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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether his Department's resources and waste strategy due to be published later this year is planned to include policies to achieve greater transparency on the reporting by retailers of food waste produced (a) in their operations and (b) throughout their supply chains.

Food waste has a financial and environmental cost and is an issue requiring urgent action. Through our work with the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), the UK has taken concerted action since 2007 and we are leading the way in the EU and internationally.

The Courtauld Commitment 2025 is an ambitious ten-year voluntary agreement that brings together organisations across the food system to identify priorities, develop solutions and implement changes at scale, both within signatory organisations and by spreading new best practice across the UK. A core part of Courtauld 2025 is the measurement of food waste as this is vital to record progress towards meeting national and international targets.

As part of Courtauld 2025 the Institute of Grocery Distribution and WRAP have worked with a wide range of business representatives to develop a set of principles on how to measure food that goes to waste. We support the actions of several retailers in measuring and publishing their food surplus and waste data and encourage other food businesses to follow their lead. The Resources and Waste Strategy will set out further policies on food waste later in the year.