Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 January 2020 to Question 2542, what support is available to parents of children eligible for free school meals who have medical dietary requirements that the school cannot guarantee to meet.

Schools are expected to make reasonable efforts to cater for pupils with particular requirements, including to reflect medical, dietary and cultural needs. In exceptional circumstances, it may be considered reasonable for the school not to make special provision for particular children – for example, where this would be very difficult and costly to achieve. In the rare event that schools are unable to accommodate the dietary requirements of a student, schools are not required to provide additional support.

Guidance for schools is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools with additional supporting information on allergies at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools/allergy-guidance-for-schools.