§ Lord Mountevansasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether they have any information about the future of the strategic food stockpile.
§ The Minister of State, Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (Baroness Trumpington)Since World War II, the Government has 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 honourable friend the Home Secretary in another place (Official Report, H.C. 10th July cols. WA 393–396) and of developments in food production and distribution in recent years, we 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.
25WAWe shall continue to maintain appropriate plans for the recovery of food and agriculture in the aftermath of any conceivable attack on the UK 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.