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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate he has made of the number of people identified as being clinically extremely vulnerable to covid-19 who have registered (a) to indicate that they require support getting the food and/or other essentials they need and (b) but do not require support; and how many of those vulnerable people are receiving food and basic supplies through (i) supermarket deliveries, (ii) Government or local authority food parcels and (iii) other support.

The shielding programme was put in place to protect clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV) people – those who have been advised by the NHS not to leave their homes, because they are at a high risk of developing complications from coronavirus (COVID-19) infection. Overall 2.2 million individuals have been identified as needing to shield. Of this group, approximately 350,000 have registered a need for essential supplies making the individual eligible for a priority slot for a supermarket delivery or food boxes, which they may cancel at any time.

In total over 2 million food boxes have been successfully delivered to CEV individuals since March. We are continuing to work with supermarkets to increase delivery capacity.

We do not hold centrally information on deliveries of food parcels by local authorities, total number of individuals benefiting from supermarket deliveries, or other support received by CEV individuals.