Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that housing benefit data is used by local authorities in England to identify and automatically register all children eligible for free school meals.

We want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility for free school meals (FSM).

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 FSM. We do not consider further legislation to be necessary for this particular approach.

To support FSM registration, the department provides an online eligibility checking facility; and a model registration form for schools to use within their enrolment process.

The department is exploring what opportunities exist in the longer term to make FSM registration processes more efficient.