Westminster’s Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has published the Government’s response to its second Covid-19 and Food Supply report.
Despite repeated recommendations made in the report to address high levels of food insecurity, the Committee express disappointment in the Government’s ‘lacklustre’ response.
- Read the Government Response: COVID-19 and the issues of security in food supply
- Inquiry: COVID-19 and food supply: follow up
- Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee
The report, published in April, scrutinised food supply and food security in the UK in the six months following the publication of the Committee’s original Covid-19 and Food Supply report in July 2020.
Despite now being urged twice by the Committee to appoint a new Minster for Food Security and consult on a national ‘right to food’ in England, the Government’s response fails to commit to either.
With many in the UK currently experiencing food insecurity as a result of the covid-19 pandemic, the cross-party Committee had urged the Government to work cross-departmentally, conducting an annual food security report and ensuring that everyone, and especially the most vulnerable, have access to enough affordable nutritious food.
Neil Parish MP, Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, said: “In April, we urged the Government to maintain the momentum gained during the covid crisis to keep society’s most vulnerable people fed.
“Despite our Committee making clear recommendations, the Government’s response is lacklustre, kicking the can down the road on long-term actions which would tackle the very pressing issue of food insecurity.
“A great deal of expectation now rests on Henry Dimbleby’s National Food Strategy – something my Committee will be keeping a close eye on. We hope he will be more ambitious and that the Government will finally recognises the seriousness- and urgency- of the matter.”
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