2Hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK
11.The UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development, a cross-sector network of organisations working to drive action on the SDGs, have highlighted a number of nutrition-related challenges in the UK. In their July 2018 report, Measuring Up, UKSSD found that, in the overall implementation of the SDGs in the UK, “while there is an enormous amount to celebrate, the most vulnerable places and people in our society are increasingly being left behind.”.17 The report drew attention to the UK’s current struggle to “address malnutrition in all its forms”, with “food insecurity and obesity rising.”18 It summarised that:
The ‘average’ situation in the UK hides large variations according to socioeconomic status, and two juxtaposed challenges: high and growing levels of obesity and diet related disease, and among the highest levels of household food insecurity in Europe. These challenges are underpinned by a food system which is struggling to provide healthy, sustainable, diverse diets for everyone in the UK.19
12.UKSSD assessed the UK’s domestic performance against the targets which underlie Goal 2. It judged that all relevant targets were either amber (where “there are some gaps in policy coverage, the UK is not performing well enough or performance is deteriorating”) or red (where “there is little or no policy in place that adequately addresses the target, performance is poor.”)20
Figure 3: UKSSD’s assessment of the UK’s performance against SDG 2 targets
Source: UKSSD written evidence, from their Measuring UP report21
13.This chapter looks at the UK’s performance against targets 2.1 and 2.2, where performance was poorest. It therefore focuses on current levels of food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition in the UK. It assesses what Government is doing to handle these challenges, and whether it is on track to meet its Agenda 2030 targets to end hunger; ensure access by all people to safe, nutritious and sufficient food all year round; and end malnutrition.
Scale of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK
Hunger
14.There is no single, nationwide Government measure for hunger in the UK. The Committee heard evidence of the high and growing number of people experiencing hunger in the UK. The Food Foundation estimates 1.97 million people within the UK may be undernourished.22 However the British Association for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (BAPEN) places the number of malnourished, specifically undernourished, people at 3 million, of which 1.3 million are over 65.23 While 93% of undernourished people are living in the community, BAPEN also found issues in social care.24 They calculated a risk of undernourishment in:
- 25–34% of people admitted to hospital;
- 30–42% of those admitted to care homes;
- 18–20% of those admitted to mental health units; and
- 10–14% of people living in sheltered housing.25
15.City Harvest calculated that in London alone, 9 million meals are needed per month to alleviate hunger - or about 300,000 meals per day.26 Moreover, the number of people requiring food support services is growing.27 The Trussell Trust, which provides approximately 60% of the UK’s food banks, reported that in 2017–18 they alone had distributed 1,332,952 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis (nearly 484,026 of which went to children), compared to 913,138 in 2013–14, an increase of 46%.28 They noted that the most likely groups to require foodbanks were “disabled people, people dealing with an illness, families with children and single parents,”29 In 2016 The Food Foundation have estimated that “17 times the number using Trussell Trust food banks are food insecure. This is because people may use non-Trussell Trust food banks, or more likely, because many people don’t access food assistance at all.”30
16.The Food Foundation told the Committee:
In a country such as the UK with a developed health and social care system and consistent food security, it should be feasible to achieve nearly undetectable levels of undernourishment.31
Food insecurity
17.Food insecurity is a “limited access to food … due to lack of money or other resources.”32 The level of food insecurity can be measured on the Food Insecurity and Experience Scale (FEIS).
Figure 4: Food Insecurity and Experience Scale
Source: Scale from The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations33
18.A 2018 report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), averaging data from 2015 to 2017, estimated that 2.2 million people in the UK were severely food insecure.34 This is the highest reported level in Europe, and means that the UK is responsible for one in five of all severely food insecure people in Europe.35 In June 2017, UNICEF found that that in the UK approximately 19% of children under age 15 live with an adult who is moderately or severely food insecure, of whom half are severely food insecure. The Food Foundation suggest that this makes the UK “one of, if not the, worst performing nations in the European Union,” (see graph below).36
Figure 5: Levels of food insecurity among children under 15 in EU nations
Source: The Food Foundation, 2017 analysis using data from 2014 and 2015.37 Reproduced with permission, emphasis added.
19.Some groups may be more vulnerable to food insecurity than others. Almost half of young mothers (aged 16–24) surveyed by Young Women’s Trust admitted regularly missing meals to provide for their children.38 A study by the Food Standards Agency found that in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, food insecurity concerns particularly affect the unemployed (47%) and those in the lowest income quartile (34%), and that women were more likely to live in food insecure households than men (10% compared to 6%).39
20.The Food Foundation noted that the prevalence and role of food insecurity does not seem to be understood in Government:
DEFRA’s Single Departmental Plan does not include a measure for food insecurity and the Department of Health and Social Care’s plan focuses solely on obesity. This limits Government’s awareness of the prevalence of food insecurity in the UK and prevents it appropriately reporting on SDG2 and implementing a proportionate solution to tacking the problem.40
21.Iain Bell, Deputy National Statistician at the ONS, highlighted the current difficulties resulting from a “confused set of requirements” on measuring food insecurity in the UK.
What we are doing at the moment is working with colleagues around the table and wider colleagues across Government to get to the bottom of what is the requirement for the data on food insecurity. Then we can go about setting the best way of measuring it. In order to do that, we are going to need administrative data from HMRC and DWP to make sure we have the full set. Whether we end up on the Food Insecurity Experience Scale or the US set of questions, I believe we will need some changes to our household surveys. I can assure the Committee we will make any necessary changes once we have clarity of requirement.41
Malnutrition and obesity
22.The Food Foundation argues that “when interpreting Goal 2 in the UK context, the challenges of food insecurity, poor nutrition and obesity need to be considered under the heading of ‘malnutrition in all its forms’”.42 This is supported by Sustain, UKSSD, WWF and End Hunger UK.43
23.While most focus in the UK is on obesity, malnutrition is interpreted both in terms of wasting (underweight) and overweight.44 Malnutrition in the form of obesity affected 12% of children aged 4–5 in Wales and 10% in England in 2016.45 It also affected 6% of children aged 4–6 in Scotland in 2015 and 5% of children aged 4–5 in Northern Ireland in 2014.46 Among 4–5 year olds, malnutrition in the form of being underweight affected 1% of children in England and 0.8% in Wales in 2016, and 0.4% of children in Scotland in 2015.47 Data on Northern Ireland are not currently available.48 Data on the prevalence of stunting in the UK are also not currently available, but ONS are working to include it in the National Childhood Measurement Programme, which is run through local authorities and through NHS Digital.49
24.Crucially, obesity can also coexist with other forms of malnutrition. This is key to understanding how high levels of food insecurity can sit alongside relatively low levels of underweight children, and high levels of obese children. End Hunger UK describes how food insecurity can contribute to both obesity and under-nutrition, and how all three can coexist:
Insufficient access to food can result in compromised health for a number of reasons. It can lead to the adoption of risk-averse food purchasing habits, where, in the face of having little to spend, households prioritise purchasing foods that will not go to waste and that are most filling. Often this means a reliance on cheap foods that are nutrient-poor but calorie-rich.50
Figure 6: FAO’s Pathways from inadequate food access to multiple forms of malnutrition
Source: Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, 2018.51 Reproduced with permission.
25.This has led to a call by some, such as the Patient’s Association, to develop a definition of under-nutrition which includes both underweight and overweight individuals, and an assessment tool for identifying it.52 Currently, such an indicator or tool does not exist. The Patient’s Association has expressed concern that:
The issue of malnutrition amongst children has traditionally, although not exclusively, focused on malnutrition in the developing world. However, malnutrition or undernutrition in children in the UK is an increasing problem.
26.This mismatch in focus is reflected in the Government’s update on its Agenda 2030 progress. The update addresses “hunger and malnutrition” in its “Around the World” section, but misses it out entirely when addressing the UK Government’s approach to delivering the SDGs “At Home.”53 While the “At Home” section does cover “healthy and balanced diets”, this is done within the context of Government’s obesity strategy.54 The obesity strategy does not mention malnutrition or food insecurity, and while it does indicate that obesity levels are higher amongst children from more deprived backgrounds, it fails to put this in the context of food insecurity.55
Causes of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK
27.The evidence that we collected outlines how a broad range of complex factors may cause and worsen food insecurity in the UK. For example, the Food Foundation detailed how poverty, resource constraint, family dynamics, gender, disordered eating and mental health issues can all play a role in obesity:
There are a number of explanations given for this including that the cheapest food is often the most energy dense and least nutritious, that mothers act as the nutritional buffer in households and where meals are irregular and uncertain they may develop unhealthy eating patterns which create risks of obesity or where anxiety and stress about securing enough food to eat triggers a raft of mental health problems which expose these women to additional risks of obesity.56
28.The increased prevalence of severe food insecurity amongst a range of more vulnerable groups (see previous section) suggests that the presence of several concurrent issues may reduce an individual’s ability to endure a period of hardship without falling into food insecurity. For example, we heard anecdotal evidence of individuals suddenly encountering financial difficulties due to redundancy, ill health, pension changes or benefit sanctions, and who experienced greater difficulty in accessing replacement income through employment or benefits due to caring responsibilities, computer illiteracy or benefit delays and sanctions.57 In instances where that individual may not have had savings or family or friends who could support them, this financial difficulty often pushed them into food insecurity, as well as spiralling debt and sometimes homelessness.58
29.A full factor analysis of the causes of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK is beyond the scope of this report. Nonetheless, three themes emerged in the evidence we collected relating to the causes of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition:
- Low incomes and rising living costs;
- Universal Credit and the benefits system; and
- Cuts to funding for local social care services.
Low income and rising living costs
30.UKSSD’s written evidence described how “poverty and inequalities are major underlying factors in the nutrition targets of SDG2.”59 Sustain: the Alliance for Better Food and Farming argued that “welfare payments and wages need to be tied to actual living costs” to ensure that Goal 2.1 is achieved “at a time when welfare payments are frozen, wages are stagnating, and living costs are rising.”60 Kath Dalmeny, Chief Executive of Sustain, explained how shortfalls in household income and high living costs can contribute to hunger in the UK:
It is generally the food budget in a household that gets squeezed first when other costs are high, and boy-oh-boy other costs are very high at the moment.61
31.End Hunger UK has highlighted the significant challenges faced by the poorest households to achieve a healthy diet. “For households with children in the bottom two deciles, earning less than £15,860, 42% of after-housing disposable income would have to be spent to meet the [UK Government’s] Eat Well Guide costs.”62 Given that the UK imports 51% of its food, and that fruit and vegetables are the largest import group, there is a risk that fluctuations in the value of the pound may cause even more people to struggle to afford a healthy diet.63
32.Our witnesses emphasised how challenges relating to low income and high living costs affect both those who are not in work and the working population. Adam Smith, founder of The Real Junk Food Project, told us how working people were having to “choose between heating their own homes and going out and getting food.”64 He told us:
We come across a lot of people who fit into that bracket who are forgotten about in this country—people who are suffering right now, who are actually going hungry, who are working, not in receipt of benefits, and cannot access foodbanks. … People should not be in a situation where they cannot afford to feed their own children, while they are going to work and earning an honest living.65
In 2018, the Trussell Trust attributed 28% of its emergency referrals to “low income”, and a further 9% to “debt.”66
Universal Credit and the benefits system
33.The End Hunger UK coalition’s research with food banks and other emergency food aid providers attributed a “surge” in demand for emergency food aid to “excessive Universal Credit waiting times; delays in receiving payments; debt and loan repayments; and welfare benefit sanctions.”67 The Work and Pensions Committee’s recent inquiry on Benefit Sanctions heard evidence that “sanctions could have a profound and long-lasting financial impact,” and pushed for DWP to conduct “research to understand the impact of sanctions … there is too much at stake not to.”68
34.In 2018 the Trussell Trust attributed 24% of its emergency referrals to “benefit delays” and 18% to “benefit changes.”69 It found that, on average, 12 months after Universal Credit rollout, foodbanks see a 52% increase in demand, compared to 13% in areas where Universal Credit has been in place for 3 months or less.70 This increase exists even after accounting for seasonal and other variations and suggests Universal Credit as a causal factor.71
35.Delays in processing benefits and benefit sanctions can exacerbate food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. For example, the Government’s “Healthy Start” initiative, which distributes free vouchers for milk, fruit and vegetables, formula milk and vitamins to pregnant women and parents of children under four, requires recipients to be on benefits to qualify.72 More broadly, some recipients of food support told us how delays in accessing benefits had pushed people they knew into arrears with rent and other bills, which they could not repay once the benefits started. They described this as putting them at higher risk of stress and homelessness and placing greater strain on their food budgets.73 The Trussell Trust found that during the wait for the first Universal Credit payment, 70% of people referred to a food bank had experienced debt, 57% had experienced issues with their mental or physical health, and 56% had experienced housing problems.74
36.Justin Tomlinson MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance at the Department for Work and Pensions, explained that through Universal Credit, Government was looking to provide “personalised and tailored support to make sure that particularly the most vulnerable in society get that support.”75 He said that under the previous benefits system
It was no surprise that over 700,000 families were missing out on an average of £285 per month. We all see this in our casework as individual constituency MPs; people, particularly the most vulnerable in society, missing out on the support they are entitled to get. Under Universal Credit, they will be able to get that personalised, tailored support, helping get the money to the most vulnerable people in society, which then leads into tackling the issues of food insecurity.76
37.We find the Minister’s optimism about the Universal Credit system to be misguided and ill-judged.
Cuts to funding for local services
38.Against this background of increased food insecurity, Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive of FareShare, emphasised the impact of cuts to local authority funding on food banks.
What we are hearing time and time again - …these organisations are turning to us to supply them with surplus food because their funding has been dramatically cut. There is a piece of joined up work and thinking that needs to be done around the impact and the implications of cuts to local authority funding.77
39.He described food banks as “the bread and butter of the social care and social provision that takes place on our high street.”78 The concurrency of food insecurity alongside a large number of other vulnerabilities means that food support services often serve as a centralised point for a number of services, such as providing advice on medical issues, overcoming barriers to accessing benefits and developing career skills.79 Lindsay Boswell described their role as extending far beyond providing food:
These are mental health facilities, domestic violence refuges, and organisations that provide a safety net for all of the forms of vulnerability that we have as human beings: addiction, drugs, alcohol and so on.80
40.Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain, described the “hokey-cokey” effect of policies that support the food insecure being brought in and withdrawn over time, through a failure to monitor their value.81 She argued that:
We have not taken seriously maximising household income. We have not taken seriously championing the solutions and letting the individual institutions that could be responsible and accountable understand what role they play, and celebrate when they do play that role.82
Civil society’s response
41.City Harvest estimates that 13 million meals are thrown away each month in London alone, by supermarkets, restaurants and food outlets.83 This is more than enough to cover the 9 million meals that they calculate are needed each month in London by those in food poverty, but at present they estimate that just 1 million meals are redistributed to those in need.84 Adam Smith, The Real Junk Food Project, told us that
If we want to end hunger we need to stop feeding the poor; we need to start feeding everybody and make sure that everybody has the human right to have access to this food. That is what needs to happen. We waste so much of it in this country that we could feed everybody with just the waste alone85
42.The Committee heard evidence from several food redistribution charities, such as FareShare, which distributed enough food for 36.7 million meals to nearly 10,000 community groups and charities across 1,500 towns and cities in the UK. Almost all the supermarkets that we heard from explicitly described processes to redirect surplus food, including donating it to redistributing organisations like FareShare, or processing it for animal feed and anaerobic digestion.86 We heard evidence that some restaurant chains, such as Nando’s and KFC, also donate surplus food for redistribution.87
43.Lindsay Boswell told the Committee that while businesses had been “exemplary” in driving forward action to reduce food waste (SDG 12.3), he “did not think the Government have done anything … to drive the awareness of the sustainable development goals forward.”88 We heard that while some central offices might mandate that food surplus is donated or reallocated, this message is not always known or understood by the person managing waste “at the back door” of individual stores.89 Several volunteers that we spoke to emphasised the role of personal relationships and educating supermarket and restaurant staff in facilitating the reallocation of surplus food to feed the hungry and food insecure, and that more could be done.90
44.In addition to sourcing and providing food for people experiencing hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition, many of the civil society organisations that we spoke to were providing more than food support.91 Recognising that food insecurity is often co-located with other difficulties, the charities that we spoke to at our outreach events had developed into centres of resources tailored around the issues that their service users were experiencing.92 These included mental and physical health support, money management and cooking courses, and benefits advice (including IT courses helping people with computer illiteracy to complete their benefits forms online).93 We heard about the different ways that they tackled the knock-on effects that food insecurity can have on families and society. One group we spoke to highlighted instances of young people getting involved with gangs as an accidental by-product of seeing their families struggling, and that their local social supermarket held parent support classes and outreach events for families.94
The Government’s response
45.Kath Dalmeny, CEO of Sustain, set out criteria for an effective government response to food insecurity, explaining “what would it look like if our country did care about fixing food insecurity.”95
We look to the UN’s Right to Food guidance on this. They are looking across the world at countries and states that are addressing food poverty in a systemic kind of way. These are the key indicators of a country that would be doing something about it. We would be measuring food insecurity, we would be identifying the solutions systematically, we would be adopting a strategy, allocating responsibilities and accountability, legislating for change and then monitoring progress and ensuring effective redress.96
46.However, as illustrated above, there are still no UK-wide indicators for measuring hunger or malnutrition, and the scale and causes of these issues are still not fully understood. While the prevalence of food insecurity appears to be worsening, the Government has taken no specific action to redress it, for example by including it in their obesity strategy or Agenda 2030 review. In the Government’s Agenda 2030 analysis, on addressing food supplies, they celebrate that “year on year, since 2013, food prices have fallen”, without exploring why food insecurity and food bank use is continuing to rise.97 In their written evidence, City Harvest told the Committee that:
Data acquisition on food insecurity in the UK is insufficient and as a result minimizes effective management of food insecurity. As the government currently does not measure household food insecurity, a standardized approach must be developed, and the government needs to continuously generate realistic data on food poverty if we are to tackle the hunger issue. It is dramatically difficult to fight hunger when data is ambiguous, not collected, and cannot be clearly articulated.98
47.Similarly, while Government is aware of the scale of obesity, it has not yet contextualised it within the framework of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK. It does not mention malnutrition or food insecurity in its obesity strategy, and, while it does indicate that obesity levels are higher amongst children from more deprived backgrounds, it fails to put this in the context of food insecurity.99 Again, the Government’s Agenda 2030 update on the UK Government’s approach to delivering the SDGs at home and abroad, lists actions to address “hunger and malnutrition” in the “Around the World” section, not the “At Home” section.100 The “At Home” section approaches “healthy and balanced diets” through the lens of reducing childhood obesity and Healthy Start, with their action plan focusing on a soft drinks levy and reducing sugar content in food.101Anna Taylor, Executive Director of The Food Foundation, attributes these shortcomings in measurement, strategy, legislation and progress to the lack of specific responsibility and accountability for hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK.
This is a cross-departmental responsibility but at the end of the day, unless somebody is a nominated lead, nothing is going to happen. The key question is who is responsible to reporting on food insecurity in the UK in the SDG framework. At the moment that question is unanswered.
48.The Committee questioned ministers from DFID, Cabinet Office, Department for Works and Pensions and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs about who had responsibility and accountability for tackling hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Food and Animal Welfare, David Rutley MP, told the Committee that this was “a cross-cutting Government responsibility” on which Defra was taking the lead,102 but as noted above, tackling hunger does not feature in Defra’s Single Departmental Plan.
Chair: Who is responsible? Which of you is responsible for ending hunger in the UK? None of your single departmental plans mentioned it.103
49.Single Departmental Plans are intended to be the vehicle for delivering the SDGs. Despite the growing severity of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK, and despite the Government’s pledge to implement SDG2 in the UK as well as overseas, the only department to mention hunger in its SDP is the Department for International Development (DFID). Similarly, the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust noted that the Environment Agency only mentions the SDGs once in its 2017–18 annual report.” Anna Taylor (Food Foundation) elaborated on the “shortfalls” in Government’s current approach to tackling the SDGs through SDPs:
50.Significant areas can fall between stools and there is not a comprehensive overview of all elements of the SDGs across those plans. If we take food insecurity in the UK and look at how the Government is reporting on that within the single departmental plans, you see quite a strong response on childhood obesity and quite a strong response on directions of travel on sustainable agriculture, but food insecurity and food poverty is absent in terms of laying out what the Government is going to do in this area.104
51.The Government has made several pledges relating to British food quality and labelling, which may help safeguard against deterioration of British food standards and help consumers to make more informed choices in the future. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs assured the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee that there would be no lowering of British standards in the event of Britain leaving the European Union:
Kerry McCarthy You have said repeatedly … that there will be no lowering of British standards post-Brexit. Can you give the same assurance that we will not sign up to any trade deals that would allow produce into this country that is produced to lower standards than we allow?
Michael Gove: Yes.
…
Kerry McCarthy: Does that apply to standards that we would currently apply by virtue of our membership of the EU?
Michael Gove: Yes.105
The Secretary of State has also announced that Government is “already looking at how we can review labelling”, in particular “at the whole suite of protections that we give people in order to ensure that all of us can feel safe when buying food.”106
Conclusions and Recommendations
52.Food insecurity is a significant issue in the UK, with levels amongst the worst in Europe, especially for children, with 19% of under 15s living with an adult who is moderately or severely food insecure, of whom half are severely food insecure. The growing prevalence of food insecurity in both the working and non-working population appears to be linked to rising living costs and stagnating wages. Particularly vulnerable groups include the unemployed, those in the lowest income quartile, people with disabilities or illnesses, families with children, and single parents. Surges in demand for emergency food aid have been linked to Universal Credit, due to waiting times, delays in payments, debt and loan repayments, and benefit sanctions.
53.Despite the need for joined-up cross-government action, hunger and food insecurity has fallen between the cracks in Government plans. Government continues to see hunger and food insecurity as overseas issues, with DFID the only Department to include them in its Single Departmental Plan. Government has failed to ensure that the key SDG targets relating to hunger, and food insecurity are included in planning and performance frameworks, and there is no clear ministerial accountability for combatting hunger in the UK. We are concerned at the Government’s turning a blind eye to UK hunger and its lack of progress in measuring and acting on hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK. Performance is unlikely to improve in the UK and reach the SDG targets for SDG2 unless significant and co-ordinated action is taken.
54.The issues of food insecurity, hunger, malnutrition and obesity should be considered in parallel in the UK context. They are often co-located and share causal factors. For example, insufficient access to food may lead to risk-averse purchasing habits and prioritisation of low-priced, filling foods with long shelf lives - which are often nutrient-poor but calorie-rich. The Government does not fully understand the relationship between food insecurity, hunger and malnutrition. By addressing obesity in isolation, it is missing the opportunity to effect widespread change.
55.We welcome the many excellent local initiatives providing food and support to tackle the causes of hunger and related issues. However, these services are not available in all areas, and even where they are users can be vulnerable to a “hokey-cokey” effect of funding being introduced and later removed.
56.We recommend that the Government appoint a minister with responsibility and accountability for combatting hunger and food insecurity within the UK. They should work with civil society to explore the scale, causes and impact of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition; implement strategies for improvement, and monitor progress.
57.We recommend that targets for ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms are included in Single Departmental Plans. To be effective, targets in the SDPs must include UK-wide metrics, for hunger, food insecurity, and malnutrition, and set out specific mechanisms for action if performance is poor. Individual targets should make explicit links to Departments with responsibility for policies which contribute to the delivery of the primary goal, for example, reducing food waste (SDG12) and monitoring the living wage, in respect of goals 2.1 and 2.2.
58.We recommend that the Government update its obesity strategy to take account of the close relationship between obesity, hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in the UK. We support the call from the Patients Association for Government to create a definition of under-nutrition which includes both underweight and overweight individuals, and a tool for identifying it.
59.We recommend that the Government work with the Office for National Statistics to measure the potential impact that Universal Credit may have on rates of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition in all its forms in pilot Universal Credit areas. To be effective this measure should account for the rates of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition before and after the implementation of Universal Credit and compare these rates with areas where Universal Credit has not been applied.”
60.In the event that the UK leaves the EU, the Government must deliver on its promises that British food standards will be maintained. We welcome the Government’s intention to review food labelling to enable consumers to make more informed choices and believe that the final system should be accompanied by an awareness campaign.
17 UKSSD, Measuring Up: How the UK is performing on the UN Sustainable Development Goals, (July 2018), p.4
18 Ibid., p.23
19 UKSSD, Measuring Up report, p.22
20 Ibid., p,6
23 BAPEN, Introduction to Malnutrition, (last updated: 20 September 2018), accessed 16 October 2017
24 Ibid.
25 Ibid.
28 The Trussell Trust, End of Year Stats 2017–18, accessed 16 October 2018
29 Ibid.
30 The Food Foundation: Anna Taylor and Rachel Loopstra, Too Poor to Eat: Food Insecurity in the UK, 2016, p.6
32 FAO, IFAD, WFP and WHO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2017
33 Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, The Food Insecurity Experience Scale, accessed 16 October 2018
34 FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, 2018, p.138
35 Calculated based on the FAO’s figure of 11.2 million severely food insecure people in Europe. Ibid. p.137
36 The Food Foundation, New Evidence of Child Food Insecurity in the UK, (June 2017)
37 Ibid.
38 Young Women’s Trust, What Matters to Young Mums?, (March 2017), p.2
39 Food Standards Agency, The Food & You Survey, (2017), pp.27–28
43 Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming (SDF0018); UKSSD (SDF0027); WWF (SDF0009); End Hunger UK (SDF0021)
44 Agenda 2030, Indicator 2.2.2
45 ONS, Indicator 2.2.2, accessed 4 December 2018
46 Ibid.
47 Ibid.
48 Ibid.
50 End Hunger UK, SDF0021
51 FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP and WHO, The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World, (2018), p.16
52 Patient’s Association, Child Under-nutrition Project Report: A report about the current undernourishment of children in England, (July 2017), recommendations 5 and 10
53 DFID, Agenda 2030, pp.5–6
54 Ibid., p.6
55 HM Government, Childhood Obesity: A plan for action, 2016, and Childhood Obesity: A plan for action Chapter 2, 2018
57 See Outreach Events, Appendix 2
58 Ibid
66 Trussell Trust, End of Year Stats, 2018, accessed 5 December 2018
67 End Hunger UK, SDF0021
68 Work and Pensions Committee, Nineteenth Report of Session 2017–19, Benefit Sanctions, 2018, HC955, paras 29 and 30
69 Trussell Trust, End of Year Stats
70 Ibid.
71 Ibid.
72 NHS England, Healthy Start, accessed 4 December 2018
73 See Outreach Events, Appendix 2
74 The Trussell Trust, Universal Credit and Foodbanks, 2018
78 Ibid.
79 See Outreach Events, Appendix 2
82 Ibid.
84 Ibid.
86 Waitrose & Partners (SDF0037); Aldi UK (SDF0036); The Co-op (SDF0034); Ocado (SDF0033); Tesco PLC (SDF0032); Sainsbury’s (SDF0030)
87 Outreach Events, Appendix 2
89 Outreach Events, Appendix 2
90 Outreach Events, Appendix 2
91 Ibid.
92 Ibid.
93 Ibid.
94 Ibid.
96 Ibid.
97 DFID, Agenda 2030, p.6
99 HM Government, Childhood Obesity: A plan for action, 2016, and Childhood Obesity: A plan for action Chapter 2, 2018
100 DFID, Agenda 2030, pp.5–6
101 Ibid. p.6; Cabinet Office, Department of Health and Social Care, HM Treasury, Prime Minister’s Office 10 Downing Street, Childhood Obesity: A plan for action, (August 2016)
105 Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee, Oral Evidence: Scrutiny of the Agriculture Bill, HC 1591, 31 October 2018, Qq 298–300
Published: 10 January 2019