asked Her Majesty’s Government:

Whether they will take steps to increase the amount of British food which is publicly procured.

My Lords, the Government are continuing to take steps to encourage and help public bodies to increase opportunities for small and local food producers, as shown by the guidance tools, the case studies and other information published on the public sector food procurement initiative website.

My Lords, does the Minister not regret, though, the lack of progress that has been made? That initiative was launched by the Government back in 2003, but clearly the Government, with their £2 billion public food budget, have no idea of which departments within the Whitehall system actually use UK-produced food. I gather that one of the departments that have not answered is the Department of Health. What will the Minister do to rectify this matter?

My Lords, the noble Baroness makes a bold allegation, which I do not think is borne out by the evidence. In 2006 we produced Selling to the Public Sector—A Guide to the Public Sector Procurement Initiative for farmers and growers; we produced the red tractor scheme for safe, assured and traceable food for the public sector; and this year we published the DIY Guide to Implementing the PSFPI—Advice for Practitioners, which is full of modules and case studies for farmers and local producers to get a grip on this.

The record of Whitehall departments is not perfect. Most departments know the percentage of British food served in 2005-06, but I regret to say that the Ministry of Defence, the Northern Ireland Office and the Home Office state that the information can be provided only at disproportionate cost. That is not good enough. No. 10 does not know. That is not good enough. I have the Prime Minister’s support on that. He said:

“I want the public sector to take a lead on doing things sustainably—through the way we run central Government and through the way we buy goods and services”.

Later this year the Sustainable Development Commission will start publishing these figures for all around Whitehall, and therefore people will be on the spot.

The noble Baroness asked me about the Department of Health, but it does not appear to be on the list. Apart from the departments I mentioned, all the others seem to know. The Scottish Office and the Welsh Office, by the way, do not have in-house catering.

My Lords, as the noble Baroness’s Question applies particularly to food that is publicly procured, perhaps all those leaflets should be directed at the departments, not at farmers, growers and other purchasers. Can the Minister say what Joint Committees deal with the purchasing of British food? I declare an interest as a small food producer.

My Lords, it works both ways. We have to do work in departments, which is why the Sustainable Development Commission is getting involved. Defra is calling in all the contractors to make sure that we do this, and we are encouraging other departments to do the same.

It ought to be made clear to the public sector procurers that they can in the contracts demand farm-assured products. That is a bonus; they cannot demand the red tractor but, by and large, demanding farm-assured products is the way to do it. I want them to take the French approach, putting people first and the rules second. That would benefit everybody.

There is enough information out there now, and there can be no excuse. Later this year we will launch the Year of Food and Farming, which is part of the process to connect farmers with suppliers and producers. We will of course include Whitehall departments.

My Lords, I declare an interest as my son, who farms near Berwick-upon-Tweed, has recently become a director of the UK branch of the Slow Food movement. The movement was launched in Italy and is now taking off in the United Kingdom. Does the noble Lord agree that its objective of promoting the production, sale and consumption of locally produced food is very much in line with the objectives set out by the noble Baroness in her Question?

My Lords, I agree entirely. I applaud the Slow Food movement and the opening of an office and centre in Ludlow. It shows that the consumer of the food is as much a part of the food chain as the producer. Having on the labels the names of those who made and produced the food enables people to join in the process and gives them a greater connection.

In answer to the other question, we are running conferences around the country in terms of the public sector buying local food. There was one up in the north on 22 March, and the list of attendees from government departments ran to a couple of hundred. The issue is being taken extremely seriously in government. The £2 billion mentioned by the noble Baroness is the amount spent on public sector procurement and we could do a lot more to make sure that such food is British and local.

My Lords, I am very grateful for the encouragement given by the Minister’s department to colleague departments to buy British food, but will he go further and set real targets for the volume of products sourced in the UK to be used within other government departments and a time scale for those targets to be met?

My Lords, I do not know about targets, but we have collected information. Departments have used it in Answers to Parliamentary Questions about the items used by them that have been produced in the UK—be they eggs, milk products, root vegetables, salads, fish, chicken or other products. They do not all have the information, but it has been set out, mainly in the other place, in answer to Questions. We have a baseline. The Sustainable Development Commission will use some of the information as part of the baseline for publishing these figures. That will give a real push to the rest of Whitehall, because the amount of money spent, whether it is in hospitals, schools, the Armed Forces or the Prison Service, is substantial. It is mainly where the £2 billion goes.

My Lords, what penalties are faced by departments which fail to fulfil the Minister’s wishes?

My Lords, the shame of being mentioned here.

My Lords, as the Minister implied a moment ago, is not part of the problem the confusing—I perhaps should say “misleading”—labelling system? Can something be done about labels which state “produce of this country”, when the product in question is not the produce of this country at all but has merely been packaged here?

My Lords, the noble Lord is right. Labelling is not the only issue, but public sector procurers in this country can and should be persuaded to demand farm-assured products. That is the way to the solution of this matter. It gets round in some ways the problem of the labelling, because, although a food producer may use products from abroad, the farm assurance label by and large gives one the confidence that the majority if not all the produce is from Britain.