Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of introducing automatic enrolment of children entitled to free school meals.

We want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to check eligibility for free school meals (FSM). Under existing legislative arrangements, a claim for FSM must be made by or on behalf of a pupil and this forms part of the eligibility process. Officials are exploring options for making the process of registering pupils for FSM more efficient.