Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will take steps to ensure that the provision of free schools meals is extended to children from immigrant families.

The department will be extending free school meal (FSM) eligibility to children from all households with no recourse to public funds. Further information is available at: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-03-24/hcws714.

This builds on the department’s existing benefits-related criteria which ensures 1.7 million children receive a free nutritious school meal each day, and the universal infant FSM policy which has been in place since 2014, benefitting a further 1.3 million infant children.