Business of the House

Andrew Bridgen Excerpts

Thursday 6th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

As I have pointed out in previous business questions, Leicestershire is one of the lowest funded counties for education in the whole country. Teachers also tell me that schools have been missing out on the pupil premium because of the reluctance of parents to sign their children up for the free school meals to which they are entitled. May we have a statement on what action the Government can take to emphasise to parents how important it is to sign up for free school meals, and may we have a debate on universal credit and how it may allow the identification of families who qualify for the pupil premium without needing to reference the take-up of free school meals?

[Mr Lansley]

I recall the important point that my hon. Friend made about the education funding formula and I look forward to further announcements from colleagues soon. On his point about access to the pupil premium because of free school meals, the under-registration rate in 2013 is estimated to have been 11%, down from 14% in 2012. This is an important point. The pupil premium is an important part of the allocation of resources to support disadvantaged pupils. To support a more efficient system the Department has developed an award-winning free school meals eligibility checking system. This system enables local authorities very quickly to determine whether a parent can claim free school meals by linking benefits information from the Department for Work and Pensions with information from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and the Home Office.