Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children took part in the Holiday Activities and Food programme in the 2021 Easter holidays in (a) total and (b) each local authority in England.

The department funded Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which has provided healthy food and enriching activities to disadvantaged children, has been expanded to every local authority across England this year, backed by up to £220 million. It builds on previous programmes, including last summer’s, which supported around 50,000 children across 17 local authorities.

Ordinarily we require HAF provision to be face to face. However, we offered greater flexibility during the Easter holiday which led to every local authority delivering provision. Survey information from local authorities suggests hundreds of thousands of children benefited from attending holiday activities and food clubs across England.

We do not hold robust data on the number of children that benefited by area for Easter. All local authorities will be delivering provision across the summer. An independent evaluation of the HAF programme over the summer will take place.