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

To ask His Majesty's Government which public authority would have lead responsibility for ensuring that vulnerable households continued to receive food during a nationwide electricity and telecommunications outage lasting seven days or more; when such arrangements were last tested in a national exercise; and whether they intend to publish an operational national food emergency plan.

Under the Lead Government Department model, responding to a prolonged nationwide electricity outage spans several departments. Defra leads on food supply resilience working across Government, industry and local partners to support preparedness for severe disruption.

At local level, Local Resilience Forums and local authorities have a crucial role in identifying and supporting vulnerable people working with emergency responders, health authorities and the voluntary sector. The Government last tested its response to a National Power Outage in a national exercise, including food, through the cross-Government exercise Mighty Oak (2023).

Defra is working with industry and across Government to strengthen preparedness for food supply disruptions, including the development of a shared framework for food preparedness and response, building on the work of the Food Preparedness Group. As part of the Food Preparedness Group, the Government is engaging with industry alongside local and household groups which focuses on impacts of disruption at local community and household level.