Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lisa Cameron and Sam Gyimah

Monday 26th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gyimah]

I welcome the hon. Lady to her new post. It is great to see that many of her predecessors are still in the shadow education team. It is wonderful that the new politics is being led by the same old faces.

I am proud of our record on children’s centres. We have seen record numbers of families receiving support, but there has also been a 50% increase in the number of health visitors and we have expanded the troubled families programme. We are on the side of the families that need children’s centres most, and we are doing something about it.

[Dr Lisa Cameron (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (SNP)]

7. What assessment she has made of the effect of the Government's proposed changes to tax credits on the number of children accessing free school meals.

[Patrick Grady (Glasgow North) (SNP)]

14. What assessment she has made of the effect of the Government's proposed changes to tax credits on the number of children accessing free school meals.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Mr Sam Gyimah)]

Thanks to the growing economy, the number of children requiring free school meals is falling. We are currently assessing the effect of proposed changes to tax credits.

[Dr Cameron]

The proposed changes to tax credits will see 22,000 children in Scotland lose their entitlement to free school meals, although our First Minister has pledged to safeguard that entitlement. Will the Minister make a similar pledge to ensure that children from the most vulnerable backgrounds in the rest of the UK remain eligible for free school meals?

[Mr Gyimah]

The hon. Lady will be aware that, in the rest of the UK, the majority of children who are entitled to free school meals have parents who are on out-of-work benefits. We are assessing the impact of the changes to tax credits, and there is nothing to suggest that people who currently receive free school meals will not continue to do so.