Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the report by the Trussell Trust End of Year Statistics, published this month, and in particular, its finding that the Trust distributed a record 2.5 miliion food parcels in 2020/21; what estimate they have made of the total number of food parcels that were distributed during the 2020/21 financial year; and what steps they intend to take to reduce the number of households which are reliant on the provision of such parcels.

No such assessment has been made. Foodbanks are independent charitable organisations and there are no official statistics relating to either the number of people using food banks or the number of food parcels distributed.

This Government is committed to supporting those on low incomes, injecting an additional £7.4 billion to strengthen the welfare safety net in 2020/21. We also introduced the Covid Winter Grant, now the Covid Local Support Grant, together totalling £269 million, to enable Local Authorities to help the most vulnerable children and families with essential costs.