Found: Food Schemes which support levelling up: Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Found: fruit and vegetables served at snack times and mealtimes in schools and expand the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Found: healthy food schemes, such as Healthy Start,207 the Nursery Milk Scheme208 and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Found: We consider the Government’s School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme and Healthy Start programme as powerful

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help encourage people to have healthy diets.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

Supporting people to stay healthier for longer is at the heart of this government’s Health Mission. Government advice on a healthy, balanced diet is encapsulated in the United Kingdom’s national food model, the Eatwell Guide. The Eatwell Guide depicts a healthy, balanced diet that is based on fruit, vegetables and higher fibre starchy carbohydrates. The Eatwell Guide principles are promoted through the NHS.uk website and the Government’s social marketing campaign, Better Health, including Healthier Families and Start for Life. The guide is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-eatwell-guide

The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk, and infant formula. Healthy Start beneficiaries have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four. In October 2024, Healthy Start supported over 353,000 beneficiaries; this figure is higher than the previous paper voucher scheme.

The School Fruit and Vegetable scheme provides children in Key Stage 1 at state-funded primary schools with a free portion of fruit or vegetable every school day, to help to encourage healthier eating.

The Government is also committed to implementing the advertising restrictions for less healthy food and drink on TV and online, bringing forward the necessary secondary legislation to deliver our commitment to ban the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks to children under 16 years old, and limiting school children’s access to fast food. Further action under the Government’s Health Mission will be set out in due course.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help tackle rickets.

Answered by Andrew Gwynne

Rickets is a condition that affects bone development in children. Cases of rickets are rare in the United Kingdom, and have been relatively consistent over recent years. The most common cause of rickets is a lack of vitamin D and calcium, although in rare cases, children can be born with a genetic form of the condition.

Since it is difficult for people to get enough vitamin D from food alone, the Government advises that everyone should consider taking a daily 10-microgram vitamin D supplement during the autumn and winter. People at high risk of not getting enough vitamin D, pregnant and breastfeeding women, all children aged one to four years old, and all babies, unless they're having more than 500 millilitre of infant formula a day, should take a daily supplement throughout the year. People at high risk of not getting enough vitamin D include:

⎯ those who are not often outdoors, for example if they're frail or housebound;

⎯ are in an institution like a care home;

⎯ usually wear clothes that cover up most of their skin when outdoors; and

⎯ those who have dark skin, such as people with an African, African-Caribbean or south Asian background.

Government advice on vitamin D is communicated via the NHS.UK website and the social marketing campaigns Start4Life, Better Health, and Healthier Families. Through our Healthy Food Schemes, like Healthy Start, Nursery Milk, and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme, the Government provides a nutritional safety net to those who need it the most. Beneficiaries of our food scheme Healthy Start are eligible for free Healthy Start vitamins, which include vitamin C and D. The law also requires the addition of vitamin D to all infant formula.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure that children are not hungry at school.

Answered by Damian Hinds

The department provides a range of support designed to ensure that children in schools are provided with healthy and nutritious meals throughout the school day.

The department is investing up to £35 million in the National School Breakfast Programme until the end of July 2025. This funding is supporting up to 2,700 schools in disadvantaged areas, meaning that thousands of children from low-income families are being offered free nutritious breakfasts at school to better support their attainment, wellbeing and readiness to learn.

In addition to this, the department spends over £1 billion a year on free school meals, including £600 million for Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM). Under the benefits-based criteria, two million of the most disadvantaged pupils are eligible for free meals. Close to 1.3 million additional infants enjoy a free, healthy and nutritious meal at lunchtime following the introduction of the UIFSM policy in 2014. In total, over one third of pupils are in receipt of this crucial support, which is up from one in six in 2010.

Furthermore, the department provides over 2.2 million children in reception and Key Stage 1 with a portion of fresh fruit or vegetables each day at school through the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme.

The department supports the provision of nutritious food in schools through ‘The Requirements for School Food Regulations’ (2014), which require schools to provide children with healthy food and drink options and to make sure that children get the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.

Found: programme or policy change) of which the key items include: £15.2 million to DHSC for the school fruit and vegetable scheme

Found: budget cover transfers, of which the key items include: £15.2 million to DHSC for the school fruit and vegetable scheme

Found: Talking Therapies 21,900,000 (Section C) transfer from Department for Education for the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Found: Talking Therapies 21,900,000 (Section C) transfer from Department for Education for the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Found: The three Healthy Food Schemes (Healthy Start, Nursery Milk and the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme

Found: E. et al. (2007) Does the school fruit and vegetable scheme improve children's diet?

Found: Department had contracted to pay for produce to be delivered to schools as part of the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme