Oral Answers to Questions

Nadia Whittome Excerpts

Monday 2nd March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Especially in Bradford, don’t worry.

[Nadia Whittome (Nottingham East) (Lab)]

6. What steps he is taking to increase the provision of free school holiday (a) activities and (b) meals for children living in poverty.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Education (Vicky Ford)]

This lunchtime, 1.3 million children sat down for a healthy, nutritious free school meal. Last summer, about 50,000 children took part in our holiday activities and food programme. Furthermore, our manifesto commits £1 billion for more wraparound and holiday childcare places from 2021, and we have already started working on the details.

[Nadia Whittome]

The funding for the Government’s holiday activities and food programme is a drop in the ocean, given that in Nottingham alone, nearly 11,000 children used food banks for emergency supplies in the past year. Does the Minister acknowledge the sheer scale of child poverty and hunger, which has boomed on this Government’s watch? Will she outline how this Government scheme is at least targeting the areas of the country that are most in need?

[Vicky Ford]

I thank the hon. Lady for her question. All the evidence shows that work offers families the best opportunity to move out of poverty and towards self-reliance, which is why it is such good news that there are 730,000 fewer children in workless households now than a decade ago—that is a record low. Our programme of holiday food and activities is already helping about 50,000 children, and the successful bidders for next summer will be announced shortly.