Consultation on fairer food labelling
Overview
We are seeking your views on the UK government, the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive’s proposals for clearer food labelling through improved method of production and country of origin labelling in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland.
This consultation forms part of the government’s wider work to make food labelling informative, consistent and accessible. We will ensure that these proposals align with ongoing work to bring about a standardised approach to eco-labelling through the Food Data Transparency Partnership. We recognise there may be other areas where labelling could provide additional transparency, for example highlighting when foods have been produced using pesticides which are not permitted in the UK. We have included a question at the end of the consultation which seeks your views on other labelling areas for government to consider in future.
How to respond
If you are unable to use Citizen Space, you can download the consultation documents and return your response via email to welfare.label@defra.gov.uk or via post to:
Animal Welfare Market Interventions and Labelling Team, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, Seacole Building 2nd Floor, 2 Marsham Street, London, SW1P 4DF.
We recognise that respondents may choose to use some standardised text to inform their response. Campaigns are when organisations (or individuals) coordinate responses across their membership or support base, often by suggesting a set of wording for respondents to use. Campaign responses are usually very similar or identical to each other. For this consultation, campaign responses may be analysed separately to other responses to ensure the breadth of views received can be summarised effectively and efficiently. All campaign responses will be taken into account in the final analysis of public views and campaigns help provide an indication of the strength of feeling on an issue. The preferred route for all respondents to provide their views (including where a response is based on a campaign) is via the Citizen Space consultation hub.
Duration
This consultation will run for 8 weeks. The consultation opened on 12th March 2024 and closes on 7th May 2024. Any responses received after this date will not be analysed.
Confidentiality and data protection
Information provided in response to this consultation document, including personal information, will be shared with relevant policy officials in the Scottish Government, Welsh Government and the Northern Ireland Executive.
A summary of responses to this consultation will be published on the government website. An annex to the consultation summary will list all organisations that responded but will not include personal names, addresses or other contact details.
Defra may publish the content of your response to this consultation to make it available to the public without your personal name and private contact details (e.g. home address, email address, etc).
If you click on ‘Yes’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, you are asked to state clearly what information you would like to be kept as confidential and explain your reasons for confidentiality. The reason for this is that information in responses to this consultation may be subject to release to the public or other parties in accordance with the access to information law (these are primarily the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs), the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) and the Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA)). We have obligations, mainly under the EIRs, FOIA and DPA, to disclose information to particular recipients or to the public in certain circumstances. In view of this, your explanation of your reasons for requesting confidentiality for all or part of your response would help us balance these obligations for disclosure against any obligation of confidentiality. If we receive a request for the information that you have provided in your response to this consultation, we will take full account of your reasons for requesting confidentiality of your response, but we cannot guarantee that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances.
If you click on ‘No’ in response to the question asking if you would like anything in your response to be kept confidential, we will be able to release the content of your response to the public, but we won’t make your personal name and private contact details publicly available.
There may be occasions when Defra will share the information you provide in response to the consultation, including any personal data with external analysts. This is for the purposes of consultation response analysis and provision of a report of the summary of responses only.
This consultation is being conducted in line with the Cabinet Office “Consultation Principles” and can be found at the government consultation principles webpage.
Please find our latest privacy notice uploaded as a related document alongside our consultation document.
If you have any comments or complaints about the consultation process, please address them to consultation.coordinator@defra.gov.uk.