Bread regs: government consultation

The UK Government and devolved administrations are running a public consultation on proposals to update and amend The Bread and Flour Regulations 1998 and The Bread and Flour Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1998.

The Real Bread Campaign submitted its official response on 24 October 2022.

Have your say

If you live in the UK, the Real Bread Campaign urges you to have your say, whether as a baker, miller, academic, worker in the public sector or simply as someone who cares about the food you buy and eat.

In order to make an informed response, first we encourage you to read the: 

• consultation document [includes copies of the questions]
• impact assessment

The consultation comprises 35 questions, supported by a considerable amount of detailed information. Please take some time now to have a look and assess how long you feel you will need to set aside to read and respond.

NB As we have submitted the Campaign’s response, please select an option other than ‘Campaign group/NGO’ in answer to question 2 - unless you are responding on behalf of a different one.  

The online consultation (closed 23 November 2022)

The consultation closed on 23 November 2022. A summary of responses is due to be published on the gov.uk website within 12 weeks of the consultation closure.

Help with your response

You are welcome to use as much or as little of the Campaign’s response that align with your own views and understanding of the facts.

If you do use any of our response, please amend, add to or omit the text as appropriate to reflect who you are, your personal/professional position on the issues and any additional/different evidence that you are able to supply. Please also remember to re-number the references.

A note on using our text

The consultation guidance notes state:

“Campaigns are when organisations (or individuals) coordinate responses across their membership or support base, often by suggesting a set of wording for respondents to use. For this consultation, campaign responses may be analysed separately to other responses to ensure the breadth of views received can be summarised effectively and efficiently. All campaign responses will be taken into account in the final analysis of public views and campaigns help provide an indication of the strength of feeling on an issue.”

We are unsure whether to interpret this as meaning it’s better for someone who agrees with our response to cut and paste our text in order to increase the collective voice, or to submit their own unique response.

Updates

19 June 2023: The Campaign emailed Defra, pressing the Secretary of State and Minister of State for answers, including a more precise ETA for publication of the summary of responses to the consultation. 

9 June 2023: In answer to a written question from Jessica Morden MP, Minister of State Mark Spencer replied: "We received 369 responses to this consultation from a wide range of stakeholders. We have been carefully analysing those detailed responses, while also discussing with the devolved administrations the best approach to consistent and effective policy implementation across the UK. We expect to publish a summary of responses and Government response later this summer, concurrent with any necessary notification to the WTO."

30 March 2023: Defra advised that they had published this note elsewehere on 15 February: 'We received 369 responses to this consultation from a range of stakeholders. Further time is needed to carefully analyse the responses. Hence, we expect to publish the summary of responses and government response later this summer.'

21 March 2023: As the summary of responses was due in mid-February but we had not received this (nor was there any information about it on the consultation page), we emailed Defra for an update.

See also

• Bread consultation ‘abandons bakers and insults shoppers’
• Updating and improving the Bread and Flour Regulations
• Honest Crust Act: A step closer?