Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to set a target for reducing the number of households using food banks.

We are committed to tackling poverty and reducing the need for emergency food support. The Households Below Average Income and Family Resources (HBAI) publication provides annual high-quality official statistics which are used to track a range of measures, including poverty, food security and food bank use. Statistics on the number of individuals living in food insecure households in the UK were first introduced in 2019/20.

Both our Child Poverty Strategy and action to address the manifesto commitment to reduce reliance on emergency food parcels draw on high-quality data produced in the HBAI that covers poverty, food insecurity and food bank use.

Furthermore, we have taken action to address poverty and to reduce the need for emergency food support through targeted social security measures. This includes the removal of the two-child limit in Universal Credit which will lift 450,000 children out of poverty, and the expansion of free school meals to all households receiving Universal Credit which is expected to lift 100,000 children out of poverty by the end of this Parliament.