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1020559

	registered interest
	date	06/12/2018
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government how much of the £2.30 currently allocated under the universal infant free school meals grant for each child receiving school lunches is spent on food.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Boycott
	uin	HL12106
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 18/12/2018 answer text <p>For universal infant free school meals, the £2.30 per meal rate is provided to schools via a direct grant. This covers the cost of raw materials as well as other fixed costs associated with providing the meals. It is for schools to decide how to allocate their budgets in order to provide these meals.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Agnew of Oulton question first answered 18/12/2018 12:59:39 answering member 4689 label Biography information for Lord Agnew of Oulton
	tabling member	4704 label Biography information for Baroness Boycott

1182911

	registered interest
	date	04/03/2020
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the provision of universal free school meals for children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2.
	tabling member printed	Lord Storey
	uin	HL2234
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 16/03/2020 answer text <p>​A key success measure for Universal Infant Free School Meals is take-up of the meal, which has been consistently strong. We monitor this through the schools census. 1.4 million infants receive a free meal through this programme which is a take-up rate of 87%.</p> answering member printed Baroness Berridge question first answered 16/03/2020 12:48:01 answering member 4218 label Biography information for Baroness Berridge
	tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

1457001

	registered interest
	date	06/04/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty's Government whether they have undertaken any (1) engagement, or (2) analysis, of the impact of a free school meals programme for all primary school pupils.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Wilcox of Newport
	uin	HL7787
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/04/2022 answer text <p>The provision of free school meals to children from out-of-work or low income families is of the utmost importance to this government.</p><p>Under the benefits-related criteria, the department provides a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children. This ensures they are well nourished and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.</p><p>The department spends around £600 million per year to ensure an additional 1.3 million infants enjoy a free, healthy, and nutritious meal at lunchtime, following the introduction of the universal infant free school meal (UIFSM) policy in 2014.</p><p>Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. This includes the introduction of UIFSM and further education free meals.</p><p>We think it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work or on the lowest incomes. We do not have any plans to extend universal provision. but we will continue to keep all free school meal eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.</p><p>The department is also permanently extending free school meal eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the 2022 academic year summer term.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 22/04/2022 13:36:22 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	4730 label Biography information for Baroness Wilcox of Newport

1543832

	registered interest
	date	21/11/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to extend the provision of healthy free school meals to all primary school children.
	tabling member printed	Baroness Goudie
	uin	HL3596
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 25/11/2022 answer text <p>The department will continue to keep eligibility conditions for free school meals (FSM) under review to ensure that FSM are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the department believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.</p><p>The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of pupils are now provided with FSM.</p><p>Over £200 million a year is being invested in the holiday activities and food programme. This programme provides healthy meals, enriching activities and free childcare places to children from low-income families, benefiting their heath, wellbeing and learning through the provision of healthy free meals, nutritional education, and physical activities on a daily basis.</p> answering member printed Baroness Barran grouped question UIN HL3597 question first answered 25/11/2022 13:20:12 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	3575 label Biography information for Baroness Goudie

1642796

	registered interest
	date	07/06/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask His Majesty's Government whether they will change the conditions on which Universal Infant Free School Meal grants are made to ensure that the grants are expended solely on improving the quality of school meals to meet their child obesity targets.
	tabling member printed	Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe
	uin	HL8273
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 22/06/2023 answer text <p>Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) are funded through a direct grant to schools. To recognise the pressures facing schools, the Department announced an £18 million increase to the per-pupil funding rate for UIFSM to support with costs around food, transport and staff wages.</p><p>UIFSM helps to improve children’s education, boost their health and save parents around £400 a year. There are no plans to change the conditions in which these grants are made. The Department is continuing to review funding in order to ensure that schools continue to be able to provide healthy and nutritious meals in school. The funding for the free school meal (FSM) factor is increasing in line with the latest available GDP deflator forecast when the New Funding Formula (NFF) was published in July 2022.</p><p>Schools receive their provisional allocations for UIFSM in June based on the final allocation of the previous academic year. Schools receive a subsequent allocation of revenue funding in early summer, adjusted either up or down to reflect actual number of meals taken. This is calculated using an average taken from the October and January Censuses.</p><p>Local Authorities can decide whether they should top up the UIFSM allocation from their general maintenance and improvement budgets in the light of local circumstances, as they would do in any other year.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Baroness Barran question first answered 22/06/2023 16:00:02 answering member 4703 label Biography information for Baroness Barran
	tabling member	3335 label Biography information for Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe

175352

	registered interest
	date	22/01/2015
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what measures they are putting in place to help infants schools that are struggling to provide universal free school meals due to overstretched equipment or logistical problems.
	tabling member printed	Lord Storey
	uin	HL4355
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 27/01/2015 answer text <p>We have provided substantial support to help schools deliver this policy. We have already allocated £150 million capital funding to universal infant free school meals and are now providing an additional £24.5 million for individual school projects to ensure that the meals provided are of high quality, and particularly that all schools are able to offer hot meals.</p><p> </p><p>We recognise that some smaller schools may face particular challenges and have therefore allocated a further £22.5 million transitional funding in 2014-15 to help schools with 150 pupils or fewer to implement the policy. Each qualifying small school received a minimum of £3000.</p><p> </p><p>This is in addition to the £1.2 billion in general capital funding for school maintenance and improvements made available to local authorities this year.</p><p> </p><p>We have also set up an implementation support service, staffed by school food experts, which schools can contact for advice and support to help them overcome any issues they encounter. This service will continue to be available to schools until the end of 2015.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 27/01/2015 15:29:53 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	4238 label Biography information for Lord Storey

222727

	registered interest
	date	23/02/2015
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	2
	legislature	25277 pref label House of Lords
	question text	To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their assessment of the success of the free school lunch programme for the under-sevens.
	tabling member printed	Lord Ashcroft
	uin	HL5068
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 03/03/2015 answer text <p>The universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) programme is a great success. Evidence collected from local authorities and multi-academy trusts in August 2014 suggested that 98.5% of schools would be providing hot meals from the start of the autumn term; and the Department for Education is not aware of any schools which are not offering free meals to all their infant pupils. Over 1.6 million infant pupils (85.2% of all infant pupils) took a free school meal on autumn census day in October 2014 – 1.3 million more than were estimated to have taken a free school meal in the January 2014 school census, prior to the introduction of UIFSM. We know from pilots run between 2009 and 2011 that the introduction of universal free school meals helps to improve social skills, increase attainment and encourage healthy choices, as well as saving hard-working families money.</p><p> </p> answering member printed Lord Nash question first answered 03/03/2015 18:00:18 answering member 4270 label Biography information for Lord Nash
	tabling member	2568 label Biography information for Lord Ashcroft

1535876

	registered interest
	date	25/10/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of (a) funding free school meals for all primary school children and (b) raising the earnings threshold for Free School Meals to £20,000 per year before benefits.
	tabling member constituency	Camberwell and Peckham
	tabling member printed	Ms Harriet Harman
	uin	70931
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/11/2022 answer text <p>The Department continues to monitor the consequences of the rising cost of living and is working with other Government Departments in providing support. The Department will continue to keep free school meal (FSM) eligibility under review, ensuring that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the Department believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.</p><p>The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of school children are now provided with FSM.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 70930 70932 70933 question first answered 14/11/2022 15:05:06 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	150 label Biography information for Ms Harriet Harman

1535878

	registered interest
	date	25/10/2022
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the finding of Impact on Urban Health Cost in its report Investing in Children’s Future: A Cost Benefit Analysis of Free School Meal Provision Expansion that provision of free school meals to all primary school students would generate £41.3bn in direct benefits to schools, families and the NHS and a further £58.2bn in benefit to the wider economy, if he will make it his policy to expand eligibility for free school meals to all primary school students.
	tabling member constituency	Camberwell and Peckham
	tabling member printed	Ms Harriet Harman
	uin	70933
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 14/11/2022 answer text <p>The Department continues to monitor the consequences of the rising cost of living and is working with other Government Departments in providing support. The Department will continue to keep free school meal (FSM) eligibility under review, ensuring that these meals are supporting those who most need them. In setting a threshold, the Department believes that the current level, which enables children to benefit from FSM, while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one.</p><p>The latest published statistics show that around 1.9 million pupils are claiming FSM. This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, 37.5% of school children are now provided with FSM.</p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 70930 70931 70932 question first answered 14/11/2022 15:05:06 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	150 label Biography information for Ms Harriet Harman

1567178

	registered interest
	date	16/01/2023
	answering body	Department for Education
	answering dept id	60
	answering dept short name	Education
	answering dept sort name	Education
	hansard heading	Primary Education: Free School Meals
	house id	1
	legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
	question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to ensure that all primary school children have access to free school meals.
	tabling member constituency	York Central
	tabling member printed	Rachael Maskell
	uin	124007
	answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 23/01/2023 answer text <p>The latest published statistics from the Department are available at: <a href="https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics" target="_blank">https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics</a>.</p><p>Approximately 1.9 million pupils are claiming free school meals (FSM). This equates to 22.5% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with a further 1.25 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal policy, over one third of school children are now provided with FSM. The Department currently has protections in place, ensuring that eligible pupils keep their FSM entitlement even if their household circumstances improve.</p><p>The Department believes that the current eligibility threshold level, which enables children in low income households to benefit from FSM while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right one. The Department does not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for FSM but will continue to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them. The Department continues to monitor current issues that affect disadvantaged families, such as the consequences of the rising cost of living.</p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 124006 question first answered 23/01/2023 17:50:52 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
	tabling member	4471 label Biography information for Rachael Maskell