Background
Government classifies food as one of 13 Critical National Infrastructures (CNIs), where its disruption could severely affect essential services, national security or the functioning of the state. The food supply chain is complex, ranging from agricultural inputs(such as seed and fertiliser) through to wholesale and retail outlets (such as supermarkets) and catering. Disruptions to the food supply chain can arise from a range of risks such as extreme weather events, cyber attacks, global conflicts or pandemics. These disruptions can lead to food shortages, price inflation, lack of choice and lack of access to food for vulnerable groups.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) is the lead government department for food supply as a CNI, which means it is responsible for ensuring resilience of the food supply chain to shocks and disruptions. Supply chain resilience is a key component of food security and refers to the physical, human and economic infrastructure underlying the supply chain.
In July 2025, Defra published the UK government’s latest food strategy for England, which sets out 10 priority outcomes for the food system. One of these priority outcomes is greater preparedness for supply chain shocks, disruption, and impacts of chronic risks such as climate change.
Scope
This study will examine whether Defra is taking effective action to ensure the UK food supply chain is resilient to shocks and disruptions. It will examine whether Defra:
- has a clear understanding of the risks to the food supply chain and the impact of shocks and disruptions, and has made roles and responsibilities clear
- is taking effective action to prevent shocks and disruptions to the food supply chain, and to mitigate the impact of such shocks and disruptions
- is ensuring that the food supply chain system is adequately prepared to respond to and recover from shocks or disruptions when they occur
We intend to look in more detail at long-term resilience of domestic food production in future work.
NAO team
Director: Rich Sullivan-Jones
Senior Audit Manager: Helen Roberts