Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 14
Seventh Report - Food security
Published 28 Jul 2023
Paragraph 63
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)
Higher food inflation and the rise in the cost of living more generally is meaning that food banks are experiencing record levels of demand this year. Earned income, not food banks, are ultimately the solution for household food insecurity. We welcome the substantial support packages, including the index-linked rise in welfare benefits and pensions, that the Government have provided to households which help them to meet their increased bills and therefore have more money to spend on food than 252 Food Standards Agency (FSA) (FS0082) 48 Food Security otherwise. The Government should examine whether the totality of support to lower- income households, including from central and local Government and charities, is sufficient to ensure household food security without the need to regularly use food aid organisations and publish its findings within six months of the publication of this Report.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Seventh Report - Food security (HC 622), paragraph 63, 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".