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 to support sustainable towns and communities initiatives that bring together local stakeholders to reduce food waste across their locality.

We support the Waste Resources Action Programme (WRAP) and the Courtauld 2030 commitment which aims to halve UK food waste by 2030. This will be achieved through consumer campaigns, such as Love Food Hate Waste, as well as by working with businesses on helping consumers to waste less through best practice labelling advice and guidance, for instance on freezing and chilling foods.

WRAP has also developed a new online learning programme called Guardians of Grub to help UK hospitality and food service businesses put food waste reduction and associated cost savings right at the heart of their operations, including supporting consumers to reduce food waste when eating out of home.

Since 2017, Defra has made a series of grants available to help the redistribution sector. In total nearly £12 million has been awarded to over 250 large and small redistribution organisations across the country for the provision of for example warehousing, vehicles, fridges and freezers to get more surplus food to those who have a need.