A quarter of UK councils failing to recognise their responsibility to cater to vegans, Vegan Society research finds

• The Vegan Society have created a heatmap of the UK, showing which local authorities are leading the way and which are falling behind. Oxfordshire, Edinburgh and Richmond upon Thames are leading the way in the country, while the Orkney Islands, Barnet and North Somerset are among those falling behind.
• The society sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to 209 councils in across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, asking whether the council took into account the fact that veganism is a protected characteristic in food provision; whether the council served vegan options as standard in its onsite catering or required options to be served in procurement contracts and whether it had meat and dairy reduction plans. All councils were then graded Green, Amber or Red to reflect whether they were taking demonstrable steps to be inclusive of veganism and to address their meat and dairy consumption.
• The Vegan Society is calling for a guaranteed plant-based option on all public sector menus to meet health and environmental goals.

A new report by The Vegan Society has revealed that over has revealed that over a quarter of councils did not acknowledge their responsibility to consider veganism as a protected characteristic when making catering decisions. In the UK, veganism is recognised as a protected belief and councils have a legal responsibility to provide adequate options for those who choose to live a vegan lifestyle.

Despite 40% of consumers saying they want plant-based alternatives and the vegan food market growing almost 10% in the last year, vegans continue to face challenges accessing healthy, nutritious food, with public sector menus frequently failing to consistently include a single vegan option.

In addition to their legal responsibility to cater for vegans, the National Food Strategy has recommended that local authorities act to promote sustainable diets in order to reduce emissions in response to the climate crisis. Moving away from animal products is an essential step in achieving this, with plant-based diets producing just 25% of the emissions compared to one that includes meat.

With the number of vegans in the UK continuing to grow and urgent action needed to meet climate reduction obligations, there has never been a more important time for public sector menus to offer a range of healthy, vegan options. The personal impact of councils failing to adequately cater for plant-based diets is very real. A vegan councillor at Croydon Council commented on the findings: “The catering for vegans at Croydon Council is frustratingly poor. There’s a lot of people working at the council who – like me – are doing their best to make choices that limit our impact on the climate, while respecting animal rights and welfare. It can be a real struggle when public bodies – like local councils – aren’t even getting the basics right. If they were, far more people would feel empowered to make ethical and sustainable choices.”

Some councils do not recognise their legal obligation to take vegans into account — of the local authorities who gave at least partial answers to the society’s information requests, 54 did not acknowledge veganism as a protected characteristic. To give one example, Orkney Council surprisingly claimed “[We] do not have any vegan diets to cater for […] as Orkney is vastly farming community”. While there may not be vegans working within the council, the has a responsibility to consider all of the community who might use its services such as schools, care homes or leisure centres. There are certainly vegans on Orkney; several are even members of The Vegan Society.