Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to a) improve the nutritional quality of school meals and b) increase the use of British produced food and ingredients in schools.

The department aims to revise the School Food Standards and is engaging with stakeholders, including academics and nutrition professionals, to ensure they support our work to create the healthiest generation of children in history.

Schools are responsible for their school meals service and how and where they choose to buy their produce. We encourage schools to voluntarily follow the Government Buying Standards for food and catering, which includes lots of advice around sustainable sourcing. Additionally, we are working with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to support schools to buy more of the fresh, high-quality ingredients produced in the UK when sourcing their meals as part of the government’s Food Strategy.