Supermarkets contact ‘shield list’ to offer priority delivery

• The list contains the details of some of the 1.5 million higher-risk people in England

• Non-customers are this week being approached by email and phone and offered recurring slots

• Tesco said it received an initial list of 110,000 clinically and socially isolated people on Thursday

Supermarkets have begun contacting people on a government database of the clinically vulnerable to offer them priority online grocery delivery slots.

Major mults received a portion of the government’s ‘shield list’ last week from Defra. It contains the details of some of the 1.5 million people in England identified by the NHS as being at higher risk of severe illness if they contract coronavirus. 

“We have given supermarkets the information they need – in addition to their own data – to help ensure essential items are delivered as soon as possible to the people with medical conditions that make them most vulnerable,” a government spokesman said.

The mults have been cross-checking the database with their existing online customers and offering them priority delivery slots. Non-customers are this week being approached by email and phone and offered recurring slots.

The database is expected to grow as people in England who are vulnerable but have not received a letter from the NHS or their doctor register themselves as in need. The BBC has reported that thousands of people have been missed off the government’s shield list despite meeting the criteria. The supermarkets will receive regular updates to the database.

Many people in the database – who have been assessed as having no other means of accessing food – are already receiving free food parcels containing items such as coffee, tea, pasta, tinned goods, cereal, potatoes, two types of fruit and other basic supplies such as loo roll. Last week more than 50,000 parcels were sent, distributed by wholesalers Brakes and Bidfood.

“Your information will be passed to food retailers to prioritise you for home delivery slots,” the government told food parcel recipients.

The names and details of people who are not clinically vulnerable, but “vulnerable in other ways and in need of support getting essential food supplies”, such as the elderly and disabled, could also be issued to supermarkets “to help prioritise those individuals for home deliveries” Defra said.

“We are also looking at ways to prioritise those who are at increased risk, but are not on the clinically vulnerable list and have introduced a range of measures to keep food supply flowing and support home deliveries,” the government spokesman added.

Read more: 

• Tesco to build pop-up stores at NHS Nightingale Hospitals

• Waitrose launches e-gift card to help NHS volunteers buy food

• McColl’s links with Deliveroo to offer first home deliveries

In a communication to customers on Saturday, Tesco boss Dave Lewis said the company had on Thursday received an initial list of 110,000 clinically and socially isolated people.

It has identified 75,000 people in the database who were also existing Tesco online customers and has contacted them to “let them know we’re making home delivery slots immediately available to them”.

The company told The Grocer it was now working to contact the others in the database as quickly as possible.

Asda said it had received a portion of the database and had contacted those on it who were existing customers to offer them priority slots. It said it was contacting non-customers on the part of the list it received to offer recurring slots this week.

Sainsbury’s said it would “help new customers the government has identified as extremely vulnerable and continue to accept orders from existing customers who believe they are vulnerable as well”.

Ocado said it had received some of the database and would “give priority access to our customers who are on the government’s shield list of extremely vulnerable people and who are in need of support getting essential food supplies”. Waitrose also said it would be “contacting those on the list of extremely vulnerable people the government has shared with retailers” to assist them in securing slots.

Sainsbury’s, Waitrose, Asda and Tesco have also been using their own customer data to identify elderly and vulnerable customers for priority slots.