Senedd Cymru | Welsh Parliament
Y Pwyllgor Cydraddoldeb a Chyfiawnder Cymdeithasol | Equality and Social Justice Committee
Ymateb gan: Cynghrair Polisi Bwyd Cymru | Evidence from: Food Policy Alliance Cymru
Food Policy Alliance Cymru (FPAC) Response to the ESJ Inquiry into post-legislative scrutiny of the Well-being of Future Generations Act.
Post-legislative scrutiny of the Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG Act) must consider how food and diets can be integrated into the legislation.
Wales cannot achieve the well-being goals of the WFG Act without action on improving access to healthy and sustainable diets for all current and future generations.
Despite the importance of food to well-being, the food system and diets are missing from the definitions of Wales’ well-being goals. As a result, food is largely missing from the well-being objectives which public bodies are required to set under the legislation, this results in the lack of integration of the food system and diets in policymaking at local and national level.
The case for food and diets to be integrated into the WFG Act
In 2020 the Welsh Food System Fit For Future Generations report outlined how food and diets are critical to each of Wales’ well-being goals and found that Wales urgently needs to create an integrated, sustainable and just food system fit for future generations.
The Food (Wales) Bill narrowly failed to progress to Stage 2 in the Senedd in 2023. The bill proposed the development of a national food strategy for Wales and food duties for public bodies in order to create a more sustainable and coherent approach to food policy in Wales. Legal advice commissioned by Food Policy Alliance Cymru for the bill found that the WFG Act ‘does not come close to providing an adequate legislative framework for improving food policy in Wales and none of the well-being goals and indicators contain any meaningful engagement with food’.
The Future Generations Report 2025, produced by the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales (FGC) recommends the integration of food and diets into the WFG Act due to the:
· 1) Importance of food and diets to the progress of each of Wales’ well-being goals: food systems are the greatest driver of biodiversity loss and a significant contributor to climate change, while the social and economic cost of obesity to Wales is set to rise to £2.4 billion by 2050.
· 2) Growing risks to Wales’ food resilience from global insecurity and climate change – risks which pose challenges for current and future generations’ ability to access healthy and sustainable diets.
The Wales Net Zero 2035 Challenge Group on Food Security has outlined how progress towards Wales’ net zero commitments must include actions to improve the sustainability of the food system. Recommendations from the group include the integration of food into the WFG Act.
Food is largely missing from the well-being objectives which public bodies are required by the WFG Act to set, and work towards. Research in 2023 commissioned by Food Sense Wales and the FGC found that only eight local authorities and only two health boards have integrated food into their well-being plans. The research found that the lack of a national food resilience plan and the omission of food and diets from the WFG Act contributes to this gap.
Since its creation, the WFG Act has shaped all new legislation and Welsh Government policy frameworks. For Wales to address the complex challenges of public health, land use, planning and the climate and nature emergencies – a WFG Act that requires the integration of food and diets in policy-making will support the public sector to develop the holistic approaches required for Wales to achieve the vision of the WFG Act.
The Social Partnership & Public Procurement Act in 2023 amended the definition of the Prosperous Wales goal to include ‘fair work’, this has supported the Welsh Government’s efforts to embed fair work approaches across the public sector. A similar approach could be taken to integrating food and diets into the WFG Act.
Since the creation of the WFG Act, food has risen up the political and public policy agenda in Wales and across the UK.
The UK Government is currently drafting a UK Food Strategy, and the Scottish Parliament passed the Good Food Act in 2022 which places a duty on Scottish Government and public bodies in Scotland to produce good food plans. The Welsh Government has published Food Matters (an outline of its current food related programmes) and the Community Food Strategy. These are important developments however Wales currently has no overarching long-term national food resilience plan and food is missing from the WFG Act.
Wales requires a comprehensive national food resilience plan to enable local and regional actors to deliver actions to improve access to healthy and sustainable diets for all. Amending the WFG Act to include food will not be sufficient in addressing Wales’ food challenges, however it will support the integration of food within the duties of the WFG Act and would complement future developments around a comprehensive approach to food governance in Wales.
Signed by the following members of Food Policy Alliance Cymru (FPAC)
Katie Palmer, Food Sense Wales
Jon Parker, Food Farming & Countryside Commission
Gary Mitchell, Social Farms & Gardens
Shea Buckland-Jones, WWF Cymru
Ian Rappel, Landworkers Alliance Cymru
Andrew Tuddenham, Soil Association Cymru
Prof Angelina Sanderson Bellamy, University of the West of England (UWE)