Free School Meals

(asked on 20th September 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make an assessment of (a) the adequacy of the eligibility criteria for and (b) the potential merits of providing universal free school meals in advance of the start of the 2023-24 academic year.


Answered by
Kelly Tolhurst Portrait
Kelly Tolhurst
This question was answered on 27th September 2022

The department continues to monitor the rising cost of living and its impact on free school meals (FSM), whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue.

The department believes it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, and those out of work or on the lowest incomes. We do not have any plans to extend universal provision, but we will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these are supporting those who most need them.

In setting a threshold, the government believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM while these remain affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.

Additionally, the government is providing over £200 million per year for the next three years to provide healthy food in the holidays via the department’s holiday activities and food programme, which provides breakfast clubs in thousands of schools. The department is as also delivering the School Fruit and Vegetable scheme, along with wider government schemes such as Healthy Start vouchers.

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