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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment she has made of the impact of rises in the price of food on the provision of public sector food.

Rising food prices are dependent on a combination of factors including agri-food import prices, domestic agricultural prices, domestic labour and manufacturing costs. Given sustained pressures, there is still uncertainty over when food price inflation will peak and begin to fall, but our expectations, supported by external evidence, are that this will be in the next few months. Defra is closely monitoring the situation and taking action to maintain an efficient food supply chain by mitigating against any potential burdens or friction which could otherwise drive-up consumer food prices.

Defra has well established ways of working with industry and across Government to gather evidence and monitor risks that may arise. This includes extensive, regular and ongoing engagement in preparedness for, and response to, issues with the potential to cause disruption to food supply chains. Lead Government departments will be responsible for ensuring that they have sufficient evidence to show that major suppliers can fulfil their public sector food contracts. The Government Commercial Function has provided general guidance on handling inflationary pressures to Contracting Authorities.