A recent report from the National Audit Office (NAO) has revealed that the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra) needs to collaborate more closely with households, communities and industry to ensure the UK’s food supply chain can handle increasingly likely disruptions such as extreme weather, cyber-attacks and disease outbreaks.
Food has been designated by the government as one of 13 Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sectors regarded as essential to the country’s functioning. During recent crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, private sector businesses helped to keep the food supply chain operating without requiring substantial government support. However, the risks threatening the supply chain are becoming more probable and potentially more damaging, especially with climate change increasing the frequency of extreme weather. Consequently, Defra is now uncertain as to whether the private sector could withstand future disruptions without stronger government intervention.
Defra has made positive moves towards improving its readiness for food supply disruption, including growing its Food Supply Chain Resilience team, but despite this progress, the NAO found that Defra has not done enough in recent years to help businesses, households and communities build resilience and prepare for possible food shortages.
Scenario exercises designed to test Defra’s readiness for catastrophic events that could severely disrupt food supply have largely excluded food supply chain businesses. The most recent national exercise took place in 2023, and some businesses said they would welcome greater involvement in future exercises with local resilience forums reporting a lack of clarity regarding their expected role in the event of a disruption.
The NAO report also highlights wider structural challenges facing Defra, with the department admitting in 2025 that it had low confidence that cross-government resilience efforts were sufficiently joined-up. Defra also lacks certain legal powers that may be needed during a catastrophic event to maintain food supply, such as the authority to direct businesses to take emergency action.
The NAO suggests that Defra could further strengthen resilience by drawing on approaches used in other CNI sectors and in other countries. It recommended a refresh in Defra’s approach to engaging with food supply chain businesses, and assessments into the potential costs and benefits of resilience-building approaches used elsewhere which could applied in the UK.
The audit office also recommended for Defra to review its response plans to ensure they would work effectively in practice, examine its legal powers for responding to a catastrophic event causing severe disruption, and work with the Cabinet Office to ensure future initiatives encouraging household and community preparedness include sufficient detail on food-specific readiness.