Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of programmes in England providing free meals and activities for children during school holidays; what funding his Department has provided for such programmes in each of the last three years; and what steps his Department is taking to promote such programmes.

The department has not made any assessment of the number of school holiday programmes there are in England. Schools are not required to provide food for children during the school holidays. Therefore, my department does not provide funding for school holiday programmes.

We are currently considering the School Holidays (Meals and Activities) Bill, which considers this issue, and will be responding in due course.