Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to collaborate with Cabinet colleagues to provide (a) food and (b) other humanitarian support for vulnerable people as part of (a) Test and Trace, (b) Local Lockdowns and (c) the Government's programme of economic recovery after the covid1-9 outbreak.
Answered by Simon Clarke
We are working with other Government departments and supporting local authorities to respond to additional vulnerability created by the COVID-19 outbreak through financial support, as well as engaging civil society and supermarkets to provide further assistance, including access to food and essential supplies.
The Government has also confirmed an additional £63 million for local authorities to help those who are struggling financially due to the impact of COVID-19.
We have worked with Defra to provide approximately 3.5 million free food parcels in total, and currently around 250,000 each week, to people in England who are shielding and have said they need support getting essential food supplies.
The Government has also announced up to £16 million to provide food for charities and other organisations supporting those who are struggling financially as a result of coronavirus.
As part of this, Defra has also opened up the £3.5 million Food Charities Grant Fund for front-line food aid charities, offering grants up to £100,000 to support charities to continue to provide food to vulnerable people.
We are working with DHSC to support local authorities to respond to Covid-19 outbreaks by ensuring capacity and accessibility is available for testing vulnerable groups. The Test and Trace scheme ensures that anyone who develops symptoms of coronavirus can quickly be tested to find out if they have the virus, and also includes targeted asymptomatic testing of NHS and social care staff and care home residents.
Asked by: Richard Fuller (Conservative - North East Bedfordshire)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to his Department's press release, New measures on night time deliveries to supermarkets to support coronavirus response, published on 9 March 2020, whether the measures on extended delivery hours for supermarkets and other food retailers have since been revoked.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided to PQ 62505 on June 30 2020:
Asked by: Tulip Siddiq (Labour - Hampstead and Kilburn)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the COVID Summer Food Fund, whether the alternative support of up to £90 per pupil can be used to (a) make cash payments to families, (b) pay for the production and distribution of meals and (c) provide free school meal support in other ways.
Answered by Vicky Ford
Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term-time only. However, owing to the COVID-19 outbreak, the government fully understands that children and parents face an entirely unprecedented situation over the summer. To reflect this, we will be providing additional funding for a Covid Summer Food Fund which will enable families with children who are eligible for benefits-related free school meals to receive food vouchers covering the 6-week holiday period. Our guidance on the Covid Summer Food Fund is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/covid-summer-food-fund.
Schools can order vouchers for the Covid Summer Food Fund through the same Edenred portal that was created for our national free school meals voucher scheme during term time. The department will meet the cost of vouchers ordered through this portal, and a wide range of supermarkets are participating: Aldi, Asda, Company Shop Group, Iceland (including The Food Warehouse Stores), Marks & Spencer, McColl’s, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. Since the scheme’s launch in March, the department and Edenred have continually upgraded this system, and over 18,500 schools had placed orders through this site as of 30 June. Thousands of families are receiving free school meals vouchers through this system. Overall, over £238 million worth of voucher codes has been redeemed into supermarket e-gift cards by schools and families through the scheme, as of 10 July.
Many parents will be able to access one or more of the supermarkets on our national scheme. However, if a school considers that its families cannot access any of these supermarkets, they can make alternative voucher arrangements with a local supermarket or they can arrange food parcels for collection or delivery to eligible children. Schools can claim for the costs through the department’s exceptional fund. Where schools are ordering alternative vouchers for the summer holidays, these orders must be placed one week before the school summer term ends. If schools arrange food parcels in the summer holidays, these can only be ordered for children in receipt of free school meals before the summer holidays begin. The guidance on the exceptional costs fund is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-financial-support-for-schools/school-funding-exceptional-costs-associated-with-coronavirus-covid-19-for-the-period-march-to-july-2020.
Asked by: Jon Trickett (Labour - Hemsworth)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, how many and what proportion of people classed as clinically extremely vulnerable had registered for Government coronavirus support for the clinically extremely vulnerable as of 13 May 2020.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
341,463 clinically extremely vulnerable individuals had registered to request support with food and/or basic care as at 13 May 2020, using either the website https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus-extremely-vulnerable or dedicated call center helpline. Everyone who has requested support with food has had their data passed to supermarkets for access to priority delivery slots. There are around 2.2 million clinically extremely vulnerable individuals in England, and the vast majority of those registering their needs do not request support.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with representatives of supermarkets on increasing the number of food bank collection points.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra has well-established ways of working with the food industry sectors. We are liaising with retailers regularly to discuss various issues including food banks.
We welcome the efforts of industry to support the operation of food banks and front-line charities during the coronavirus pandemic, including through generous donations of food. Retailers have also implemented a number of solutions to make it easy for customers to make donations to food banks by setting up donation points in store, in addition to making direct donations to food banks.
For those in severe financial difficulties, the Government announced up to £16 million to provide food for charities and other organisations supporting those who are struggling as a result of the coronavirus. The programme will provide millions of meals over 12 weeks. As part of this, Defra has also opened up the £3.5 million Food Charities Grant Fund for front-line food aid charities, offering grants up to £100,000, to support charities to continue to provide food to vulnerable people. On 10 June the Prime Minister announced over £60 million in support to local authorities in England to help people who are struggling to afford food and other essentials during the coronavirus pandemic.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he has taken to encourage more (a) food producers and (b) supermarkets to increase levels of donations to (i) food banks and (ii) other food poverty alleviation schemes.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Supermarkets are donating money and food to local communities, charities and food banks to respond to COVID-19. For example, Tesco is providing a £30 million package of support that includes a £25 million food donations programme. Sainsbury's has donated £3 million to FareShare, Asda donated £5 million to food banks and community charities to help people through COVID-19 and Morrisons has promised £10 million of dedicated stock to be set aside for local food banks. Other supermarkets have also made donations.
For those who find themselves in severe financial difficulties, the Government announced up to £16 million to provide food for charities and other organisations supporting those who are struggling as a result of coronavirus. The programme is providing millions of meals over 12 weeks and is being delivered through charities including FareShare and the Waste and Resources Action Programme. This builds on the generous donations already provided by the industry, including supermarkets.
As part of this, Defra has also opened up the £3.5 million Food Charities Grant Fund for front-line food aid charities, offering grants up to £100,000 to support charities to continue to provide food to vulnerable people.
On 10 June the Prime Minister announced over £60 million in support to local authorities in England to help people who are struggling to afford food and other essentials because of COVID-19.
Asked by: Jane Hunt (Conservative - Loughborough)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions he has had with representatives from supermarkets on accessibility for (a) blind and (b) partially sighted people (i) under current covid-19 social distancing restrictions and (ii) as those restrictions are eased.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
We are working closely with local authorities, retailers, food businesses and charities to enable blind and partially sighted people to access food through a variety of ways including: volunteers shopping for them, food deliveries from local retailers, wholesalers and food businesses, many of whom will take orders over the phone, as well increasing access to supermarkets for a priority delivery or click and collect slots. We have been able to secure a limited number of online delivery slots for the dedicated use of vulnerable people having difficulties getting food. The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), alongside local authorities and other charities, can now help vulnerable individuals access these delivery slots.
The NHS Volunteer Responders programme can be used by people who need to access food and essential supplies - they can be reached by calling 0808 196 3646 or visiting nhsvolunteerresponders.org.uk. In addition, various sight loss charities are working directly with some of the major supermarkets to take forward some practical initiatives to help people with sight loss to access supermarkets.
We are conscious that vulnerable people, including those who are blind or partially sighted, need further information on support services as social distancing restrictions ease. We are working closely with local authorities, charities and retailers to understand how changes in Government advice may affect accessibility and will update the community in due course.
Asked by: Alec Shelbrooke (Conservative - Elmet and Rothwell)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to reinstate the conditions on food supply deliveries which were relaxed on 13 March 2020 due to the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government made a Written Ministerial Statement on 13 March, setting out the need for flexibility around deliveries to supermarkets and other retailers of food, sanitary and other essential items given the disruption to supply chains due to the impact of the Coronavirus. This statement is being kept under review. Conditions are a matter for local authorities, and should be kept to a minimum, and must meet the tests set out in National Planning Policy Framework of being necessary, relevant to planning and the development, enforceable, precise, and reasonable in all other respects. We are also continuing to engage with supermarkets on the extent to which the relaxation is being used.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, when he plans to end the relaxation of restrictions on night-time deliveries to supermarkets; and what plans he has to introduce tighter conditions on the time of deliveries where they cause a disturbance to neighbouring residents.
Answered by Christopher Pincher
The Government made a Written Ministerial Statement on 13 March, setting out the need for flexibility around deliveries to supermarkets and other retailers of food, sanitary and other essential items given the disruption to supply chains due to the impact of the Coronavirus. This statement is being kept under review. Conditions are a matter for local authorities, and should be kept to a minimum, and must meet the tests set out in National Planning Policy Framework of being necessary, relevant to planning and the development, enforceable, precise, and reasonable in all other respects. We are also continuing to engage with supermarkets on the extent to which the relaxation is being used.
Asked by: Tom Tugendhat (Conservative - Tonbridge and Malling)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking with representatives from supermarkets to ensure that people on the covid-19 shielded patient list have access to supermarket home deliveries after support from the Government has ended; and if he will make a statement.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Those who have been advised that they need to shield will still be able to register for support to access food until 17 July. This includes access to emergency food parcels and priority access to supermarket delivery. After this date, the National Shielding Service will no longer accept registrations. From 1 August, the advice to shield ends and so will delivery of emergency food parcels.
Supermarkets and convenience stores have played a phenomenal part in ensuring sure the nation has access to food and essential supplies. Supermarkets have confirmed that shielded individuals who have requested help to access food will retain their priority access to online delivery slots after 1 August.
If an individual registers for support before the deadline, and does not yet have an online account with supermarkets, supermarkets will continue to update their priority matching lists until 31 July. If a supermarket delivery slot is needed, please encourage shielded individuals to create online accounts with supermarkets as soon as possible. We are working continuously across Government and with supermarkets to remove barriers to accessing online delivery.
When the advice to shield ends, there will still be options in place to support people to access food if they need help. If someone cannot access delivery slots, and friends and family are not able to help, then the NHS Volunteer Responders will continue to offer support with getting access to food. There are also other commercially available options including telephone ordering, food box delivery, prepared meal delivery and other non-supermarket food delivery providers. Local Authorities can help people in urgent need of support.