The climate crisis, disease outbreaks, and cyber-attacks pose escalating risks to the United Kingdom’s food supplies, with the public spending watchdog urging government action to bolster systemic resilience.
The National Audit Office (NAO) is calling on the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs (Defra) to foster closer collaboration with households, local communities, and businesses. The goal is to safeguard the nation’s food flow against increasingly frequent and severe supply chain shocks.
The NAO’s latest report acknowledges that Defra, the department responsible for food supply security, has initiated some preparatory measures. However, it concludes that more must be done to actively engage citizens and industry leaders in emergency planning.
With over a third of its food imported—predominantly passing through four major ports: Dover, Felixstowe, Southampton, and London Gateway—the UK’s food supply remains highly vulnerable to international disruptions.
This report follows months of expert warnings regarding the fragility of the UK’s food supply chain, during which households were advised to accumulate emergency stockpiles of long-life goods. Government research indicates that British citizens are currently less prepared for catastrophic events than their counterparts in several other European nations.
The supply chain has faced significant strain during the Covid-19 pandemic and following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Despite these crises, major supermarkets and businesses managed to maintain the flow of goods, largely without substantial government intervention.
Nevertheless, Defra remains skeptical about the private sector’s capacity to withstand future shocks, such as extreme weather events, without more robust government intervention.
While food industry leaders commended Defra’s active engagement during the pandemic, they have noted a subsequent reduction in communication. The NAO report highlights that businesses had limited input into government disruption plans, potentially leading to impractical policy proposals.
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, stated: “Recent disruptions have demonstrated the resilience of the UK’s food supply chain, but the likelihood and severity of associated risks are on the rise.”
“Defra must learn from international approaches and bolster emergency preparedness by stress-testing contingency plans alongside local governments and industry stakeholders.”
The government has classified food as one of 13 critical national infrastructure sectors deemed essential for national stability.
However, industry representatives argue that these measures do not go far enough, calling on ministers to include the UK’s cold stores and food transport hubs on the critical infrastructure list. This designation would guarantee uninterrupted power supplies during widespread outages.
The NAO report arrives mere months after the Cold Chain Federation, the trade body for cold storage and logistics, accused the government of complacency regarding national food storage. The federation urged ministers to elevate potential food system disruptions to an immediate national priority.
The NAO found that the most recent national exercise testing Defra’s catastrophic event preparedness occurred in 2023, yet it failed to include the majority of supply chain businesses.
Furthermore, local resilience forums reported a lack of clarity from Defra regarding their specific roles and expectations during a food disruption event.
