Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment her Department has made of the merits of providing state-funded food banks.

My Department has not made such an assessment.

This Government continues to spend over £95 billion a year on benefits for people of working age, providing a strong safety net for those who need it including a well-established system of hardship payments and benefit advances as an additional safeguard for those who need them.

Jobcentre mangers have discretion to work with food banks in their local area; and we are exploring how to build on current good practice to make it as easy as possible for food banks to identify and refer back to the local Jobcentre any customers who may not be receiving the full formal support to which they are entitled.