Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she made of the potential impact of the School Food Standards on (a) children’s health and childhood obesity and (b) the Government’s net zero carbon strategy.

Obesity is a complex problem caused by many factors. The Department of Health and Social Care launched ‘Tackling obesity: empowering adults and children to live healthier lives’ in July 2020. The strategy demonstrates an overarching campaign to reduce obesity and takes forward actions from previous chapters of the childhood obesity plan, including the ambition to halve the number of children living with obesity by 2030.

The Department for Education (the Department) wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished and encourages a healthy balanced diet and healthy life choices through school funding, legislation, and guidance. The Standards for school food are set out in The Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014. They are designed to ensure that schools provide pupils with healthy food and drink options, and to ensure that pupils get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.

The Department has committed to support schools to improve their sustainable practices on food. Schools can voluntarily follow the Department’s buying standards, which include advice about sustainable sourcing. The Department also recognises the importance of plant based foods from a health and environmental point of view. The School Food Standards already allow schools the freedom to provide plant based meals as needed.

The School Food Standards ensure the right foods are available for pupils every day. Schools are required to provide one or more portions of vegetables or salad as an accompaniment. One or more portions of fruit must be provided every day and at least three different fruits and three different vegetables each week. My right hon. Friends, the Secretary of State for Education and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, have not met on this matter.

The Department believes that the current standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure that pupils in England continue to receive high quality and nutritious food, that builds healthy eating habits for life. The Department is keeping the standards under review.