Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 December to Question 118739, on Pupil Premium, what steps his Department is taking to make the free school meal registration process more efficient.

We want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility for free school meals (FSM). We know that take up for FSM is already high – but we want to make sure that as many eligible children as possible are claiming their FSM.

In addition to the actions set out in answer to 118739, on 14 December 2017, we provide an electronic Eligibility Checking System. This allows local authorities to check quickly data held by the Department for Work and Pensions, the Home Office and HM Revenue and Customs to establish FSM eligibility.

We have also recently consulted on eligibility for FSM under Universal Credit. In that consultation, we stated our intention to continue to look at what the most effective schools do to encourage FSM registration, and highlight and disseminate best practice from these schools and local authorities for other schools to use. We are currently analysing responses to this consultation and will publish our government response in due course.