Written question asked by Lindsay Hoyle (Labour) on Tuesday, 7 October 2008, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 9 October 2008. It was answered by Jane Kennedy (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 October 2008 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Food: Procurement

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress his Department has made on the development of a local food procurement policy.

Answer: The legal framework governing public procurement does not allow public bodies to give greater weight to locally produced food and drink when awarding contracts. This is because public bodies are required to ensure public procurement is fair, transparent and not used to discriminate by setting up barriers to free trade. It would also reduce competition contrary to UK public procurement policy that is designed to achieve value for money for the taxpayer.The legal and policy framework does provide public bodies with plenty of flexibility to be innovative in their procurement and, for example, we are encouraging them through the Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative (PSFPI) to increase tendering opportunities for small and local producers. How they can do this is explained in the advice on the PSFPI website, including the guides ““Putting it into practice”” and ““How to increase opportunities for small and local producers when aggregating food procurement””.

Secondary information