Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children took part in the Holiday Activities and Food programme in the 2021 summer holidays in (a) total and (b) each local authority in England.

Local authorities were asked to send reports to the department by 15 October 2021, including detailed information on their delivery of the programme to date. The department is now examining these detailed individual reports and may need to clarify information with local authorities in some cases. The department will then consider the best way to share information on the programme. The department has also commissioned Ecorys UK to conduct an external evaluation of the programme. Fieldwork has taken place during and shortly after this year’s summer holidays, and we expect to publish findings in the new year.