Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department plans to make of the effect of the Healthy Start scheme on the nutrition of pregnant women and young children; and if he will increase the value of the vouchers to meet the increasing cost of food.

The Healthy Start Scheme helps to encourage a nutritious healthy diet for more than 326,000 pregnant women, families and children under four from low income households. The Government recommitted to the Healthy Start scheme in the 2016 plan ‘Childhood Obesity: A plan for Action’.

The scheme has also been developed in other ways. For example, the addition of frozen fruit and vegetables in 2011 allows families to get more with their vouchers.