Food insecurity is an important issue, and I believe that everybody in this country should be free from hunger. I am pleased to report that the UK Government is working hard to make sure that people on lower incomes have the money they need to afford food – this is, quite simply, the best route to ending food insecurity and hunger.
To this end, the UK Government has introduced Universal Credit, which ensures that nobody is penalised by the welfare system for entering work, or increasing their hours. Another UK Government policy, the National Living Wage, has led to pay rises for millions of people on low incomes.
Successive rises to the personal allowance for income tax since the Conservatives came into office in 2010 have taken over four million people on low incomes out of income tax altogether, and millions more have seen their tax bills cut significantly. By helping more people into work, raising the minimum wage, and allowing people to keep more of their hard-earned money, the UK Government is delivering for people on lower incomes and tackling food insecurity.
Thanks in large part to these reforms, food costs have, according to the independent ONS’ Living Costs and Food Survey, remained steady as a proportion of the budgets of the least well-off households’ spending for several years.
Under the Scotland Act 2016, a number of powers over welfare have been devolved to the Scottish Parliament, which now has the ability to implement additional measures to address food insecurity and hunger in Scotland if it considers it appropriate. I hope that, like the UK Government, they will be sure to take this issue seriously.