Food waste (2023)

Response

Given the nature of the information you have requested, we have processed your request under the Environmental Information Regulations 2004 (EIRs). More information on the regulations can be found on the Information Commissioner’s Office website.

Please also note that whilst the House of Commons and House of Lords are two separate public authorities for the purposes of the EIRs, figures on food waste are held for the parliamentary estate on the whole, and it is not possible to disaggregate this information as food waste from all our catering outlets is co-mingled. Therefore, our response covers both Houses of Parliament.

This information is held by the House of Commons.

Information for 2022 is already published on our website. It is therefore excepted from disclosure in accordance with regulation 6(1)(b) EIR, which removes a public authority from the obligation to make available information which is already publicly available and easily accessible in another form or format. This is an absolute exception and the public interest test does not apply. However, it may help you to know that information relevant to your request can be found on the sustainability pages of our webpages.

The amount of food waste on the parliamentary estate for the period 1 January 2023 to 30 June 2023 (the last available figure) was 160,839 kg.

Additionally, it may also help you to know that Parliament undertakes a number of provisions to reduce food waste on the estate, and details of these are as follows:

• None of UK Parliament’s food waste goes to landfill. Both Houses take a number of measures to reduce the amount of food waste from their outlets, which serve thousands of customers every week including visitors, MPs and journalists – as well as the staff who keep Parliament running through unusual hours.

• We produce less food waste than the national average for the catering industry, and the Sustainable Restaurant Association has rated Parliament’s Catering Services as good practice organisations.

• We take a number measures to monitor and reduce the amount of food waste from catering outlets, with some of the key practices including:
o Venue orders are checked by a purchasing team for accuracy to ensure that orders and volumes are accurate and in line with historic figures.
o Stock is always rotated using first in first out principles.

• We make the vast majority of dishes fresh in-house. This enables us to improvise if products need to be used up and we can use short life products in smoothies, soups and salads etc.

• Some products are frozen if not used on the day. Products which show high levels of wastage are changed, so for example some high frequency/low volume lines are now frozen which enables portion control.

• Any hot food that we have which is reusable is both transferred immediately where it can be used or blast chilled within food safety requirements and used the following day. As much as possible we run any other packaged items (yoghurt etc) fully to sell by date, and where appropriate before sell by date we utilise them in prepared dishes.

• Food waste – a large portion of which comes from food preparation, such as peelings - is sent for anaerobic digestion and used to generate electricity. The figures quoted also include a high number of wet items and liquids – the latter of which considerably adds to the overall weight of waste generated.

Finally, please note that over 15,000 people can access the parliamentary estate and use its services, of which only 650 are MPs. The on-site catering venues are also used by staff of the House of Commons Administration and contractors, such as facilities staff, security staff and building contractors, as well as Members’ staff, Peers and their staff and Members of the Press Gallery. We have more than 20 venues open to passholders and each year typically serve over 10,000 customer transactions on a daily basis on a busy day. Products sold in these venues are always charged at more than they cost and everybody pays the same price. Further details of our price lists, access arrangements, sample menus and other helpful information about the catering service is proactively published by our in-house catering team, in the interests of transparency and can be found on our webpages.