Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Nick Smith on 2016-05-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what the annual budget is for food produced for his Department’s offices; and what proportion of food produced for his Department was sourced from British producers in the last period for which figures are available.

Mr David Lidington

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) does not set a budget for food served in its UK food outlets. Catering services in the UK are provided to staff by an external contractor. Spending on food is determined by the contractor based on sales receipts from FCO staff.

The FCO has worked with its supplier to align the existing contract with the requirements of the Government’s food procurement balanced scorecard.
By value, approximately 84% of dairy produce, 100% of chicken, 77% of beef, 88% of pork and 91% of other meats is sourced from British producers.

The amount of other food sourced from British producers for the FCO was 35% in the last period for which figures are available (January to March 2016); this figure relates to the catering contractor’s main supplier only and includes non-indigenous products (eg tea and coffee) and does not include specialist items (eg scampi).