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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 April 2020 to Question 39481 on Food Supply: Coronavirus, whether the Government has plans to enable members of the public to receive a priority supermarket slot, without the need to register for free food packages, in cases where free food packages are not necessary.

Members of the public who have received a letter advising that they are clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) can register to say that they are unable to get essential supplies delivered, and those individuals’ details are shared with supermarkets to match them with priority delivery slots.

This system was designed with safety in mind to ensure that CEV individuals, who have been advised to stay at home at all times, could get essential supplies delivered to their homes if they had no alternative means of obtaining food. If an individual who is shielding obtains a priority supermarket slot, they can easily de-register from the system through the GOV.UK platform or by rejecting a box when delivery is attempted. The food package will be re-delivered to the next person in need.