Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the potential implications for her policies of trends in the level of inflation for food products; and what steps she is taking to help support people with the cost of food.

We are committed to tackling food poverty and reducing mass dependence on emergency food parcels. Economic factors including the Covid-19 pandemic and the cost-of-living crisis have resulted in record levels of need for food banks. This issue is being discussed as part of the Child Poverty Taskforce.

We have announced additional support to address financial pressures on households. These measures include tripling investment in breakfast clubs to over £30 million, introducing a Fair Repayment Rate for deductions from Universal Credit, and increasing the National Living Wage to £12.21 an hour from April 2025 to boost the pay of 3 million workers. In England, Healthy Starts supports over 356,000 beneficiaries, 3 million pupils are eligible for a Free School Meal, we have invested over £200 million every year into the Holiday Activities and Food Programme. Additionally, the Household Support Fund has provided billions of pounds of support to millions of households across England since its inception, helping vulnerable households with the cost of household essentials and supporting those most in need, and provided further funding of £742 million, extending the Household Support Fund until 31 March 2026.