Who makes food policy in England? A map of government actors and activities

Who makes food policy in England? A map of government actors and activities

Who makes food policy in England? A map of government actors and activities

Kelly Parsons, Rosalind Sharpe and Corinna Hawkes

Responsibility for food policy within English government involves 16 different departments. In the first study of its kind, Dr Kelly Parsons identifies each department, locating where government food policy is shaped and conducted in England. It clearly demonstrates the complexity of governance influencing the food system and what we eat.

Produced as the first instalment of the ‘Rethinking Food Governance’ series, the report reveals many factors, such as size, structure, goals, responsibilities, key activities, relationships to Local Authorities and devolved administrations for each government actor. Revealing this information helps all actors in the food system to interact, or spot opportunities and levers for policy change.

In October 2020, we collaborated with the Centre for Food Policy (CFP) and colleagues in the SHEFS project (a global public health initiative on which CFP leads the Policy workstream) to produce a series of Policy Briefs which summarise and update the Who Makes Food Policy? framework.  They show how responsibility for food governance is distributed across many departments and public bodies, not just in England but in other countries as well. We hope that other researchers will produce similar policy ‘maps’ for their regions or for different levels of governance: contact us if you’d like to know more about how we did it. The South Africa Policy Brief is available [here] and the India version will follow soon.

About the authors

Kelly Parsons

Kelly Parsons, now a Research Fellow at the University of Hertfordshire, led the FRC’s work on governance as a post-doctoral research fellow at the Centre for Food Policy. Her research focuses on policy and governance related to food systems, and includes policy integration, policy coherence, food governance arrangements, and systems approaches to food. She co-authored several of the Centre for Food Policy’s Briefs on food policy, ‘including on the food system, integrated food policy and food policy coherence. She has a PhD in food policy from the Centre for Food Policy, where her thesis was a historical, comparative policy analysis of two attempts to create a cross-government integrated food policy in the UK and Australia.

Rosalind Sharpe

Dr Rosalind Sharpe is a research fellow at the Food Research Collaboration, where her research focuses on food policy in the UK, the food impacts of Brexit, and the sustainability of food systems. She is also responsible for working with the academics and civil society organisations that form the FRC’s membership. She was previously a journalist and editor.

Corinna Hawkes

Professor Corinna Hawkes is Director of the Centre for Food Policy. She has worked with international agencies, governments, NGOs, think tanks and universities at the international level, as well as nationally and locally in the UK, United States and Brazil. She now teaches part of the MSc in Food Policy at the Centre for Food Policy, and in addition to her academic work sits on the London Food Board and is Vice-Chair of the Mayor of London’s Child Obesity Taskforce.

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1 Comment

  1. Anthony M Mander says:

    Interesting and concerning regarding the future.
    Anthony M Mander FRCOG
    President Forum of Food and Health Royal society of Medicine, London.

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