Nick Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, 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.

Joseph Johnson

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) does not set a budget for food served in its offices. Catering services are provided by private companies under contract to BIS which lease facilities in its London offices at 1 Victoria Street, 151 Buckingham Palace Road and Fleetbank House and provide food to staff without subsidy. Spending on food is determined by the contractor based on sales receipts.

BIS has worked with its current suppliers to align the existing contract with the requirements of the “balanced scorecard” for public food procurement.

The amount of food sourced from British producers for the Department’s three London offices is approximately 75% per month on average based on data for the period January – March 2016.

Items that are not available as British produce are fruits (for example – melons, pineapples, grapes, lemons, oranges), continental meats and Fairtrade coffee which is a large part of the sales volume.