| dc.description.abstract | Comparative law; Food; Human rights; International law; Jurisprudence; Scotland; Wales *P.L. 146 The right to food as a distinct universal right for all in the UK appears to have fallen beyond the ambit of mainstream discussions of human rights, despite its conceptual, if not legal, relationship with the right to life and the prohibition on inhuman and degrading treatment.1 This is partly because it is a right associated in the main with food scarcity in developing states and in states undergoing armed conflicts. However, as a United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food has observed, in the wealthiest states people may be hungry "in times of boosting yields, as a result of the incomes of certain groups remaining too low while the incomes of others rise".2 According to data from the Trussell Trust, between 1 April 2016 and 31 March 2017, its food bank network provided 1,182,954 three-day emergency food supplies to people in crisis, of which 436,938 went to children, compared to 1,109,309 in 2015–16.3 An analysis of the data demonstrates that although benefit delays and changes in relation to universal credit accounted for 43 percent of all referrals,4 another significant factor in the increase was low income, which had increased from 23 per cent to 26 per cent. These findings are also supported by an earlier Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ study, which associated the increased usage of food banks with social security benefit payments, low incomes, indebtedness, and homelessness. The right to food, however, can be addressed as a separate, identifiable legal entitlement even though there may be additional contributory factors. The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food conceives of the right to food and food security as complementary governmental legal obligations.5 According*P.L. 147 to United Nations data, in the UK6 an estimated 8.4 million people live in food insecure homes,7 and the UK falls into the lower half of EU states, when comparing food insecurity.8 Food security exists "when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life."9 Although there is justifiable pride in the response of civil society to those who are hungry, food banks were never intended to guarantee food security, and the duration of food insecurity in the UK, and arguably its increase, raises significant constitutional questions, and not merely questions surrounding any improvements to the charitable delivery of food. In particular there are four questions which this article will consider. First, whether the UK is under a legal obligation to implement a justiciable right to food and adequate nutrition derived from either international or regional law. Secondly, what is the existing legislation in the UK and whether there has been any progress made by the devolved governments in recognising a right to food and adequate nutrition. Thirdly, if a justiciable right to food were to be introduced for the UK, what does an analysis of comparative legal provisions offer? Finally, it has to be considered whether a justiciable right to food and adequate nutrition could prove beneficial and workable in the UK. Hence the right to food is worth serious consideration both in itself and for its possible potential to improve the quality of daily life for those who are malnourished, and also, because it is arguably one of the least polycentric rights, if not the least polycentric right, in that unlike the right to healthcare, it requires a lesser number of interconnected variables for the courts to consider in relation to the policy consequences of their judgements. Therefore the introduction of the social right to food10 would prove a good test for whether the time was right in the UK to introduce other socio-economic rights. | en_US |
