Source · Select Committees · Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
Recommendation 3
3
Paragraph: 24
There is no reason for the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering (GBSF) to...
Recommendation
There is no reason for the Government Buying Standards for Food and Catering (GBSF) to contain exemptions to meeting food production and animal welfare standards set in legislation on the basis of cost. There are suspicions that public bodies procuring and serving food in the UK are using these exemptions and that they are disincentivising food suppliers from investing in food produced to high standards. However, it was difficult to find any data proving this, and we accept that gathering such data retrospectively would be unnecessarily time-consuming. Where meeting UK food production and animal welfare standards in supplying overseas military and diplomatic operations would be prohibitively expensive, the Government should make exceptions on a case-by-case basis only if it is satisfied that every effort has been made to meet UK standards. In such cases, every effort should be made to meet equivalent standards. Such exceptions should not be an option for UK- based public procurement and therefore the scope for them should be removed from the GBSF immediately.
Paragraph Reference:
24
Government Response
Acknowledged
HM Government
Acknowledged
Third Special Report of Session 2021–22 3 To reiterate the Committee’s findings, there is currently no evidence that exemptions are being used. The exemptions were developed to allow for very limited circumstances, and the reasons for not applying the standards must be recorded and signed off by a senior official in the organisation concerned. These requirements were set to safeguard public sector food standards and to increase the transparency of public sector procurement. The Government recognises however that we want to lead by example, and champion our high production and animal welfare standards. The GBSF update is an opportunity to deliver on this. We will consult on the removal of these exemptions as part of the consultation.