The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, (RSPCA) has welcomed the UK Government’s new National Procurement Policy Statement as an “encouraging start”.
The charity has said that it hopes this will pave the way for improvements to UK Government Buying Standards (GBS) to ensure food provided in hospitals and schools is produced to higher animal welfare standards.
The RSPCA stated that the current GBS benchmark for animal welfare is set very low with welfare standards for food procurement set no higher than the legal baseline.
Instead, the animal charity believes that procurement rules should guarantee higher animal welfare standards.
The head of RSPCA Public Affairs, David Bowles, said: “It’s welcome that the UK Government is considering the social value of its procurement too – but animal welfare needs to be part of that.
“It’s unacceptable that school children or sick hospital patients may be served food that has been produced to lower welfare standards or even food illegal to produce in this country. What’s worse, they invariably have no choice in the matter.”
For items such as eggs, meat, and chicken, the standard set for government procurement is currently no higher than the statutory minimum.
But with no government auditing since GBS were introduced in 2014, the RSPCA said that the standards could be even lower.
Bowles added: “Public opinion is very clearly in favour of higher standards.
“This is an opportunity for the UK Government to lead by example and set the bar when it comes to sourcing high-quality, higher welfare food for public institutions.
“An overhaul of buying standards is long overdue and we hope the UK Government’s new National Procurement Policy Statement will pave the way for more much-needed change,” Bowles continued.
In its statement, the government said that it is determined to ensure that the £400 billion of public money spent on public procurement annually delivers economic growth, supports small businesses, champions innovation, and creates good jobs and opportunities across the country.
