Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he is taking steps to provide long-term funding arrangements for the Nursery Milk Scheme and the School Milk Subsidy Scheme to ensure continuity of provision for early years and primary education settings.

The Nursery Milk Scheme is operated by the Department of Health and Social Care and provides reimbursement to early years childcare settings to cover the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk per day to all children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for more than two hours per day. The School Milk Subsidy Scheme is the responsibility of the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs and partly finances the cost of similar milk provision to children in primary and secondary schools in England and Wales. There are no current plans to change these schemes.