§ Mr. WhittingdaleTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what was the outcome of the invitation to organisations to participate in the 1992 surplus food scheme in the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. CurryI announced to the House on 26 February that the surplus food scheme would be continued and invited applications from eligible organisations interested in taking part in the distribution.
A very large number of applications was received by the closing date of 10 April and of these I, together with the Secretaries of State for Scotland, for Wales and for Northern Ireland, have been able to designate 1,367 organisations. There are approximately 3,700 tonnes of butter and 3,000 tonnes of beef available to be distributed to the most needy citizens.
Once again, we have designated more organisations than in the previous years in order to ensure that the food is distributed to as many needy people at possible. But, as the quantities are limited, it will be necessary to place restrictions on the amount of produce available to organisations to ensure a wide coverage of distribution. We have therefore restricted the maximum amount of produce to be allocated to organisations to some 1 kg of packaged butter or tinned beef per individual recipient.
Priority in allocating this food is being given to organisations providing prepared meals to the homeless and destitute, who will be allocated twice that amount.
393WIn addition, in order to receive an allocation, the smallest organisations will be asked to co-operate with others to keep the processing and distribution costs to a minimum.
I am placing a list of the organisations designated in the Libraries and officials will now be writing to all the organisations that applied.