Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to encourage schools to use parents' national insurance numbers with their consent to identify eligibility and then automatically register eligible children for free school meals.

The continuing provision of free school meals to children from out of work families, or those on low incomes, is of the utmost importance to this government. We want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility. To support this, we already provide an electronic Eligibility Checking System (ECS) to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. We have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals. We also provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals.

We will continue to look at what the most effective schools do and to highlight and disseminate best practice. We are prepared to consider any further steps we can take to improve the take-up of free school meals.