Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of automatic enrolment for free school meals to ensure that all pupils receive their pupil premium allocation.
We want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility. To support this:
The latest estimates of the number of pupils who are entitled to receive free school meals but are not claiming them are available at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/266339/DFE-RR319.pdf.