Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 9
Seventh Report - Food security
Published 28 Jul 2023
Paragraph 35
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Food Security All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We welcome the report of the Independent Review into Labour Shortages in the Food Supply Chain (the Shropshire Review), and support its recommendations regarding both skilled and seasonal migrant labour. Troublingly, the Shropshire Review has found evidence that the UK’s immigration policy is creating labour shortages that have “seriously impacted the food and farming industry” which it noted “may ultimately threaten food security”.251 As we foresaw in our earlier Report on labour, some production has now moved overseas as result of labour shortages, while other businesses are planning to. We also note that the Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme does not affect net migration. It is imperative that the Government listens to the Review’s analysis and constructively considers its recommendations. In doing so, the Government must prioritise the country’s long-term food security ahead of other considerations to ensure the food supply chain has access to sufficient labour, including from overseas, to allow it to realise its growth potential. Failure to do so places at risk the achievement of the Government’s self-sufficiency target and broader food security. The Government must adhere to its stated six-month timeframe to respond to the Independent Review’s report.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Seventh Report - Food security (HC 622), paragraph 35, 28 July 2023
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 17 November 2023 (deadline 28 September 2023).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government says it "takes all aspects of food security very seriously" but, across the report's recommendations, mostly points to existing measures and gives few new commitments, with some proposals declined or not planned.
- On an annual UK Food Security Report, it says "We do not have plans to make the UKFSR an annual publication" and that the next report will be published by December 2024.
- On the Cabinet Office review of food policy structures, it "agrees with the need for policy coherence and for strong leadership", but points to existing cross-Whitehall structures rather than committing to a review.
- On free school meals, it says it does "not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions" but "will continue to keep eligibility under review"; on a sugar and salt tax, it does not consider "now is the right time".
- On the Shropshire labour review, it is "currently considering the recommendations and intend[s] to publish a response before the end of the year".