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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how often the Dynamic Food Procurement Board will meet.

The Dynamic Food Procurement National Advisory Board (DFPNAB) is not a statutory body. It is an independent grass roots body with participants from member organisations, public procurers and small businesses with a shared interest in promoting the use of the dynamic purchasing model in the food supply chain. While its members are not appointed by the Secretary of State, Defra does take part in meetings.

Trials of the dynamic procurement model have shown it can, in the right circumstances, offer greater access to public sector contracts for small, medium and local producers. The Government is investigating the larger scale use of dynamic purchasing for food procurement and the DFPNAB has freely shared its knowledge and expertise to assist with this work.

The DFPNAB meets approximately every three months. The date of the next meeting has not been agreed, but is expected to take place in January 2020.

The DFPNAB does not publish the minutes of meetings.

The Government does not monitor the effectiveness of independent bodies.