Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to increase the uptake of free school meals.

We are working to encourage all families who meet the current criteria toregisterfor free school meals.We want disadvantaged children to benefit from a nutritious meal, and also for their schools to receive additional funding through the pupil premium to help raise disadvantaged pupils' attainment.

The Department for Education’s eligibility checking system, used by local authorities, has made it much easier and quicker to check anonymously which families are entitled to free school meals.

The department has published a registration form to help schools to identify pupils who are entitled to free school meals and the pupil premium. This is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-and-pupil-premium-registration-form