Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to analysis by Child Poverty Action Group and its finding that 800,000 children in poverty do not qualify for free school meals, published on 9 June 2022, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of this analysis.

The department does not have plans to make changes to Free School Meal (FSM) eligibility. However, we continue to monitor the rising cost of living whilst working with other government departments on support surrounding this issue. The department will continue to keep FSM eligibility under review to ensure that these meals 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 remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.

The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, the greatest ever proportion of school children, 37.5%, are now provided with FSM.