Strategic Food Stockpile (Hansard, 18 July 1991)

§ Mr. Gummer

Since world war II, the Government have maintained a strategic food stockpile to help feed the civil population during a period of recovery should there be a major military attack. The stockpile contains supplies of raw and processed foods together with some items of emergency field cooking equipment.

In the light of the revised civil defence planning assumptions announced by my right hon. Friend the 281W Home Secretary (Official Report, columns 393–96 of 10 July), and of developments in food production and distribution in recent years, I have decided that a phased reduction in the size of the strategic food stockpile would now be appropriate. An orderly run-down will be set in hand over the next five years, leading to a smaller, more flexible stockpile consisting principally of ready-to-eat foods rather than raw commodities. Arrangements will also be made for the disposal of stocks of emergency feeding equipment no longer required by the Government.

We shall continue to maintain appropriate plans for the recovery of food and agriculture in the aftermath of any conceivable attack on the United Kingdom and to plan for the control and distribution of major national stocks of processed and unprocessed commodities in times of crisis. Future planning requirements will be regularly re-assessed in the light of evolving national civil defence planning assumptions.