Feeding Britain’s policy priorities (Autumn 2022)

Policy proposals to eliminate hunger and food insecurity from the United Kingdom

Legislation

1. Social Security Benefits (Healthy Eating) Bill, to ensure social security payments are calculated using a method which safeguards households’ ability to afford an adequate diet
2. Healthy Start Scheme (Take-Up) Bill, to introduce automatic registration among all eligible families for Healthy Start in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland
3. Benefit Sanctions (Warnings) Bill, to roll out a national ‘Yellow Card’ scheme in place of immediate benefit sanctions
4. Workers (Rights and Definitions) Bill, to strengthen protection for people working on zero-hours contracts or in the ‘gig economy’
5. Full Employment Bill, requiring the Government to pursue job creation policies which abolish long-term unemployment
6. Disability Benefit Assessments (Recording) Bill, to give every applicant the right to an audio recording of their disability benefit assessment
7. Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (Powers) Bill, to give the Ombudsman a more proactive role in identifying and remedying systemic problems within the social security system
8. Under-Occupancy Penalty (Report) Bill, to require a review into the long-term effects of the ‘Spare Room Subsidy’/’Bedroom Tax’
9. School Breakfast Bill, to ensure greater numbers of children are offered a free breakfasts at the beginning of the school day

Motions, debates, and amendments

1. Lowering the cap on Universal Credit deductions
2. Automatic registration for free school meals 
3. Revising the free school meal eligibility threshold in England
4. Introducing a ‘Yellow Card’ warning system in place of immediate benefit sanctions
5. Food waste reduction and reporting
6. Resolving difficulties with Healthy Start prepaid cards
7. Mechanisms to support new factory openings, create more manufacturing jobs, and provide more apprenticeships in areas with higher rates of poverty and unemployment

Additional priorities

1. The role of cooking in the school curriculum  
2. Identifying and redistributing additional surplus food from the supply chain
3. Strengthening the link between social security payments and the cost of living
4. Ensuring refugees and asylum seekers have the means and accommodation to acquire, prepare, and cook meals
5. Continuing to develop the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme in England to ensure it reflects and meets the needs of all children and young people who stand to benefit most from the programme
6. Securing government support for innovative local programmes which make food more affordable and accessible for people, and to accompany that low-cost food with wraparound services which maximise people’s incomes
7. Gaining a commitment to a national strategy for the elimination of hunger and chronic food insecurity by 2030, following a similar path to the Biden-Harris Administration in the United States