New Faces on the EFRA Committee

The membership of the influential House of Commons Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has been confirmed for the current Parliament. The role of the Committee is to scrutinise and examine the policy, expenditure and practices of DEFRA and its associate bodies such as the Environment Agency and Natural England.

The Committee's work will be particularly important in this Parliament, with farming, the environment and wider rural affairs all central to the process of leaving the EU and establishing new domestic policies.

Neil Parish (Con) (pictured) remains as Chairman, while Angela Smith (Lab) and David Simpson (DUP) have both been re-elected to the Committee. The other members are Alan Brown (SNP), John Grogan (Lab), Paul Flynn (Lab), Dr Caroline Johnson (Con), Sandy Martin (Lab), Sheryll Murray (Con) and Julian Sturdy (Con).

We will be working closely with the Committee throughout this Parliament, particularly in the establishment of a new agricultural policy, making sure that new trade policies uphold our high standards of food safety and animal welfare, and ensuring that future environmental and wildlife policies balance the need for protection with management.

In the last Parliament we took part in inquiries into flood prevention, forestry, rural tourism, and animal welfare, which produced some very useful reports. We look forward to another productive Parliament.