Show Search Form

Search Results

registered interest	true false
date	exactly: or between: and
answering body
answering dept id
answering dept short name
answering dept sort name
hansard heading
house id
legislature	pref label
question text
tabling member constituency
tabling member printed
uin
answer	is ministerial correction true false date of answer exactly: or between: and answer text answering member constituency answering member printed grouped question UIN question first answered answering member label
tabling member	label

Search

1644771

registered interest
date	14/06/2023
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 20 March 2023 to Question 165189 on Free School Meals, for what reason her Department has not made an estimate of the take-up rate for free school meals since December 2013; and if she will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	189591
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/06/2023 answer text <p>The latest published statistics show that over 2 million pupils are claiming free school meals (FSM). This equates to 23.8% of all pupils, up from 22.5% in 2022. Together with almost 1.3 million infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy, over one third of pupils receive a free meal in school.</p><p>The Department does not routinely collect information on the proportion of pupils that may be entitled to a FSM but do not make a claim.</p><p>The Department’s primary interest is ensuring that all pupils who are entitled to free meals take this offer up. We also want to make it as simple as possible for schools and Local Authorities to determine eligibility. The Department provides an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and Local Authorities. The Department has also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for FSM and provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including FSM.</p><p>The take-up rate of UIFSM currently stands at 85%. The Department has not formally assessed the proportion of infant pupils who are entitled to, but not registered for FSM. The Department encourages all families who meet the eligibility criteria to apply for FSM.</p><p>The Department also has not estimated the amount of lunch debt owed by families for school meals. The Government continues to monitor cost-of-living issues that are affecting families.</p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p> answering member constituency Bognor Regis and Littlehampton answering member printed Nick Gibb grouped question UIN 189592 189593 question first answered 19/06/2023 15:04:53 answering member 111 label Biography information for Nick Gibb
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1454157

registered interest
date	24/03/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent estimate the Government has made of the proportion of children living in families with (a) very low food security and (b) low food security, according the definitions of the Department for Food, Environment and Rural Affairs, who are not eligible to receive means-tested free school meals.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	146627
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/03/2022 answer text <p>The department continues to work closely with other departments across government in considering eligibility for free school meals (FSM). This has included working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider all the evidence and recommendations of the National Food Strategy. The Government Food Strategy White Paper will be published in due course.</p><p>As set out previously, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education free meals.</p><p>The department is also permanently extending FSM eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 146628 146629 question first answered 31/03/2022 09:24:36 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1454160

registered interest
date	24/03/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions officials in his Department have had with their counterparts in the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on raising the eligibility threshold for free school meals in the forthcoming Food Strategy White Paper; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	146629
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 31/03/2022 answer text <p>The department continues to work closely with other departments across government in considering eligibility for free school meals (FSM). This has included working closely with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs to consider all the evidence and recommendations of the National Food Strategy. The Government Food Strategy White Paper will be published in due course.</p><p>As set out previously, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education free meals.</p><p>The department is also permanently extending FSM eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds. This will come into effect for the start of the summer term.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 146627 146628 question first answered 31/03/2022 09:24:36 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1453642

registered interest
date	23/03/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, for what reason his Department does not use data held by the Department for Work and Pensions to automatically register all pupils eligible for means-tested free school meals; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	145865
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 30/03/2022 answer text <p>Under benefits-related criteria, the department provide a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well nourished, and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.</p><p>Under this government, eligibility for free school meals has been extended several times, including through the introduction of universal infant free school meals, and further education free school meals.</p><p>The department are 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 summer term.</p><p>Whilst take-up of free school meals is strong, we want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.</p><p>To support this, the department provides an eligibility checking system to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. The department have also developed a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals and provide guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals. We continue to explore ways that the verification process can be improved.</p><p>As announced in the Spring Statement, the government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April 2022, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince grouped question UIN 145864 145866 question first answered 30/03/2022 15:40:29 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1434276

registered interest
date	22/02/2022
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2020 to Question 100944 on Free School Meals, whether his Department has made a more recent assessment of the proportion of pupils eligible for free school meals who are registered to receive this support.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	127408
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 01/03/2022 answer text <p>As noted in the previous response, we do not routinely collect information on the proportion of pupils that would be entitled to a free school meal (FSM) but do not make a claim.</p><p>There are now 1.7 million pupils eligible and claiming FSM. This information is published annually in the Statistical First Release: Schools, pupils and their characteristics. The latest available data was published in June 2021, based on the January 2021 census. It can be found here: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2021" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2021</a>.</p><p>Under this government, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century.</p><p>We want to make sure as many eligible pupils as possible are claiming FSM, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility. We have taken a number of steps to support this, as set out in the previous response.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 01/03/2022 17:42:05 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

1378403

registered interest
date	15/11/2021
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	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 Answer of 13 December 2016 to Question 56826 on Free School Meals, what progress his Department has made in making free school meal registration processes more efficient; and if he will make a statement.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	74976
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 19/11/2021 answer text <p>The department wants as many eligible pupils as possible to claim their free school meals, and to make it as simple as possible for schools and local authorities to determine eligibility.</p><p> </p><p>Since December 2016, when the referenced question was asked, the department has continued to develop and provide an Eligibility Checking System to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible for schools and local authorities. We have continued to provide a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals.</p><p> </p><p>The department has also provided guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including free school meals.</p> answering member constituency Colchester answering member printed Will Quince question first answered 19/11/2021 11:54:16 answering member 4423 label Biography information for Will Quince
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

758128

registered interest
date	06/09/2017
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	Free School Meals
house id	1
legislature	25259 pref label House of Commons
question text	To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of children in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne, (b) the North East and (c) England were entitled to receive free school meals in each of the last seven years.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	9049
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2017 answer text <p>Figures on the proportion of children eligible for free school meals are published annually for all authorities and regions in England. The figures can be found in the statistical first releases, which are available at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers</a>.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 11/09/2017 16:29:08 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell

758129

registered interest
date	06/09/2017
answering body	Department for Education
answering dept id	60
answering dept short name	Education
answering dept sort name	Education
hansard heading	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 she has made of the proportion of infant pupils in (a) Newcastle upon Tyne, (b) the North East and (c) England who would currently be entitled to receive free school meals under the pre-universal free school meals system.
tabling member constituency	Newcastle upon Tyne North
tabling member printed	Catherine McKinnell
uin	9050
answer	answer is ministerial correction date of answer 11/09/2017 answer text <p>The proportion of pupils eligible for, and claiming, free school meals under the pre-universal free school meals system is published at: <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2017" target="_blank">https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2017</a>.</p> answering member constituency Scarborough and Whitby answering member printed Mr Robert Goodwill question first answered 11/09/2017 16:29:51 answering member 1562 label Biography information for Sir Robert Goodwill
tabling member	4125 label Biography information for Catherine McKinnell