Statutory Right to Food
Thursday, 19 March 2026
Contributions
Ian Byrne (Liverpool West Derby) (Lab)Labour
8. What assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing a statutory right to food.
The Minister for Food Security and Rural Affairs (Dame Angela Eagle)Labour
The Government are taking strong action to improve access to good, nutritious food. We have extended eligibility for free school meals to half a million more children, and free, universal breakfast clubs are being introduced across the country. We are also reforming crisis support through the introduction of the crisis and resilience fund.
The Right to Food UK Commission, launched last November, is gathering vital evidence from policy experts and those with lived experience of food poverty from across the UK—next week we will be Aberdare and Cardiff. I would like to put on the record my thanks to my hon. Friend the Minister for the positive meeting we had last week on the commission. Will the Secretary of State commit to meeting me later this year, upon publication of the commission’s legislative road map, so that we can work together to ensure that the right to food is finally committed to law and tackle the scourge of hunger in our communities?
I certainly welcome the opportunity to discuss my hon. Friend’s work in this area. We agree on the importance of the problems that the commission is looking to resolve and look forward to seeing its final report. The Government are working across Departments to improve access to healthy and affordable food. We have already introduced the junk food ad ban and mandatory targets for healthier food sales from our food industry, and we are committed to breaking the link between obesity and poverty.
Sir Desmond Swayne (New Forest West) (Con)Conservative
Is this a wind-up, Mr Speaker? They will be asking for collective farms in this socialist paradise next. Has the Minister made any assessment of the impact that a right to food would have on the public purse once our activist judges got hold of it?
I have to say that a study of history demonstrates that collectivising the food system does not usually work.
Source: UK Parliament Hansard API. Debate ID: 5254979.