Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans her Department has to encourage greater uptake of free milk in schools and nurseries.

The government wants pupils to be healthy and well nourished. We already encourage the consumption of dairy products as part of a balanced diet through school funding, legislation and guidance.

Schools must provide free milk to all disadvantaged pupils when it is served during the school day as required by free school meals and milk legislation. Free milk is also provided to pupils in reception, year 1 and 2 when served as part of universal infant free school meals provision. To improve uptake, we are exploring what opportunities exist in the longer term to make the free school meals registration processes more efficient.

The School Food Standards provide the legislative framework to ensure schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, which includes a requirement to make milk available at least once during the school day. As part of our work on the childhood obesity plan we will be promoting these standards to those academies and free schools where they do not already apply.

Department of Health spending on the Nursery Milk Scheme has doubled since 2007/08. The Scheme provides 1/3 pint (189ml) of milk per day to children under the age of five attending childminders or private and local authority nurseries for at least two hours a day. In addition, the EU School Milk Scheme provides subsidised milk to school children and plays a valuable role in encouraging the consumption of dairy products and contributing to the development of healthy eating habits from an early age.