Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the proportion of the average family budget taken up by food in (1) 1988, (2) 1998, (3) 2008, and (4) 2018.

​The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.

Letter from John Pullinger CB, National Statistician, to Lord Jopling, dated 10 April 2018

As National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, I am replying to your Parliamentary Question asking what is the estimate of the proportion of the average family budget taken up by food in (1) 1988, (2) 1998, (3) 2008, and (4) 2018 (HL6808).

Table 1 shows household expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drinks as a percentage of total household expenditure in the UK from 1987 to financial year ending 2017. The estimates are based on data from the Living Costs and Food Survey (LCF) and its predecessor the Family Expenditure Survey.

In Table 1 below, ‘expenditure on food’ includes food brought home, food eaten away from the home in restaurants or cafés, and take-away food. Data is collected at a household level but is a reasonable indication of family expenditure. We have provided this data in ten-year intervals in line with the latest available data for financial year ending 2017. The period of data collection has changed over time, therefore the time series presented in the table is made up of financial and calendar year time points.

Table 1: Household expenditure on food and non-alcoholic drink[1] as a proportion of total expenditure at 2016/17 Prices[2], 1987 to financial year ending 2017

Source: Office for National Statistics, Living Costs and Food Survey

Yours sincerely,

John Pullinger

[1] Based on the Family Expenditure Survey classification (FES); food includes food brought home, food eaten away from the home in restaurants or cafes, as well as take-away food.

[2] Figures have been deflated to 2016/17 prices using the RPI all items index.

[3] From 2001/02 onwards, commodities and services are based on the Classification of Individual Consumption by Purpose (COICOP) codes broadly mapped to FES.