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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps the Government is taking to promote registration for supermarket priority slots for people who (a) are shielding and (b) have arthritis during the covid-19 outbreak.

In March, the Government took swift action to ensure continued access to food for the most vulnerable. Information on how to register for food support, including priority delivery slots has been available on GOV.UK since then.

Working with other Government departments we have attempted to call all those who registered for food support. During these calls we explained the priority delivery slot scheme and encouraged them to sign up for an account with a participating supermarket. We also included information in food boxes which were delivered to those with no other means of accessing food.

Our latest figures show that less than 26,000 of those 500,000 people registered for support were not able to access priority deliveries. We recently contacted these people by email and letter, encouraging them to sign up for an account with a participating supermarket. Supermarkets will continue to match individuals and supply the most vulnerable with priority delivery slots.