Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Under-Secretary of State for Education of 19 January 2018, Official Report, column 1247, how local authorities can apply to become a pilot area for schemes to combat school holiday hunger.

The activity on research and stakeholder engagement mentioned on 19 January is already underway and further details for our pre-piloting activity in Summer 2018 will be made available shortly. The aim of this initial work will be to inform the development of a pilot programme which will run in the 2019 Easter and summer holidays. Drawing on the learning from this research and engagement activity, government will set out our plans for the pilot programme later in 2018.