Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent assessment he has made of the quality of food provided to service personnel since outsourcing to private companies.

The quality of food provision for Service Personnel is monitored and assured constantly.

The standards of food quality are set out in Joint Services Publication (JSP) 456, Defence Food Quality Standards (DFQS), and mandated by Government Buying Standards and supporting publications such as Defence Food Based Standards.

There are several levels of assessment, from daily onsite Orderly Officer checks to the assessment of the food standards by military catering experts. This is to ensure the correct nutritional content of core meals served.

Where breaches in standards do occur, which cannot be rectified at the point of delivery, the assurance processes will lead to financial consequences for the Industry Partner.