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<p>This government has taken significant steps to raise the living standards of low-income
families, including introducing the National Living Wage, raising the personal tax
allowance so no-one pays tax on the first £12,500 earned and improving financial incentives
to work. The government is committed to delivering a country that works for everyone
and I want to ensure that all children have access to healthy food and enriching activities
during the school holidays. Last year I announced £2 million for projects to deliver
this sort of provision, free to disadvantaged pupils during the 2018 summer holidays.
We are more than quadrupling that amount for the 2019 summer holidays where we will
be exploring how the local coordination of this sort of provision can help more disadvantaged
pupils to access free high quality holiday club provision during the school holidays.</p><p>
</p><p>The information requested on data on the number of free school meals served
in each local authority is not held centrally. However, data on the number of pupils
eligible for and claiming free school meals in state-funded schools for each local
authority is available here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018"
target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2018</a>.</p><p>Accompanying
this answer is a table showing the number of holiday clubs the Department for Education
funded within each local authority, through its summer 2018 Holiday Activities and
Food Research Fund. Please note that the total number of clubs included in this table
is greater than the 283 clubs referred to in the ‘management information release’
related to this fund due to some clubs not returning usable management information.
The management release is available here: <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/755139/Holiday_Activities_and_Food_2018_Programme_revised.pdf"
target="_blank">https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/755139/Holiday_Activities_and_Food_2018_Programme_revised.pdf</a>.</p>
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