Members will recall our article in April highlighting that we had responded to Defra’s Call for Information on the SPS Agreement. The results of that call for information have now been published along with the summary of responses.

To inform its approach to implementation and business readiness support, the Call for Information ran for 6 weeks, from 9 March 2026 to 23 April 2026, and sought information on:

• awareness of the Agreement
• anticipated operational changes required for alignment
• transition timelines to prepare for alignment
• expected benefits and costs derived from the Agreement
• supply chain impacts associated with the Agreement
• how organisations would like to be supported ahead of implementation.

In total, Defra received 466 responses through Citizen Space and a further 25 responses by email from businesses, representative organisations and other stakeholders.

The results provide valuable insights including:

• 71% of respondents anticipate some level of operational change. The most commonly anticipated changes were:
  • compliance and regulatory processes (58%)
  • labelling and packaging (40%)
  • contract changes (32%)
  • IT and digital systems (30%)

• Labelling and packaging – respondents highlighted the complexity of unwinding ‘Not for EU’ labelling, and the post-Brexit investments already made to facilitate separate labelling runs as well as the risk of stock write-offs if transition arrangements do not allow existing labelled stock to sell through.

• Transition timelines – 25% said would need at least 12 months of transition to implement changes

Defra will now use these findings to inform their ‘approach to implementation support, communications, and business readiness activity as we conclude SPS Agreement negotiations and plan for subsequent implementation and entry into force’.