Asked by: Naz Shah (Labour - Bradford West)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether supermarkets that remain open during the covid-19 outbreak have been provided with business rates relief.
Answered by Jesse Norman
On 17 March the Chancellor announced a business rates holiday for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, irrespective of rateable value, so that all eligible businesses will pay no business rates for 12 months. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has published guidance for local authorities on eligibility of the business rates holiday for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, which included supermarkets.
Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 5 May 2020 to Question 40719 on supermarkets: coronavirus, what steps he is taking to ensure that supermarkets improve the accessibility of online shopping for people with sight loss.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has been working closely with local authorities, retailers, food businesses and charities to ensure that blind and partially sighted people have access to the food and essential goods that they need.
We have published guidance online that explains what steps people can take if they are unable to access food. This guidance has been shared with local authorities, retailers and charities to help them respond to enquiries from those seeking help. The guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-accessing-food-and-essential-supplies.
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 have secured a number of supermarket delivery slots for the dedicated use of vulnerable people who are having difficulties in securing access to food and who have no other options available to them. We are working closely with local authorities and charities to help make sure these delivery slots are made available to those who need them most. We have built a bespoke digital service to enable local authorities and a number of charities to directly refer individuals for access to the prioritised slots.
In addition, over 600,000 people are now registered as NHS Volunteer Responders. Verified volunteer responders can receive tasks to help those in their communities, including through shopping for vulnerable people for food and essential supplies. Health and care professionals and approved charities (including Citizens Advice and Age UK) are now able to refer vulnerable individuals into the system to receive support from volunteers.
It is now possible for individuals to self-refer for assistance from the NHS Volunteer Responders if they consider themselves to be vulnerable and in need of support.
Asked by: Clive Betts (Labour - Sheffield South East)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment has been made of the risk of transfer of covid-19 in supermarkets.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has published evidence on environmental transmission, including indoor and outdoor risks. The two relevant papers are available at the following links:
Asked by: Liz Saville Roberts (Plaid Cymru - Dwyfor Meirionnydd)
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 ensuring that appropriate adjustments have been made to enable as many disabled people as possible to shop safely during the covid-19 outbreak.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
The Government has been working closely with supermarkets to ensure that disabled people have access to the food and essential goods that they need.
We have published guidance online that explains what steps people can take if they are unable to access food. This guidance has been shared with local authorities, retailers and charities to help them respond to enquiries from those seeking help. The guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-accessing-food-and-essential-supplies.
Supermarkets have been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots. We have secured a limited number of supermarket delivery slots for the dedicated use of vulnerable people who are having difficulties in securing access to food and who have no other options available to them. We are working closely with local authorities and charities to help make sure these delivery slots are made available to those who need them most. We have built a bespoke digital service to enable local authorities and a number of charities to directly refer individuals for access to the prioritised slots.
Most supermarkets also offer protected in-store shopping hours to the disabled and their carers.
All major supermarkets have introduced cashless volunteer shopping cards that can be purchased online and used by volunteers to purchase foods on behalf of those self-isolating or in vulnerable groups.
Asked by: Alex Davies-Jones (Labour - Pontypridd)
Question to the Department for Transport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many audits there have been on payments made to bus operators through the Coronavirus Bus Services Support Grant to date.
Answered by Rachel Maclean
The COVID-19 Bus Services Support Grant of £167m initially, and a further £254m, for restarting services will help protect and increase services, allowing people?travelling to hospitals, supermarkets or their place of work to get to their destination safely and quickly, while helping ensure there is enough space for them to observe social distancing guidelines. The level of support offered to bus operators is based on the actual mileage of services provided to ensure that payments are only being made for buses that actually ran. Due diligence checks are made on every operator applying for the scheme, and there will be a reconciliation process after every 12 weeks of funding to ensure that no operator is made better or worse off by providing these services with government support.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government why school meal vouchers can only be used in certain shops and cannot be used in all supermarkets and convenience stores.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
During this period of partial school closures, we are asking schools to support children who are at home and eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children, and we encourage this approach where it is possible. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the department.
Through the national voucher scheme, schools and families could initially access e-gift cards for Morrisons, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda, Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. On Monday 27 April, we added Aldi to this list and on Wednesday 29 April, we added McColl’s. We recognise that it may not be convenient or possible for some families to visit one of these supermarkets and we have been working to see if additional supermarkets can be added to this list. Any additional supermarkets would need to have the right infrastructure to deliver e-gift cards across their network of stores.
If schools are unable to provide meals or food parcels and none of the supermarkets participating in the national voucher scheme are suitable for families, schools can purchase vouchers for alternative shops and claim costs back, up to a certain limit.
Guidance on providing free school meals during the coronavirus outbreak is available here:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
Further guidance on financial support 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.
These are rapidly developing circumstances. We continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Whitchurch (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what arrangements they have put in place for blind and partially sighted people to have priority for supermarket online delivery slots.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
The Government has been working closely with local authorities, retailers, food businesses and charities to ensure that blind and partially sighted people have access to the food and essential goods that they need.
We have published guidance online that explains what steps people can take if they are unable to access food. This guidance has been shared with local authorities, retailers and charities to help them respond to enquiries from those seeking help. The guidance can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-accessing-food-and-essential-supplies.
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.
This crisis has seen a surge in community spirit not seen in many decades, with grassroots support networks springing up all over the country. There are many local community groups who can help, as well as local shops which may be able to provide orders for delivery (by phone or by email). Many local authorities are now publicising such initiatives on their Covid-19 websites and through their Covid-19 helplines.
In addition, over 600,000 people are now registered as NHS Volunteer Responders. Verified volunteer responders can receive tasks to help those in their communities, including through shopping for vulnerable people for food and essential supplies. Health and care professionals and approved charities (including Citizens Advice and Age UK) are now able to refer vulnerable individuals into the system to receive support from volunteers.
Further, it is now possible for individuals to self-refer for assistance from the NHS Volunteer Responders, if they consider themselves to be vulnerable and in need of support.
Asked by: Rosie Cooper (Labour - West Lancashire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how people shielding due to the covid-19 outbreak will be allocated supermarkets for priority deliveries; and whether those people will be offered a choice of supermarket where they are not an existing customer.
Answered by Victoria Prentis - Attorney General
Defra is working closely with supermarkets to ensure that people who have registered with the Government as extremely clinically vulnerable and have indicated that they need help to access food are supported, by offering them emergency food parcels provided by the Government or by sharing data to facilitate priority access to online supermarket delivery slots. People can register with supermarkets where they were not previously customers in order to ensure that they can access the food and essential goods that they need.
Asked by: Baroness Grey-Thompson (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of (1) the ability of supermarkets to identify vulnerable people to ensure that they are able to arrange food deliveries, and (2) the concerns raised by many disabled people that personal information may be sold on via marketing companies.
Answered by Lord Gardiner of Kimble
Defra works closely with supermarkets to ensure that people who have registered with the Government as extremely clinically vulnerable, and have indicated that they need help to access food, are supported by offering them emergency food parcels provided by the Government.
Supermarkets have been working at pace to expand the total number of delivery and click and collect slots for people in the wider non-shielded vulnerable category.
Data has been made available to supermarkets on a strictly limited and controlled basis for the purpose of helping vulnerable people; supermarkets cannot contact anyone who does not have an account with them and individuals’ data will not be passed anywhere apart from to participating supermarkets. We have written agreements in place governing the sharing, use and retention of data. This precludes the sale of data that has been shared with them, or its use in any way contrary to the purpose under which it is shared.
Asked by: Baroness Boycott (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what is the current take up rate of the national voucher scheme; and how many vouchers provided through that scheme have been spent in supermarkets.
Answered by Baroness Berridge
As my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have both made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by Covid-19.
Our latest guidance for schools is set out below:
During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children and we encourage this approach where it is possible.
Where this is not possible, we have introduced a national voucher scheme to provide headteachers with additional flexibility to decide what is best for families at their schools. More information about the national voucher scheme is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.
As of Friday 22 May, Edenred reported that over £101.5 million has been redeemed into supermarket vouchers by families and schools. As of Tuesday 12 May, Edenred reported that 17,000 schools had placed an order. Schools will continue to receive their core funding allocations as normal.
These are rapidly developing circumstances. We will continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.