Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 6 July 2018 to Question 160764 on Food Poverty: Surveys, if he will establish annual national measurements of food insecurity.
Answered by David Rutley
The underlying causes of food insecurity are complex and multi-faceted and it is not possible or practical to try and measure it with a single indicator. There are however, several established data sources which measure the level of food security in the UK.
The biennial FSA “Food and You” survey asks questions on household food insecurity. The ONS Living Cost of Food Survey (LCFS) includes questions on household spend on food, including that of the lowest 20% income households. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), “Voices of the Hungry” project developed the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), which also collects data on household food security in up to 150 countries worldwide, including the UK via the Gallup World Poll
Defra officials will continue to engage with colleagues from ONS and other Government Departments on the range of work being undertaken to measure household food insecurity and address the underlying factors.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will hold discussions with the Food Standards Agency on the potential merits of including questions that relate to child food insecurity in the next Food and You Survey.
Answered by George Eustice
The Food and You survey is a Food Standards Agency (FSA) survey. Whilst the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs works very collaboratively with the FSA, it is ultimately an FSA decision regarding what questions to include in the survey.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department is taking steps to include a measure on household food insecurity in the new harmonised living costs and living conditions survey.
Answered by George Eustice
Defra sponsors the Family Food module of the Living Costs and Food Survey which collects information on expenditure and purchased quantities of food. There are currently no plans to commission further questions within this module, as an experiential indicator of household food insecurity (based on US Department of Agriculture methodology) is already included in the Food Standards Agency’s (FSA) Food and You survey. The results are published on the FSA website (https://www.food.gov.uk/science/research-reports/ssresearch/foodandyou).
The Office for National Statistics is currently reconfiguring its Household Finance Surveys (Living Costs and Food Survey, Survey of Living Conditions, Wealth and Assets Survey). This involves, in part, some questionnaire improvements and harmonisation around a core set of questions, covering demographics, economic activity, income, pensions, education, tenure and health amongst others. The individual surveys continue to focus on their particular areas of inquiry. This is part of a series of planned methodological improvements.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what plans he has to measure progress on achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 on food insecurity in the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
The Office for National Statistics recently carried out a consultation and will use the results to help shape the Government’s approach to monitoring and reporting UK progress against the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The Government is committed to achieving the principles set out in SDG2: “End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture”.
Within Defra, we have recently commenced a review of the UK Food Security Assessment, to update and refresh the suite of indicators within it. It is a comprehensive analysis of all aspects of food security, including household food security.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress has been made on the UK Food Security Assessment; and if he will make it his policy to measure and monitor household food insecurity in the UK more regularly.
Answered by George Eustice
We have just commenced a review of the UK Food Security Assessment. The Food Security Assessment analyses the different national and global factors impacting on UK food supply. It is a comprehensive piece of work, covering all aspects of food security, including UK household food security. The Government has committed to reviewing this assessment.
The annual ONS Living Costs and Food Survey (LCFS) includes questions on household spend on food, including that of the lowest 20% income households, which has remained constant between 16% and 16.5% for a number of years.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to assess the effect of the recent rise in food prices on the level of food insecurity in the UK.
Answered by George Eustice
The ONS Living Costs and Food Survey (LCFS) includes questions on household spend on food, including that of the lowest 20% income households, which has remained constant between 16% and 16.5% for a number of years
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if his Department will repeat the 2010 Food Security Assessment to inform thinking on the forthcoming Agriculture Bill.
Answered by George Eustice
We have already undertaken to review the UK Food Security Assessment. The Assessment covers all aspects of food security including international trade and global resource sustainability, so the scope is much wider than purely domestic production. The 2009/10 review concluded that we have a high degree of food security in the UK.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent estimate her Department has made of the level of household food insecurity in the UK; and pursuant to the Answer of 12 September 2016 by the Minister of State for Health to Question 44475, when the Government expects the data provided to the Voices of the Hungry project to be published.
Answered by George Eustice
The Government annually publishes Family Food, which draws on data from the Living Cost of Food Survey. This publication includes questions on household spend on food, including that by the lowest 20% income households, which has remained constant at around 16% for a number of years.
The Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES), developed by the Voices of the Hungry project of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is used to collect food security data in up to 150 countries under the Gallup World Poll. The Department for International Development supports this work financially and updated results will be published later this year by the FAO. We understand from the FAO that global FIES results will be launched in June, and the individual country level estimates, which are three-year averages, will be published in September.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what change her Department expects in the level of food prices in the next six months.
Answered by George Eustice
The Department has published research on the main drivers of changes to food prices which have been observed to be food commodity prices, currency exchange rates and oil prices. It will be changes to any, or a combination of these factors, that will bring changes to prices.
ONS statistics on food prices are published each month as part of the Consumer Price Index. In the most recent statistics published on 11 April, food prices had increased by 1.3% in the year to March 2017 following almost three consecutive years where food prices fell. Exchange rates and energy costs have been the key drivers of these changes.
Asked by: Emma Lewell (Labour - South Shields)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of (a) disabled and (b) all other staff in her Department reported experiencing bullying or harassment at work in the most recent Civil Service People Survey.
Answered by Dan Rogerson
The Civil Service People Survey asks the question “Do you have any long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability?” The survey does not include a question that specifically identifies disability status.
In the 2014 People Survey, 17% of core Defra respondents declaring a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability reported that they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work in the past 12 months.
7% of core Defra respondents declaring that they did not have a long-standing physical or mental health condition, illness, impairment or disability reported that they had personally experienced bullying or harassment at work in the past 12 months.