- Defra believes it may have to intervene more in future to help businesses manage and respond to increasingly likely and severe food supply chain disruptions, such as extreme weather events and cyber-attacks.
- Defra has taken some steps to improve its preparedness, but it has not done enough in recent years to engage critical stakeholders, including households, communities and industry, in its efforts to strengthen resilience to disruptions.
- “Defra should learn from approaches taken in other countries, and strengthen preparedness for emergencies by testing plans with local government and industry,” says head of the NAO.
The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) must work more closely with households, communities and industry to ensure the food supply chain can withstand increasingly likely and severe shocks including extreme weather events, cyber-attacks and disease outbreaks, according to a new National Audit Office (NAO) report.
The government has designated food as one of 13 Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sectors that it considers essential for the country to function properly.
During recent disruptions, including the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, private sector businesses have succeeded in keeping the food supply chain running, in most cases without the need for significant government assistance.
But short- and long-term risks that could significantly affect the food supply chain are becoming more likely and potentially more severe. For example, climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events. As a result, Defra is less confident about the private sector’s ability to withstand such shocks without greater government intervention.
Defra has taken some positive steps to improve its preparedness for food supply disruptions, such as expanding its Food Supply Chain Resilience team and increasing its focus on planning for catastrophic events where food supply would be seriously affected.
However, it has done too little in recent years to encourage businesses, households and communities to strengthen resilience and prepare for potential food shortages caused by disruption to the food supply chain.UK households are less prepared for emergencies compared with several other countries, according to government research.
While food supply chain businesses praised how Defra engaged with them during the COVID-19 pandemic, they told the independent public spending watchdog that it has done so less frequently since then. These businesses also had limited input in the development of Defra’s ‘playbook’ for responding to food supply disruptions, creating a risk that plans may not work in practice.
Scenario exercises that test Defra’s preparedness for catastrophic events that would severely disrupt food supply – the last national exercise took place in 2023 – have also largely excluded food supply chain businesses, with some indicating that they would welcome inclusion in future exercises.
Meanwhile, local resilience forums have indicated that they lack clarity from Defra on what is expected of them in the event of disruption.
Defra also needs to contend with wider structural issues, the NAO report says. Despite participating in several cross-government working groups and boards, Defra stated in 2025 that it had very little confidence that cross-government work to build resilience was sufficiently joined-up. Defra also lacks the legal powers it may need during a catastrophic event to maintain food supply, such as the power to direct businesses to take emergency action.
Defra can further improve resilience by learning from approaches used in other CNI sectors and in other countries.
To strengthen the food supply chain’s resilience to disruptions, the NAO recommends that Defra:
- refreshes its approach to engaging with food supply chain businesses
- assesses the potential costs and benefits of approaches used to build resilience in other sectors or countries and whether they are wholly or partly applicable to the UK’s food supply chain
- reviews its response plans to ensure they would be effective in practice
- reviews the current legal powers it could use to respond to a catastrophic event that causes a severe food supply disruption
- works with Cabinet Office to ensure that future initiatives to encourage greater preparedness by households and communities include appropriate detail on food preparedness
Gareth Davies, head of the NAO, said:
“Recent disruptions have shown the resilience of the UK’s food supply chain, but risks are increasing in likelihood and severity.
“Defra should learn from approaches taken in other countries, and strengthen preparedness for emergencies by testing plans with local government and industry.”
