To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what estimate he has made of the quantity of food waste generated by his Department in each year for which figures are available. (310803)

HM Treasury is committed to making operations as sustainable as possible. Detailed information on waste and recycling in Treasury buildings is published in HM Treasury's Annual Report and Accounts 2008-09 (HC 611).

Figures for food waste for the past three years for its buildings are shown in the following table.

The catering contractor for 1 Horse Guards Road introduced a food waste recycling programme in March 2008 under which food waste is removed from the building and is transported to a biogas plant where it is subjected to an anaerobic digestion process. In addition, the process produces fertilizer and electricity as by-products.

Previously, volumes of food waste had been calculated using the industry standard of food produced but not used and was measured on the basis that each bag of food waste weighed around 3kg on average. When the food waste recycling programme was introduced in March 2008 for 1 HGR, the system changed from counting bags to physically weighing the waste before removing them from the site, and this explains the vastly increased figure from what was reported in earlier years.

The Rosebery Court office does not have on-site catering facilities.