Submitted on Wednesday 21st October 2020
Rejected on Friday 30th October 2020
Current status: Rejected
Rejection code: no-action (see below for details)
Cancel parliamentary food and drink subsidies with immediate effect
All food and drink subsidies should be removed from every MP who voted to prevent children from accessing free meals during school holidays under the Coronavirus pandemic.
Today the government voted to prevent poor children from accessing free meals during school holidays until Easter 2021. Yet those same MPs enjoy daily subsidised meals and drink in the House of Commons. It is an abominable act of the utmost cruelty to deprive our most vulnerable humans of basic sustenance; and it demonstrates a toxic Schadenfreude when these same MPs continue to enjoy food handouts paid by taxpayers. We value our children. We demand an end to this parliamentary freeloading.
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The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:
The House of Commons Catering service does not provide a subsidised service in the commercial sense of the word. Some venues make a profit, while in other venues the cost of providing the service does exceed the income received in sales due to the irregular hours and unpredictability of parliamentary business. The House of Commons publishes details of the cost of House of Commons catering services: www.parliament.uk/site-information/foi/transparency-publications/hoc-transparency-publications/catering-services/transparency-reporting-catering-services/
Customers of the House of Commons Catering Services include some of the 650 MPs but also around 14,500 other pass-holders, many of whom are staff on lower wages that work irregular hours. In addition, members of the public and non pass holding visitors to Parliament also have access to these services. The irregular hours and the unpredictability of Parliamentary business contribute to increasing the net cost of providing a catering service. To offset this many of the restaurants, dining room facilities and their staff, are used to cater for private events at times when they are not required by the House. This is one of a number of measures used to reduce costs.
We have published the following petitions, which you might like to sign:
Increase food and drink prices for MPs in House of Commons catering venues: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/555565
Fund free school meals over school holidays until April 2021: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/555727
Provide the free school meal entitlement throughout the year: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/555723
End child food poverty – no child should be going hungry: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/554276
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