Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has met with food bank (a) providers and (b) user groups in developing her Department's food bank use reduction plans.

Ministers and officials from across Government continue to engage on this issue with a range of stakeholders and charitable organisations including food bank providers.

This Government is wholly committed to supporting those on low incomes, spending an estimated £112 billion on welfare support for people of working age in 2020/21 including around £7.4 billion of Covid-related welfare policy measures.

We also introduced our Covid Winter Grant Scheme providing funding to Local Authorities in England to help the most vulnerable children and families stay warm and well fed during the coldest months. It will now run to June as the Covid Local Support Grant, with a total investment of £269m.

Food insecurity is an issue we take very seriously which is why we have published data on household food security from the Family Resources Survey for the first time, to get a better understanding of the lived experience of families.

As the economy recovers, our ambition is to help people move into and progress in work as quickly as possible based on clear evidence around the importance of employment, particularly where it is full-time, in substantially reducing the risks of poverty. We are investing over £30 billion in our ambitious Plan for Jobs which is already delivering for people of all ages right across the country.