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

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the poll by the Food Foundation, published on 4 May, which found that five million people in UK households with children have experienced food insecurity during the lockdown in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic; and what steps they are taking to address this. [T]

Defra has read the Food Foundation report and will continue to monitor flows of information about food insecurity. Over the last two years Defra has worked with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), the Food Foundation and other NGOs to improve monitoring of household food insecurity, and the Food Insecurity Experience Scale questions are now included in the Family Resources Survey.

The measures the Government has taken in recent weeks represent an injection of £7 billion into the welfare system and form part of one of the most comprehensive packages of support introduced by an advanced economy in response to the coronavirus outbreak.

DWP's priorities are ensuring that people get their benefit payments and that the department can continue to support those who need it the most. Additional support is being made available through the national Free School Meals (FSM) voucher scheme. Schools can ensure that families with FSM-eligible children receive a weekly shopping voucher to the value of £15 per eligible child. A large number of schools have already signed up to this scheme.

The Government will continue to work closely with charities to identify the impacts of the coronavirus outbreak on vulnerable people, including children who have experienced food insecurity. We are also working through the Food and Essential Supplies to the Vulnerable Ministerial Task Force to identify where the Government can best support the economically vulnerable. Defra will work with other departments in the coming weeks on this.