Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what steps he is taking to replace the EU school fruit, vegetables and milk scheme; and for what reason such steps were not included in the Agriculture Bill.

The existing legal framework for the EU’s School Scheme is being rolled over into UK law under the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018. This provides a suitable basis to support future decisions on the longer term approach to school milk rather than include the arrangements in the Agriculture Bill.

We want children to be healthy and well-nourished and regular dairy consumption makes an important contribution to this. The Government is also promoting children’s dairy consumption through, for example, the national free Nursery Milk Scheme, and by ensuring the availability of milk for pupils under the School Food Standards, including free milk for disadvantaged pupils.