Although it has been re-listed to be heard a second time on Friday 11 March, the Bill was objected to by the government and is now unlikely to proceed any further.
This is the second time this delay has happened and is generally seen as meaning the Bill will eventually fail. It is backed by Bristol East MP and Shadow Environment Minister, Kerry McCarthy.
Ms McCarthy’s office had said they were keen to see the Bill proceed on March 4 and were worried that if this didn’t happen, it “would lose momentum”.
First introduced to parliament by Ms McCarthy as a Private Members’ Bill in September 2015, among the measures contained in the proposal is that legislation would oblige UK supermarkets to donate unsold food where redistribution charities are willing to form partnerships. The aim would be to reduce food waste down the supply chain (see letsrecycle.com story).
Commenting after the Bill failed to be debated on Friday, Ms McCarthy sad: “We need urgent action to tackle the scandal of wasted food so it is disappointing that the government has blocked my cross-party Food Waste Bill.
“We need urgent action to tackle the scandal of wasted food so it is disappointing that the government has blocked my cross-party Food Waste Bill.”
Kerry McCarthy MP
Labour Shadow Environment Secretary
“The UK is throwing away 15 million tonnes of food a year. But while consumers have reduced their food waste by over 20% since 2007, over half of all food waste now occurs before we even have a chance to buy it.
“We have committed to the UN goal of halving food waste by 2030, but voluntary action by the industry is failing to deliver results on the scale needed to meet this target, so legislation is essential. My Bill set out a clear path for reducing food waste and ensuring perfectly good surplus food is donated to charities.”
Voluntary
Previously, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) has expressed some sympathy for the aims of the bill. However, resource and recycling minister Rory Stewart, while praising Ms McCarthy for her work on food waste, has said he favours a voluntary approach to food waste measures rather than a legal obligation. In contrast, Ms McCarthy has criticised voluntary action as “failing to deliver results.”
The minister has said: “We have significant concerns about the targets set in that Bill, and we believe that its proposals include perverse incentives. Voluntary measures have increased by 70% the amount that retailers have managed to redistribute to charitable organisations, and the real key will be getting councils and retailers to work on a unified system.”
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