Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will take steps to ensure that the Groceries Adjudicator can take evidence of alleged breaches of the supermarket code from all producers and not just from the suppliers of supermarkets.

Anyone can make a complaint to the Groceries Code Adjudicator (GCA), this includes: retailers, suppliers, trade bodies, other organisations and individuals. However, the GCA may investigate whether a large retailer has broken the Groceries Code, if the Adjudicator has reasonable grounds to suspect that a retailer has broken the Groceries Supply Code of Practice.

At present, the Groceries Code regulates agreements as between a direct supplier and the supermarket. However, the Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy is currently running a call for evidence regarding the remit of the Groceries Code Adjudicator. This is open until 10 January 2017 and we would encourage any interested party to respond.