School Holidays (Meals and Activities) Bill

Diana Johnson Excerpts

2nd reading: House of Commons
Friday 19th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Nadhim Zahawi]

I will make some more headway first. Then I will take a few more interventions.

To reach an informed decision, we will work across Government. We will begin immediately to carry out rapid research, along with further stakeholder engagement. That will enable us to learn from those who are already active in the field about how to achieve the most positive outcomes. I am keen to work in partnership with the right hon. Member for Birkenhead to drive that forward, and I will be most grateful for his continued support and expertise. We will, in particular, look to colleagues in Wales, who are already offering “food and fun” holiday schemes, and to the teams who have evaluated them. We will learn lessons from similar schemes elsewhere. There are, for example, the opportunity areas, six more of which we have launched today. We will also consider how to build on breakfast club provision. Drawing on the learning from the research and engagement, we will set out our plans for the research, including the pilot programme, later in 2018.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Will the pilots take place this year? In Hull we are already trying to plan for a scheme to be in place in the summer, and it would be nice to know whether we could apply for funds to conduct one of the pilots.

[Nadhim Zahawi]

We will begin the research immediately. The difficulty with beginning the pilots in the holidays this year is the procurement process, but I want to begin them as soon as possible.