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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to (a) reduce food waste and (b) promote more efficient use of resources; and if he will make a statement.

We are fully committed to meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 target, which seeks to halve global food waste at consumer and retail levels by 2030.

In December 2018, the Government launched its Resources and Waste Strategy which sets out our approach to address food waste.

Government grant funding of nearly £3m is supporting the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) to reduce food waste across the supply chain and in the home.

Consumer campaign initiatives including Food Waste Action Week in March and the Love Food Hate Waste programme aim to help consumers tackle waste in the home.

This is supported by the Courtauld 2025 Commitment, a collaboration across the supply chain which aims to help the industry become more resource efficient including a target to reduce UK food waste by 20% per capita by 2025. We also work closely with WRAP on its work with the hospitality industry and the provision of resources such as Guardians of Grub to embed food waste management at the centre of business operations.

In addition to the WRAP funding, a £15m Food Waste Fund was announced in 2018 to help tackle food waste. Over £11m has been awarded to help food surplus redistributors to get more surplus from the supply chain to those in need. Awards have also been made to behaviour change projects and support for a field force for the Food Waste Roadmap that helps businesses become more resource efficient through a Target, Measure, Act approach to food waste.