Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with Cabinet colleagues on creating financial incentives for making food available to a food banks, with a similar incentive structure to those for sending food waste to anaerobic digestors.

The Secretary of State has regular discussions with Cabinet colleagues on a range of matters, and Cabinet discussions are considered confidential.

There are tax incentives for companies to redistribute food. If a company donates its trading stock to a charity then the company in question would not have to include anything in its sales income for the value of the gift. This means, the company receives tax relief on the cost of the stock given away. Further information can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/tax-limited-company-gives-to-charity/equipment-and-trading-stock.

There is also encouragement to redistribute or use for animal feed, as the anaerobic digestion plant gate fees act as a disincentive for the food and drink sector to dispose of unwanted food. A gate fee is typically charged for the disposal of unwanted food at anaerobic digestion plants, whereas this is not required for food redistribution. The latest Waste and Resources Action Programme gate fee survey from 2021 indicates that the median gate fee to process food waste by anaerobic digestion in the UK is £30-33 per tonne.

The Green Gas Support Scheme provides tariff support for biomethane produced from anaerobic digestion. The scheme  has  an eligibility requirement for at least 50% of all biomethane (by energy content) to be produced using waste or residue feedstocks, including food waste.