Government should ‘lead by example’ on British food

The Countryside Alliance sent Freedom of Information requests to the departments responsible for the six main Government residences to see how much British food was served at official functions.

But despite advice from Mr Benn to help the farming industry by buying British, four of the residences revealed they had no idea how much of their food was British.

“I want a strong, thriving successful farming industry - if you want to support the industry in Britain buy British,” said Mr Benn in February.

But the Cabinet Office admitted it didn’t know whether Downing Street or Chequers had procured British food over the past twelve months and a similar response came from The Foreign and Commonwealth Office for its two official residences.

Only the Treasury could reveal that the two main catering companies used for Number 11 Downing Street and Dorneywood, sourced 95 per cent and 70-80 per cent British food respectively.

Simon Hart, Countryside Alliance chief executive, said it was inexcusable that Number 10 Downing Street had no knowledge of where its food came from.

“When the Government’s own Public Sector Food Procurement Initiative has been in place for six years, there is no excuse for key Government residences not being able to tell us how much of the food they are procuring and serving at official functions is British.

“The failure of No. 10 Downing Street to record or monitor the provenance of the food they are serving to visitors is particularly galling and shows that the procurement of British food and its promotion is, despite his own Secretary of State’s calls, not being taken seriously by the Prime Minister.”

He said Government residences and departments must ‘lead by example’ to promote all that is best about British farming.

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