Lord Gardiner of Kimble corrected a written answer on Food Banks

7 October 2019 · Lords written answer · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Lord Hylton (Crossbench, Excepted Hereditary) asked written question HL17755 on 5 September 2019. Lord Gardiner of Kimble answered on 9 September 2019 for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, and Lord Gardiner of Kimble corrected the answer on 7 October 2019. The corrected text adds the figures 65 million, £15m, £4.2 million, £81 million, which the original did not give. Altogether 212 words differ between the two versions.

The question

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with food retailers about providing food and other products that would otherwise have to go to landfill sites to food banks; and what plans they have to encourage (1) food retailers to participate in, and (2) the further development of, such provision.

Original and corrected answer

Struck through: original only. Bold: correction only.

Original	Corrected
It has ~~not proved possible~~ to ~~respond~~ to ~~this question~~ in the ~~time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly~~ with the ~~Member.~~	We continue to work with key stakeholders across the food chain to overcome the barriers to redistribution and explore solutions through The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), supported by funding from Defra. All large retailers have relationships with redistribution organisations and we have seen a large increase in redistribution which has almost doubled since 2015 (96% increase), or an additional £81 million of food equivalent to an extra 65 million meals a year. This has been helped by a 63% increase in supply of food from major retailers in recent years. There is still more that can be done, the Government announced in October 2018 a £15m pilot fund for 2019/20 that aims to increase the redistribution of surplus food through a series of grant opportunities. The winners of which will be announced later in the year. We have already awarded £4.2 million of this fund to projects. In line with its commitment in the Resources and Waste Strategy the Government has also appointed Ben Elliot as its Food Waste Reduction Champion. He has been meeting - and continues to work with - business leaders from restaurants and large food retailers to further develop solutions to prevent good food from being wasted.

Original

Corrected

It has ~~not proved possible~~ to ~~respond~~ to ~~this question~~ in the ~~time available before Prorogation. Ministers will correspond directly~~ with the ~~Member.~~

We continue to work with key stakeholders across the food chain to overcome the barriers to redistribution and explore solutions through The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), supported by funding from Defra.
All large retailers have relationships with redistribution organisations and we have seen a large increase in redistribution which has almost doubled since 2015 (96% increase), or an additional £81 million of food equivalent to an extra 65 million meals a year. This has been helped by a 63% increase in supply of food from major retailers in recent years.
There is still more that can be done, the Government announced in October 2018 a £15m pilot fund for 2019/20 that aims to increase the redistribution of surplus food through a series of grant opportunities. The winners of which will be announced later in the year. We have already awarded £4.2 million of this fund to projects.
In line with its commitment in the Resources and Waste Strategy the Government has also appointed Ben Elliot as its Food Waste Reduction Champion. He has been meeting - and continues to work with - business leaders from restaurants and large food retailers to further develop solutions to prevent good food from being wasted.

The question and answer on the Parliament website.

Receipt

Read from	https://questions-statements-api.parliament.uk/api/writtenquestions/questions/1145228?expandMember=true
Date read	15 October 2026
SHA-256	`10a7b823c4c3bb644f45d78808c2d323108be886436bbc244fc77b4dd3ff28d4`