Asked by: Catherine West (Labour - Hornsey and Wood Green)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will issue guidance to courts on ensuring adequate food and drink facilities for jurors.
Answered by Mike Freer - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The jury trial is a critical safeguard to the fairness of criminal proceedings in the Crown Court, and as such jurors are of integral importance to the system.
Jurors are advised in information sent to them before they come to court about the court to which they are being summoned, including the available facilities at the court and in the local area, and also that they are welcome to bring a packed lunch.
During a trial or before selection, jurors are free to leave the court to get refreshments during the lunch break.
Arrangements for deliberation vary due to differences in local arrangements and are subject to judicial direction in any particular trial, but usually jurors are advised to bring a packed lunch (either in person the day before or by email/text message) if the trial is approaching its end and they are likely to go into deliberation the following day.
Jurors can claim a daily amount from the court towards food and drink costs. There does not appear to be the need for any further, central, guidance – which in any event would be difficult to prescribe at a national level, given that the available facilities and local arrangements will legitimately vary across different court centres.
Asked by: Baroness Ritchie of Downpatrick (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what consideration they have given to extending the Soft Drinks Industry Levy to other food and drink products that are high in sugar.
Answered by Baroness Vere of Norbiton - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
The primary aim of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) is to encourage producers to remove added sugar from soft drinks. It has been very successful in this aim, with a reduction of sugar in soft drinks of 46% between 2015 and 2020.
There are no current plans to extend SDIL to other food and drink products. As with all taxes, the Government keeps SDIL under constant review and welcomes representations from stakeholders to inform policy development.
Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what provisions there are in recent free trade agreements to ensure imported food is produced to the UK standards.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
All food and drink products imported into the UK must comply with the UK’s import requirements and standards. The UK’s Free Trade Agreements do not create any new permissions for imports and do not compromise on the UK’s high environmental protection, animal welfare, plant health, and food standards.
The UK’s food safety standards are overseen by the Food Standards Agency and Food Standards Scotland. Both provide independent advice to UK Health ministers. Alongside other government agencies, they oversee the regulation of imported food and feed to ensure that it complies with the UK’s high safety standards, protect ing consumers from unsafe food.
Without exception, the UK will continue to protect food standards in the UK under all existing and future Free Trade Agreements. Decisions on these standards remain a matter for the UK and will be made separately from any trade agreements. The Prime Minister has been clear that there will be no chlorine-washed chicken and no hormone-treated beef on the UK market.
Asked by: Alberto Costa (Conservative - South Leicestershire)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to require manufacturers to fit microplastic-catching filters to new domestic and commercial washing machines.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Government has already taken significant steps to tackle plastic pollution (e.g. microplastics), including restricting the supply of several single-use plastics through introducing a plastic packaging tax from April 2022; restricting the supply of plastic straws, plastic drink stirrers, and plastic-stemmed cotton buds; and preventing billions of plastic microbeads from entering the ocean each year by introducing a ban on microbeads in rinse off personal care products.
The majority of microfibres are removed through water treatment and analysis of the evidence available to date does not show that there is a sufficient benefit to the environment that can justify legislation to mandate the microfibre filters in new washing machines with prices ranging from £30 to £122 per machine, dependent on manufacturer and whether the filters are disposable or reusable. Defra’s Plan for Water therefore includes a commitment for industry to develop low cost, effective microfibre filters on washing machines and encourage their effective use. We have met industry colleagues and posed this challenge, and we look forward to any proposals they are able to share when they are able to do so.
Asked by: Baroness Merron (Labour - Life peer)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of why their target for sugar reduction in food and drink has not been met.
Answered by Lord Markham - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Assessments have been made of why the overall 20% reduction ambition for the voluntary sugar reduction programme has not been delivered. The progress monitoring for retailers and manufacturers for the sugar reduction programme, which is what is being referred to, uses sales weighted averages. These are calculated by weighting mean sugar levels by total volume sales. This gives more weight to products with higher volume sales.
Between 2015 and 2020, good levels of reduction were seen in sales weighted average sugar levels in some categories included in the programme for retailers and manufacturers, including reductions of approximately 15% in breakfast cereals, 13.5% in yogurt and fromage frais, and 7.2% in ice creams, lollies and sorbets.
However, increases were seen in the volume sales of higher sugar products included in the programme, for retailers and manufacturers between 2015 and 2020, including a 32% increase in sweet spreads and sauces and a 27.8% increase in chocolate confectionery. When calculating the overall, sales weighted average sugar reduction figure of 3.5%, these increase in sales negate the reductions made in breakfast cereals and other categories included in the programme.
It is also more difficult for some products included in the programme to reduce sugar levels. Some of these categories have instead taken action to reduce calorie levels, with sales weighted average calorie levels for retailers and manufacturers reducing by 7.1% in ice creams, lollies and sorbets, 4.3% in cakes and 3.2% in chocolate confectionery. These are not included in the overall assessment of sugar reduction achieved to date of 3.5%.
Due to limitations with the data, it is not possible to produce sales weighted average figures for the eating out of home sector, so changes made to products sold in these businesses are not covered in the data above.
The Major Conditions Strategy: case for change and strategic framework, included a commitment to continue to work with stakeholders and industry to reduce levels of sugar, calories and salt, including in baby food and drink.
Asked by: Laurence Robertson (Conservative - Tewkesbury)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the Groceries Supply Code of Practice for (a) farmers and (b) others impacted.
Answered by Mark Spencer - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The Groceries Supply Code of Practice (GSCOP) sets out how designated retailers should manage their relationship with suppliers and was intended to protect food and drink suppliers to major supermarkets from being treated unfairly. It is enforced by the Grocery Code Adjudicator (GCA), and the most recent review published in July 2023 found the GCA to be an effective regulator.
However, most farmers do not supply supermarkets directly and so they are not covered by the GSCOP. As a result, powers were introduced in the Agriculture Act 2020 to enable the introduction of statutory codes of contractual practice to protect farmers. Since then we have been undertaking supply chain fairness reviews into different sectors of farming to understand the specific issues that farmers face.
Using these powers, we will be introducing new regulations on contractual standards for the dairy sector. We plan to introduce these into to Parliament before the Easter Recess. We expect to introduce regulations relating to the pork sector later in 2024. Two new supply chain fairness reviews were announced at the UK Farm to Fork summit on 16 May 2023, into the egg and fresh produce supply chains. We will analyse the responses and provide a summary of the findings and set out next steps.
This issue was also discussed in a parliamentary debate that took place on 22 January in which Government set out its plans for supporting farmers.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Tiverton and Honiton)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she is taking steps to ensure the provision of non-dairy milk products in (a) schools and (b) other early-years learning environments.
Answered by Damian Hinds - Minister of State (Education)
The government’s School Food Standards (SFS) regulate the food and drink provided at both lunchtime and other times of the school day. Although schools are required to make milk available, the SFS (Schedule 1) also enables schools to provide a variety of other drinks including plain soya, rice or oat drinks enriched with calcium and combination, and flavoured variations of these drinks to suit particular medical, dietary and cultural needs. School food policies work best when schools discuss them with parents and pupils, so that parents can raise pupils’ particular dietary needs.
There is a requirement within the early years foundation stage (EYFS) statutory framework that all registered early years settings must ensure that: ‘where children are provided with meals, snacks and drinks, they must be healthy, balanced and nutritious’. The EYFS also states that before a child is admitted to the setting the provider must also obtain information about any special dietary requirements, preferences and food allergies that the child has, and any special health requirements.
The department believes that schools and early year settings are best placed to make decisions about their food policies, taking into account local circumstances and the needs of their children. In doing so, the department expects settings to make reasonable adjustments for children with particular requirements, for example to reflect dietary and cultural needs.
Asked by: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that vegans and vegetarians are provided with appropriate food in the (a) NHS, (b) social care and (c) other health services.
Answered by Andrew Stephenson - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
For the National Health Service, social care and other health services, the Care Quality Commission regulates providers on compliance with Regulation 14 of the Health and Social Care Act 2008 (Regulated Activities) Regulations 2014. This states that health and social care providers must consider people’s preferences, religious and cultural backgrounds when providing food and drink, and that people must have their nutritional needs assessed as quickly as possible and food be provided to meet the needs identified.
NHS England published updated NHS Food Standards in November 2022. The standards set out that menus should be tailored to meet patient’s dietary requirements and personal preferences. To that end, all hospital sites are expected to prepare and provide menus that meet all necessary types of dietary, religious and cultural needs. Vegetarian and vegan meals and snacks have long been part of this choice, and particularly with the focus on providing lower carbon choices, plant based meals are being provided as an extensive range.
Asked by: Stella Creasy (Labour (Co-op) - Walthamstow)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to support businesses impacted by the suspension of trade negotiations with Canada.
Answered by Nusrat Ghani - Minister of State (Minister for Europe)
The pause in negotiations does not impact our existing trade agreement with Canada, which underpins £25.9bn worth of trade a year. This agreement is comprehensive. It maintains zero tariffs on food and drink and a wide range of industrial goods, guarantees UK services companies access to the Canadian market, and protects Intellectual Property.
We continue to work closely with dairy exporters to monitor the impact on recent changes to market access arrangements on cheese. We are also engaging extensively with businesses who may be impacted by impending changes to the arrangements for rules of origin.
Asked by: Ruth Jones (Labour - Newport West)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 20 November 2023 to Question 1716 on Deposit Return Schemes: Drink, if he will publish a timeline for the release of the final impact assessment for the proposed deposit return scheme.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The final Impact Assessment will be published alongside the Statutory Instrument.