Education

Mike Amesbury Excerpts

Monday 23rd January 2023 Ministerial Corrections

The following is an extract from Education Questions on 16 January 2023.

[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

James Kerfoot, the headteacher of Rudheath Senior Academy, which serves my constituents, has introduced free school meals for all pupils. Why does the Minister not do the same?

[Nick Gibb]

As I said, we are spending £1.6 billion each year on free school meals, which is targeted at the most disadvantaged children, but schools are able to use their pupil premium funding, which is worth £2.5 billion a year to schools, if they wish to extend the coverage of free school meals to more pupils. As I said earlier, we extended free school meals to all pupils in infant schools in an early decision of the Conservative-led coalition Government.

[Official Report, 16 January 2023, Vol. 726, c. 23.]

Letter of correction from the Minister of State, Department for Education, the right hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Nick Gibb):

An error has been identified in the response I gave to the hon. Member for Weaver Vale (Mike Amesbury).

The correct response should have been: