Public Sector: Procurement

Mr. Paice
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what proportion of publicly procured food was of British origin in (a) 2005, (b) 2006 and (c) 2007.

Jonathan Shaw
There are no central records for the years 2005 and 2006 giving the proportion of publicly procured food of British origin. We have however published data giving the proportion of domestically produced food used by Government Departments and also supplied to hospitals and prisons under contracts negotiated by NHS Supply Chain and HM Prison Service for the period July 2006 to 30 June 2007. The report is available on the PSFPI web site at:

http://www.defra.gov.uk/farm/policy/sustain/procurement/pdf/govt-food-usage.pdf

and has been placed in the Library of the House.