Prioritising British Produce: Public Bodies

20 Mar

Question

The question session focused on the issue of prioritizing British produce in public procurement by public bodies. The discussion was initiated by Labour MP Noah Law, who sought clarity on government actions encouraging public bodies to prioritize British products. His inquiry emphasized using domestic resources, collaborating with local producers, and setting higher environmental standards.

Outcome

The session revealed a strong government commitment to ensuring that 50% of food supplied to public sector catering comes from local sources with an environmentally conscious approach. While the commitments were welcomed, further clarity was sought on the implementation timeline, particularly in light of pressing issues affecting farmers' profitability.

Key Contributions

Noah Law

Labour

Inquired about steps to bolster local produce procurement by public bodies, emphasizing domestic economic benefits and support for higher environmental standards.

Daniel Zeichner

Acknowledged the strategic opportunity to maximize public procurement for British farmers, criticized the previous government's lack of procurement data, and announced ongoing efforts to monitor public sector food procurement reliability.

Madam Deputy SpeakerMadam Deputy Speaker

Ms Nusrat Ghani

Facilitated the discussion to allow further questioning by committee chairs and other members.

Mr Alistair Carmichael

Liberal Democrats

Queried the progress following the Secretary of State's speech, emphasizing the financial pressures on farmers from policy changes and called for timely commitment details related to public procurement.

Daniel Zeichner

Reaffirmed the importance of gauging procurement volumes, challenged delays by previous administrations, and stressed their intention to expedite policy implementation for the benefit of British farmers.

Original Transcript

Noah Law

St Austell and Newquay

Lab

Question

UIN: 903296

9. What steps he is taking to encourage public bodies to prioritise the purchase of British produce.

The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs

Daniel Zeichner

The new national procurement policy statement sets out requirements for Government contracts, and favours high-quality products that we believe British producers are very well placed to supply.

This will support our ambition to ensure that half of the food supplied for public sector catering comes from local producers, or those certified to higher environmental standards.

Noah Law

I welcome the Minister’s commitment to ensuring that 50% of public procurement is of British produce.

Given the significant £5 billion of bargaining power that this represents, what steps is he taking to ensure that this leads to fairer prices for farmers and supports the fundamental operating profitability of the sector?

Daniel Zeichner

I am grateful for the question from my hon. Friend. We are absolutely determined to make the best of this opportunity, not least because the previous Government did not know how much we were actually buying.

The Secretary of State has announced that we will monitor the food bought in the public sector, and that will inform our policy of making sure that British farmers make the most of the opportunity for public procurement.

Madam Deputy Speaker

Ms Nusrat Ghani

09:59

I call the Chair of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee.

Daniel Zeichner

09:59

As I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for St Austell and Newquay (Noah Law), the first thing we needed to do was establish how much we are actually buying, and that is now in progress. I absolutely get the point about the urgency.

The question is why doing this took the previous Government so long when they shared our ambition. We are determined to make this happen.

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