Lord Kennedy of Southwark – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Lord Kennedy of Southwark on 2015-11-26.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government why they have made no assessment of the number of people experiencing food insecurity.

Lord Gardiner of Kimble

There is no single definition of food insecurity. The factors that impact on household food security are complex. There are multiple indicators such as quality, variety and desirability of diet as well as total intake, not all of which are measured consistently. It is therefore very difficult and potentially misleading to attempt to develop a single classification of food insecurity.

Defra publishes statistics annually to show the proportion of household income spent on food by (a) all households and (b) the lowest income 20% of households.The most recent statistics are in the Food Statistics Pocketbook 2015 on the GOV.UK website.