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 with representatives from supermarkets to ensure that people on the covid-19 shielded patient list have access to supermarket home deliveries after support from the Government has ended; and if he will make a statement.

Those who have been advised that they need to shield will still be able to register for support to access food until 17 July. This includes access to emergency food parcels and priority access to supermarket delivery. After this date, the National Shielding Service will no longer accept registrations. From 1 August, the advice to shield ends and so will delivery of emergency food parcels.

Supermarkets and convenience stores have played a phenomenal part in ensuring sure the nation has access to food and essential supplies. Supermarkets have confirmed that shielded individuals who have requested help to access food will retain their priority access to online delivery slots after 1 August.

If an individual registers for support before the deadline, and does not yet have an online account with supermarkets, supermarkets will continue to update their priority matching lists until 31 July. If a supermarket delivery slot is needed, please encourage shielded individuals to create online accounts with supermarkets as soon as possible. We are working continuously across Government and with supermarkets to remove barriers to accessing online delivery.

When the advice to shield ends, there will still be options in place to support people to access food if they need help. If someone cannot access delivery slots, and friends and family are not able to help, then the NHS Volunteer Responders will continue to offer support with getting access to food. There are also other commercially available options including telephone ordering, food box delivery, prepared meal delivery and other non-supermarket food delivery providers. Local Authorities can help people in urgent need of support.