Supermarkets: Coronavirus

(asked on 19th January 2021) - View Source

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent steps he has taken to (a) encourage supermarkets to prioritise shielding customers and (b) discourage increases in costs of at-home deliveries.


Answered by
Victoria Prentis Portrait
Victoria Prentis
Attorney General
This question was answered on 27th January 2021

(a) Defra is continuing to work closely with supermarkets to provide clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in England with priority access to supermarket delivery slots. When the tiered system was in operation, any clinically extremely vulnerable person living in a Tier Three or Tier Four local area who did not already have priority access to delivery slots was still able to register for this support through the GOV.UK website: www.gov.uk/coronavirus-shielding-support.

During the third lockdown, all clinically extremely vulnerable people are able to register for priority access to delivery slots with seven supermarkets: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco, Waitrose. All clinically extremely vulnerable individuals who have registered through GOV.UK will retain their priority access to delivery slots until at least March 2021.

(b) Defra is continuing to hold regular conversations with each of the seven supermarkets participating in the priority access to online deliveries offer: Asda, Iceland, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose. The department uses these meetings as an opportunity to convey any concerns raised by charities or local authorities around topics such as delivery charges. Although Defra cannot legally dictate the delivery costs charged by supermarkets, our regular conversations ensure that supermarkets understand the impact that delivery charges can have in preventing a clinically extremely vulnerable person from being able to access food.

Alongside encouraging supermarkets to consider the impact delivery charges can have on vulnerable people, the department also monitors delivery charges and circulates this information to local authorities to allow them to advise their residents accordingly.

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