The Petition of children from Northway Primary and Nursery School,
Declares that the Petitioners oppose the cancelling of free fruit for young children due to cuts to local authority funding; notes that fruit provides children with the essential vitamins they need to keep strong, fit, active and healthy; further notes that as a snack, fruit provides children with extra energy between breakfast and lunch which helps them to learn and declares that the Petitioners believe that the free fruit scheme may be the only way that some children are able to get fruit, as parents in financial difficulty may not be able to afford to buy fruit for their children.
The Petitioners therefore request that the House of Commons urges the Government to reconsider their deep cuts to local authority funding so that Liverpool City Council can afford to maintain its free fruit scheme in schools.
And the Petitioners remain, etc.—[Presented by Luciana Berger, Official Report, 9 November 2011; Vol. 535, c. 409.]
[P000976]
Observations from the Secretary of State for Education:
The School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme (SFVS), which is administered by DH, is a key part of the 5 A DAY programme and is complemented by a number of government programmes to improve young people’s diets and which encourage higher fruit and vegetable consumption. These Include: Healthy Start, Change4Life and the nutritional standards for school food.
Under the SFVS, all four to six year old children in Key Stage 1 in fully State-funded infant, primary and special schools throughout England are eligible to receive a free piece of fruit or vegetable every school day.
Liverpool City Council was one of a few local authorities which funded the extension of the SFVS to its Key Stage 2 children. It appears that it is this extension which the council has decided not to continue to fund—Key Stage 1 children will continue to receive free fruit and vegetables through the SFVS which continues, unchanged.
Every part of the public sector needs to do its bit to help reduce the legacy of Government debt and the massive overdraft that the coalition Government have inherited. Councils account for around a quarter of all public expenditure so they have to play their part.
As democratically elected organisations, local authorities are independent from central Government, and responsible for their own finances. This means that spending decisions are for individual councils to make.