Committee investigates Government action to tackle hunger in Britain

The Environmental Audit Committee will tomorrow hold a one-off evidence session looking at the UK’s progress on implementing UN Sustainable Development Goal 2: ending hunger, achieving food security and improved nutrition and promoting sustainable agriculture.

MPs will be considering to what extent the Goal has been addressed by the Government since its 2017 report into the Global Goals. The Committee will hear from stakeholders about progress and Government policy more widely on the SDGs, as well as reviewing progress against commitments made in the Government’s response to the report, with Ministers from the Cabinet Office and DEFRA.

Chair of the Environmental Audit Committee, Mary Creagh MP, said:

“Ours is the generation which can end food poverty and create a healthy, sustainable food supply. Yet our report in the last parliament found that the Government had little interest in, or enthusiasm for, implementing the Sustainable Development Goals in the UK.

“Ministers saw the Goals as something for the UK to help other countries do, rather than rising to the challenge to build a fairer Britain. There was a lack of leadership and coordination across Government; we want to find out if this has changed.

“Hunger is growing problem in the UK, and we will be asking Ministers what they are doing to tackle it, and to prevent the roll-out of Universal Credit pushing people into food poverty.”

Witnesses:

Panel 1:

• Kath Dalmeny, CEO, Sustain, on behalf of End Hunger UK
• Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive, FareShare
• Anna Taylor, Executive Director, The Food Foundation
• Adam Smith, The Real Junk Food Project
• Iain Bell, Deputy National Statistician, Office for National Statistics

Panel 2:

• Oliver Dowden, Parliamentary Secretary, Cabinet Office
• Justin Tomlinson, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Family Support, Housing and Child Maintenance, Department for Work and Pensions
• Lord Bates, Minister of State for International Development
• David Rutley, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs