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.

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.