Despite the FSA’s assurance that assessments will continue, it is difficult to see how any applications could progress much further. Furthermore, authorisations ultimately require ministerial approval, and it is those same ministers who are currently negotiating the SPS agreement rather than the FSA.

The original use of “Business As Usual” was during wartime, a deliberate attempt to maintain public calm while the world collapsed around them. So the question is this: What war, exactly, is the FSA trying to normalise? Against transparency, perhaps? If that is the case, it's interesting that it started at a time that is significant for CBD Novel Foods. That is provable through the 2021 FSA FOI report, which, other than a modified response on 17/06/21, shows an abrupt stop