Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment the Government has made of the potential effect of auto-registration for free school meals on the (a) uptake of free school meals and (b) amount of pupil premium funding allocated to schools.

We are determined to give every child, regardless of their background, the very best start in life. Both free school meals (FSM) and the pupil premium (which links to FSM eligibility) are key to this, and we want all parents whose children are entitled to free school meals to apply for them.

The current eligibility criteria for free school meals requires the parent (or pupil) to be both in receipt of a specified benefit and to make a request for the meal to be provided free of charge. To support this, the Department for Education provides an electronic Eligibility Checking System (ECS), which allows local authorities to quickly check data held by DWP, the Home Office and HMRC in order to establish FSM eligibility. The Department has also provided a model registration form and accompanying guidance which schools can use as part of their enrolment process.

We want to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility for FSM, and the Department is looking at what can be done in the longer term to make the FSM registration processes even more efficient.