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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to her Answer to the Question from the hon. Member for York Central on 23 February 2023, Official Report, column 301, on what evidential basis she said that working additional hours can help tackle food poverty.

The latest available data from the Department for Work and Pensions on in-work poverty shows that in 2019/20, working age adults in households where all adults were in work were six times less likely to be in absolute poverty (after housing costs) than adults in a household where nobody works. 

The data also shows that there was only a 3% chance of children being in poverty (absolute, before housing costs) where both parents worked full-time compared with 42% where one or more parents in a couple was in part-time work.