Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ringfence school meal funding.

The department spends approximately £1.5 billion annually on free lunches for 2.1 million school age pupils under benefits-based free school meals, over 90,000 disadvantaged students in further education, and around 1.3 million infant pupils under the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme to ensure they receive a nutritious lunchtime meal.

Funding is not ring-fenced, meaning that schools have autonomy over delivery, including entering into catering contracts with suppliers and allocation of funding within their budgets.

The department regularly speaks to food industry representatives on a range of issues including sector challenges such as funding.

As with all government programmes, the department will keep our approach to free school meals, including funding, under continued review.