Select committee: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 2
Sixth Report - Public Sector Procurement of Food
Published 21 Apr 2021
Paragraph 18
Addressed to Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs
Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee Public Sector Procurement of Food All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
The Government should make adherence to the GBSF mandatory for the public sector in England. We are supportive of proposals that the balanced scorecard should also be mandatory across the public sector, particularly for the NHS in England, but we have concerns that this may have adverse impacts on smaller suppliers who may not be able to afford the accreditation and certification required. Defra must gather evidence from Government departments and their suppliers on the effectiveness and impact of the balanced scorecard since 2014 and review whether to make the balanced scorecard mandatory. At the very least, the balanced scorecard needs to be better promoted by the Government.
From: Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Sixth Report - Public Sector Procurement of Food (HC 469), paragraph 18, 21 April 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 5 July 2021 (deadline 21 June 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government welcomes the report and says the Committee's recommendations "align with our ambitions", with its main response being a consultation on updating the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering Services (GBSF) this summer.
- On monitoring compliance, it says Ofsted and CQC inspectors "do not have the expertise" to assess the GBSF, and will "consider potential inspection bodies and remits" and seek views on alternative forms of monitoring in the consultation.
- On exemptions for overseas military and diplomatic supply, it says there is "no evidence that exemptions are being used" and that it "will consult on the removal of these exemptions".
- It agrees that the GBSF "requires updating" and has committed to a "substantial update", with the consultation looking at local produce, SME access and metrics on local, seasonal food.
- On the Future Food Framework pilot, it says the go-live date has been "delayed slightly" with a fully live capability indicated by the end of 2022, and it will provide a written update to the Committee by the end of December 2021.