Public Bodies (Sustainable Food) Bill
On 30 June 2010 I introduced to Parliament the 'Public Bodies (Sustainable Food) Bill'.
Read more about the Bill below.
Why is legislation needed?
The government spends more than £2 billion every year on food which is served in public institutions, including schools, hospitals, care homes, the armed forces and prisons. Except for school meals (which have to meet nutritional standards because of a long and hard fought public campaign supported by celebrity chef Jamie Oliver) this food does not have to meet ANY health, environmental or ethical standards.
Public sector food is often unhealthy to eat, produced in a way that damages the environment and procured without any ethical consideration e.g. whether meat is from animals reared in conditions with low animal welfare standards or whether farmers have been paid a fair price and on time.
The government has a responsibility to make sure that the food it purchases with taxpayers’ money is healthy and leads by example to protect the environment and promote ethical practice - like supporting local farmers, sustainable fish, fair trade and higher animal welfare standards for meat and poultry.
Years of failed attempts by government to introduce public sector food standards voluntarily have proved that the only way to achieve real change is to introduce mandatory health, environmental and ethical food standards which are backed by legislation. This would achieve the added benefit of reducing the cost of good food through economies of scale and by simplifying the procurement process for commercial caterers. This approach has the backing of leading commercial caterers as well as the farming sector.
Other benefits achieved by mandatory standards for better public sector food would:
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create a reliable market for good food and stimulate supply from British farmers that are producing food to a high standard,
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reduce costs to the public purse associated with bad food, including tackling diet-related ill health, unemployment in rural areas and the huge environmental costs of climate change caused in significant part by the food system,
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create a transparent system of public sector food procurement, where taxpayers’ know what their money is buying.
Although public sector budgets are being squeezed, it has been demonstrated that buying good food does not have to cost more. Public institutions which have radically transformed the health and sustainability of their food have shown that public sector meals can be improved without any extra cost. In addition, it can lead to huge long-term savings for the public purse, including, for example, reducing state expenditure on the NHS by tackling diet-related ill health. Successes have been driven by enterprising catering managers in a handful or public sector organisations but good practice has not spread.
The Public Bodies (Sustainable Food) Bill would introduce mandatory health, environmental and ethical standards for public sector food by doing two simple things:
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It would require government to create a ‘Code for Sustainable Food’, which would include important health, environmental and ethical standards
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It would set out a process by which public sector bodies implement the ‘Code for Sustainable Food’
There is already similar legislation in place to improve the environmental performance of new buildings. In this case, new homes commissioned by the public sector are required to meet basic minimum environmental standards included in a ‘Code for Sustainable Homes’, with additional ‘points’ allocated for even better environmental performance. The higher number of points earned in the Code the better environmental rating a building achieves, while new buildings have to meet a certain number of points by a set date.
Improving public sector food can be achieved by taking sensible, cost neutral procurement decisions. For example, there is a wealth of evidence to demonstrate that making the following changes vastly improves the health and sustainability of public sector food without creating any extra cost:
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Ensuring all meat and dairy products meet, at least, Red Tractor Farm Assurance Standards or equivalent European accreditation and all eggs are from cage-free hens.
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Specifying that no fish is to be served from the Marine Conservation Society (MCS) 'fish to avoid' list or the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) red list.
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Requiring all main meals to contain fruit and/or vegetables and that steps are taken to improve nutrient intake by sourcing food that is lower in salt, hydrogenated and saturated fat and sugars.
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Meeting prompt payment
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Taking steps to reduce food waste
The ‘Code for Sustainable Homes’ has shown that standards can continue to be improved by requiring public bodies to meet a number of ‘points’ for good practice over time. Points would be allocated in the Code for Sustainable Food for good practice to improve the health, environmental or ethical standard of the food. To ensure progress over time, a minimum number of points would then need to be achieved by a certain date.
1. IS REGULATION NECESSARY?
Legally binding standards are the only way that widespread improvements in public sector food can be achieved. Years of voluntary initiatives by government to improve public sector food have failed. Sustain published a report called “A Decade of Hospital Food Failure” which shows that £54 million has been spent by government on voluntary initiatives to improve hospital food in the previous ten years – and none of them have been successful. In addition, the Government commissioned Deloitte to evaluate the ‘Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative’ (PSFPI), which was set up by Defra and ran between 2003 -2009 to increase the amount of good local food purchased in the public sector. The report made clear that PSFPI suffered from a lack of take-up and poor leadership, and that mandatory standards were needed to make real progress. This is a sentiment that was echoed by the Council of Food Policy Advisors, which was set up to advise Defra about food policy, in 2009.
2. IS IT GOING TO COST MORE?
A handful of pioneering public institutions have been buying ‘good’ food over a number of years. It is these organisations that have proved that buying healthy and sustainable food does not have to increase costs. Without mandatory enforcement, public institutions have no incentive to change the food that they buy while commercial caterers, like Compass Group Plc, have publicly argued that mandatory standards would simplify the procurement process and bring down costs (please see ‘cost benefits’ in the 'useful stats' section below).
In the long-term, buying better public sector food would reduce costs caused by unhealthy food e.g. by tackling diet-related ill health which cost the NHS £6 billion every year.
Legal standards for public sector food are supported by a wide range of national organisations, including health and environmental groups, public sector organisations, commercial caterers, farming groups and big business. Already, the Bill is supported by more than fifty national organisations, including the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Women’s Institute (NFWI), Fairtrade Foundation, Royal Society for Public Health, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, LEAF – Linking Farming and Environment, and the NUT. It is worth noting that Compass Group PLC, the biggest caterer in the world, supports mandatory standards for public sector food.
Joan Walley MP for Stoke-on-Trent North introduced the ‘Public Bodies (Sustainable Food) Bill in June 2010. The Bill will receive its Second Reading on 12 November 2010. We will soon be setting up an online ‘take action’ page on the campaign website so that you can write to your MP to ask them to support the Bill.
Scale of expenditure
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The government spends more than £2.2 billion on food in the public sector each year (approx. £600 million of this is spent on school food, £500 million on hospital meals and £135 million on food served to the armed forces)
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The public sector provides well over a million meals every day and more than one billion meals every year
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Every year the NHS alone buys over 300 million meals for staff, patients and visitors, spending £500 million in the process
Health
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Diet-related ill health costs the NHS £6 billion each year
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70,000 deaths in the UK each year could be prevented if diets met nutritional guidelines
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Eating 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day can reduce risk of death from chronic disease (e.g. diabetes, stoke, cancer) by 20%
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The World Health Organisation estimates that chronic disease is responsible for 6 out of 10 global deaths
Environmenta
l
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The food system is responsible for between 20 - 30% of global greenhouse-gas-emissions when land clearance is considered
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9 out of 10 eggs purchased in the public sector are battery eggs
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There are no rules in place to stop public sector institutions buying endangered fish
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The public sector rarely, if ever, buys food from British farmers who are taking action to improve their environmental impact
Social benefits
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A report by East Ayrshire Council found that for every £1 spent on seasonal and organic food in East Ayrhisre primary schools over £2.28 of investment was injected into the local community e.g. through the creation of new jobs
Cost benefits
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A Government commissioned report into Defra’s ‘Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative’ (PSFPI) concluded that costs decreased when there was an increase in the procurement of UK, regional, seasonal, farm-assured and small/local supplier produce (60% of those surveyed reported cost decreases or no impact on food costs)
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Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust saves £20,000 per annum by buying locally procured fruit and vegetables
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71% of Food for Life public sector institutions reported that the implementation of Food for Life sustainability criteria was cost neutral and 29% reported overall cost savings
Please visit the Sustain website which will be kept up to date on the Bill and will have information about how you can help.