Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of (a) trends in the level of child morning hunger across early years, primary and secondary school settings and (b) the potential impact of child morning hunger on school readiness and attendance in the Forest of Dean constituency.

Answered by Olivia Bailey - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

The government is committed to tackling child poverty and delivering meaningful action to support children and families. We recognise the importance of a healthy breakfast at the start of the day for pupils and the impact this can have on attendance and readiness to learn. This is why we are rolling out free breakfast clubs in every state-funded school with primary-aged pupils in England, so all children, regardless of background, can have the best start in life.

School leaders report that free breakfast clubs are improving punctuality, attendance, behaviour and concentration. Since April 2025, the programme has delivered seven million meals and offered places to almost 180,000 pupils across the country, with two of our early adopter schools located in the Forest of Dean constituency.

We are investing a further £80 million to fund approximately 2,000 additional schools between April 2026 and March 2027. We have also committed to continued funding of breakfast provision from September 2026 for secondary schools in disadvantaged areas which are currently participating in the National School Breakfast Programme.

Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what consideration she has given to repurposing social media algorithms whereby feeds recommend high-quality, age-appropriate content from a diverse range of trusted sources for child accounts.

Answered by Kanishka Narayan - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Under the Online Safety Act, services that are likely to be accessed by children must prevent children from encountering the most harmful content and provide age-appropriate experiences. Ofcom has recommended measures to comply with the Act, including ensuring algorithms filter out content that is harmful.

On 2 March, the government launched a consultation on further measures to ensure children’s experiences online are safe and enriching. This consultation seeks views on whether specific functionalities, like algorithms, should be age-restricted, the benefits of positive online content for children, and how cross‑sector and voluntary efforts could enable access to it. The government will respond by Summer.

Found: Current membership Andy Slaughter (Labour; Hammersmith and Chiswick) (Chair) Matt Bishop (Labour; Forest

Found: Watch the meeting Members present: Andy Slaughter (Chair); Matt Bishop; Pam Cox; Warinder Juss; Tessa

Found: Current membership Andy Slaughter (Labour; Hammersmith and Chiswick) (Chair) Matt Bishop (Labour; Forest

The Justice Committee has issued a call for evidence to inform its scrutiny of the Courts and Tribunals Bill.