supply from could lead to impacts including shortages, inflation, and lack of access to food for vulnerable groups. Government aims to influence the sector to increase its resilience, and could step in to support in the event of a severe disruption unmanageable by the private sector alone.

The PAC has a long-standing interest in resilience to societal risk. Its 2025 report on resilience to animal diseases such as bird flu warned of inadequate levels of preparation by government, while similarly its report on resilience to extreme weather in 2024 found a lack of clarity for communities in how to deal with these challenges. Its report on flood defences in the same year found that government did not know if it was making progress towards its ambition of a nation more resilient to flooding.

The National Audit Office (NAO) publishes its report on the resilience of the food supply chain to disruptions in summer 2026, examining whether the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is taking effective action to ensure the UK food supply chain is resilient to shocks and disruptions.

Proceeding from the NAO’s report, the PAC will take evidence from witnesses including senior Defra officials on subjects including risks to the supply chain, the likely impact of disruption to it, and preparedness levels.

If you have evidence on these issues, please submit using the link below by 23:59 on 9 October 2026.

Please note that the Committee’s inquiry cannot assist with individual cases. If you need help with an individual problem you are having, you may wish to read the information on Parliament’s website about who you can contact with different issues.

How to send evidence

Evidence goes to the committee through Parliament’s own form. There is no way to submit it from here: Parliament publishes no API for written evidence, so the button above opens the committee’s page.

What you send is published under your name and can be quoted in the committee’s report. Keep it under 3,000 words, send it as a document rather than a letter in the body of an email, and answer the questions above rather than writing generally.

The committee’s own address is pubaccom@parliament.uk, for a question about the inquiry or trouble with the form.

Open the inquiry on committees.parliament.uk