Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to encourage local authorities in England to make use of their housing benefit and council tax data automatically to register all eligible children for free school meals with parents or guardians given the right to opt-out of such meals.

We understand that some local authorities have found this approach can be an effective tactic. However, it does not provide a complete or sustainable solution to automatic registration for free school meals (FSM).

We want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility for FSM and the department is exploring what opportunities exist in the longer term to make FSM registration processes more efficient.