Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help tackle labour shortages in food distribution.

The Department is helping jobseekers move into roles within the haulage and logistics sectors with a driver training pilot to support people to become HGV drivers and we encourage industry to access their local Jobcentre Plus network to take advantage of the range of support on offer.

Provisions such as the Sector Based Work Academy Programme (SWAPs) gives jobseekers the skills and qualifications they need to take up driver roles.

We are partnering with DfT and industry to collaborate on content for JobHelp, our virtual platform to advise and guide people looking for work. This includes video case studies; myth-busting documents; promoting vacancies in the sector; and guides to working in logistics.