To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make an estimate of the (a) monetary value and (b) quantity of waste food disposed of from his Department’s premises in the last 12 months. (273437)

In the 2008-09 financial year, the total food waste disposed of by the Department’s suppliers was 39,755 kg. This covers both waste from the preparation of food, waste from service counters and customer plate waste.

The monetary value of this is not held centrally and collating it would incur disproportionate cost.