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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on the ability of dairy farmers to withstand market fluctuations of not replacing the school fruit, vegetables and milk scheme after the UK leaves the EU.

The future application of the EU School Milk Scheme is under consideration and no decisions have been taken. However, provisions included in the European Union (Withdrawal) Act will support any future decisions.

The EU Scheme sits alongside other initiatives such as the much larger national Nursery Milk Scheme for children under the age of five in daycare, Free School Milk for those children entitled to Free School Meals and the requirement for schools to make milk available for children under the School Food Standards. The key aim of these initiatives is to make a contribution towards ensuring that children are healthy and well-nourished. In addition, supporting dairy consumption from a young age also makes a useful contribution towards the success of our dairy sector.