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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what metrics the Government plans to use to measure progress towards the commitment that 50% of publicly procured food should be local or produced to higher environmental standards.

The Government remains committed to its ambition that 50% of all food sourced by public bodies is locally produced or grown to higher environmental standards. However, information on the origin and sustainability of food in public sector supply chains is limited. Defra is therefore collecting new data to understand the extent to which public sector settings are serving food from local and sustainable sources and what further action is needed. We expect this work to be completed by Summer 2027.