Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional resources they will provide to combat hunger during school holiday periods.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
Through the Spending Review, the department has announced funding to ensure the poorest children do not go hungry outside of term time, supporting our ambition to end mass dependence on emergency food parcels.
The Household Support Fund (HSF) is a scheme for local authorities to provide discretionary support to vulnerable households in the most need. The department is providing £742 million in England to extend the HSF by a further year, from 1 April 2025 until 31 March 2026. This will enable local authorities to provide vulnerable households with immediate crisis support towards the cost of essentials, such as energy, water and food, and develop their schemes to help prevent poverty locally and build local resilience.
The government also remains committed to the Holiday Activities and Food programme to ensure children who are eligible for free school meals can access enriching activities and healthy meals during school holidays. More than £200 million has been allocated to the programme from 1 April 2025 to 31 March 2026.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional funding they are providing to ensure that funding for the provision of free school meals rises in line with the cost of living and food prices.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets. This decisive action will support parents and improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover additional meal costs. This is new money, as opposed to funding within existing school budgets.
Making all children in households claiming Universal Credit eligible for FSM makes it straightforward for parents to know whether they are eligible. We are supporting this by taking forward a programme of work including improvements to our own systems that will make applying for FSM easier than it’s ever been.
This includes improvements to the Eligibility Checking System to allow parents and schools to check their own eligibility for FSM independently from their local authorities. We are also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore legal gateways that could enable data sharing to improve local authorities’ ability to undertake local action to improve the targeting and delivery of FSM.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to encourage eligible families to apply for free school meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets. This decisive action will support parents and improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover additional meal costs. This is new money, as opposed to funding within existing school budgets.
Making all children in households claiming Universal Credit eligible for FSM makes it straightforward for parents to know whether they are eligible. We are supporting this by taking forward a programme of work including improvements to our own systems that will make applying for FSM easier than it’s ever been.
This includes improvements to the Eligibility Checking System to allow parents and schools to check their own eligibility for FSM independently from their local authorities. We are also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore legal gateways that could enable data sharing to improve local authorities’ ability to undertake local action to improve the targeting and delivery of FSM.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to simplify the process of applying for free school meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We have now announced that we are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026. This will lift 100,000 children across England out of poverty and put £500 back in families’ pockets. This decisive action will support parents and improve lives ahead of the Child Poverty Strategy coming later this year.
We have set aside over £1 billion in funding over the multiyear spending review period to cover additional meal costs. This is new money, as opposed to funding within existing school budgets.
Making all children in households claiming Universal Credit eligible for FSM makes it straightforward for parents to know whether they are eligible. We are supporting this by taking forward a programme of work including improvements to our own systems that will make applying for FSM easier than it’s ever been.
This includes improvements to the Eligibility Checking System to allow parents and schools to check their own eligibility for FSM independently from their local authorities. We are also working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to explore legal gateways that could enable data sharing to improve local authorities’ ability to undertake local action to improve the targeting and delivery of FSM.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the Barnett consequentials are for Northern Ireland arising from the expansion of the provision of entitlement to winter fuel payments for pensioners in England and Wales.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
From 2025-26, all individuals over the State Pension age in England and Wales with an income below £35,000 will be eligible to benefit from the Winter Fuel Payment. Pensioners in England and Wales above this threshold can either opt out or will be liable to have the payment reclaimed automatically through the personal tax system.
The Office for Budget Responsibility will incorporate the final costings into its forecast at the Budget later this year. As the Winter Fuel Payment is devolved in Northern Ireland, there will be an increase in Northern Ireland Executive funding through the AME forecast processes. This increased funding will be confirmed at the Budget.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve the nutritional quality of free school meals.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.
To ensure quality and nutrition in meals for the future, the department is acting quickly with experts across the sector to revise the School Food Standards, so every school is supported with the latest nutrition guidance.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government, as a part of the changes announced in the white paper Restoring control over the immigration system, published on 12 May, whether they will review the salary threshold to qualify for a regulated qualifications framework level 6 for graduate route jobs, and whether that threshold will have flexibility to take account of regional variations in graduate starter salaries.
Answered by Lord Hanson of Flint - Minister of State (Home Office)
Following the proposes set out in the Immigration White paper, the Home Office will ask the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) to undertake a thorough review of salary requirements (including discounts) to ensure that employers are no longer incentivised to recruit from abroad rather than train at home.
The Government will set out further details in the near future.
Further details can be found in the technical annex of the White Paper published here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/restoring-control-over-the-immigration-system-white-paper
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the implications and impact of the UK-EU agreement on the movement of pets (1) between Great Britain and Northern Ireland in both directions, and (2) between the United Kingdom and the EU in both directions.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
We do not expect the arrangements for pet travel to change for movement of pets between Great Britain and Northern Ireland as a result of this deal.
We have agreed to establish a UK-EU Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) Zone, which will mean travelling with pets into the EU and back will be easier and cheaper once the full agreement is finalised and implemented.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure full access in Northern Ireland to veterinary medicines from Great Britain as a result of the UK-EU agreement.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
After the summit with the EU on 19 May, the UK and the EU committed to negotiating an SPS Agreement, which will facilitate the smooth flow of agrifood and plants from Great Britain to Northern Ireland, protecting the UK’s internal market, reducing costs for businesses, and improving consumer choice.
While we do not expect this Agreement to cover veterinary medicinal products, this remains a priority for Government, and we are committed to safeguarding supply to protect animal health and welfare in Northern Ireland. The Government will be setting out its approach on the supply of veterinary medicines beyond the end of the grace period.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of the UK-EU agreement on the movement of plant and horticultural products between Great Britain and Northern Ireland; and whether all plant and horticultural products from Great Britain will be available in Northern Ireland.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
The new UK-EU Common Understanding agrees to remove a broad and wide-ranging set of requirements for sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) goods and plants moving from Great Britain to Northern Ireland.
Once implemented, there will be no need for SPS paperwork such as health certificates to move agrifood or plant products to Northern Ireland, no mandatory identity or physical checks on those goods, no need for Plant Health Labels when moving plants for planting, seed potatoes, and used agricultural machinery, and no bans on ‘high risk’ plants.