Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the annual budget is for food produced for his Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for his Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

Mr Mark Francois

The Department for Communities and Local Government does not have an annual food budget. Catering services are provided via a contract with Interserve Plc, and is operated on a nil subsidy basis.

Annual spend is determined by the contractor and is informed by private sales to members of staff.

Approximately 34% of products across all food and drink categories were sourced from British producers as at March 2016.This proportion reflects that a large volume of food and drink sold includes non-indigenous products such as rice, pasta, tea, coffee and bananas, and that as this period falls in the Winter season there are out of UK seasonal products procured from the wider EU.

The proportion also reflects consumer trends, and the commercial contractor’s pursuit of value for money given the nil subsidy arrangement.