Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what percentage of exempt academies have not voluntarily signed up to the School Food Standards.

The government encourages all schools to promote healthy eating and provide healthy, tasty and nutritious food and drink.

Compliance with the School Food Standards is mandatory for the majority of schools, including all maintained schools. Academies and free schools are required to comply with the standards by virtue of their funding agreements, with the exception of a proportion that we expect to comply voluntarily. All new academies and free schools have mandatory compliance specified in their funding agreements by default, and when these agreements are updated, we will seek to include this.

To date, over 1400 exempt academies have indicated they are following the School Food Standards voluntarily.