Free School Meals (Automatic Registration of Eligible Children) Bill

Shaun Davies Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 14th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Peter Lamb (Crawley) (Lab)]

I beg to move, That the Bill be now read a Second time.

I am very grateful for my good fortune in having the chance to introduce a Bill in my first year as a Member of this House and to seek to address, in part, one of my greatest policy concerns: childhood poverty. The previous Labour Government made reducing child poverty one of their most significant missions in office, and research by the Institute for Fiscal Studies has demonstrated that without the changes they made to benefits, child poverty would have increased by more than a quarter by 2010—instead, it fell by more than a quarter. It was a remarkable achievement under the circumstances.

Unfortunately, the actions of the Conservatives in the years since have reversed much of that good work. Today, in one of the wealthiest countries in the world, almost a third of our children—innocents who have no control whatsoever over their personal circumstances—are living in poverty. Harold Wilson famously said that the Labour party is

“a moral crusade or it is nothing.”

If this Government are to be judged on anything over the next five years, let it be how they treat the most vulnerable members of our society.

Like many Members of my party, I have found the decision not to immediately lift the two-child benefit cap extremely painful. We do not need further reports on how this policy was one of the most significant drivers of child poverty under the previous Government; at this point, I do not believe the bookshelves of the House of Commons Library could support any more evidence, were it to be submitted. However, I do accept that £3.2 billion cannot simply be found overnight. If we are serious about ending childhood poverty, we need to consider all the issues in the round, and the child poverty taskforce is a vital part of ensuring that limited public money is used most effectively to address this crisis.

What can we do here today, while we await the findings of the taskforce, to try to improve the conditions of children living in poverty? Members will be aware that private Member’s Bills cannot authorise new expenditure, and I do not seek to challenge that. This Bill seeks simply to ensure that the children whom this House has already stated should receive free school meals receive them automatically, unless their parents actively opt out of the system. It will not require a penny more in expenditure than is necessary to fulfil the social contract that generations of Parliaments have sustained with our poorest children.

The requirement to qualify for free school meals is a combined household income of £7,400 or less—an income of roughly half the average rent in my constituency. I find it hard to believe that it is possible to sustain a household on such a low income. It is these children the Bill seeks to support. The stories we hear of child poverty are heartbreaking, not only because of the hunger and the impact on children’s performance at school, but because of the stigma, with stories of children pretending to bring food out of their bags so that they can fit in with their friends at school, even when there is nothing available.

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

Us former council leaders have to stick together. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend for bringing forward this Bill. As I mentioned in my maiden speech, I was a recipient of free school meals myself. I remember that stigma; I remember getting a blue ticket when I went to get lunch with my friends, while they got a yellow one. The stigma is still with me today. It runs very deep in me. Does he agree that the Government’s child poverty taskforce has to consider everything in the round? We should welcome the Government’s announcements on free breakfast clubs and the roll-out of the trial of those clubs. Does he also agree that we need to see urgency from the Government and the Minister, as I am sure we will, to address this issue and to take a systematic look at families and children in poverty?

[Peter Lamb]

I absolutely agree. I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for his intervention. The Government are doing a lot to try to address this issue, but that is not to say that we cannot do more. We hear those stories of stigma, with children pretending to bring food out of their bags so that they do not miss out or so that they fit in, even if they do not have the actual food. We should be glad that over the years since, the system of free school meals has changed, so that people cannot tell which children are in receipt of free school meals. I will come back to that point, but it hopefully has encouraged parents to make use of the option.

Free school meals are estimated to save roughly £500 a child. Against such a low income, that amount makes a huge difference. For a family affected by the child benefit cap, it would increase their income by a fifth or more. Why, given the difference that it could make to their household, is every eligible family not claiming? There is a range of reasons. In some cases, there is a belief that their children might be bullied due to being in receipt of a free school meal, as my hon. Friend the Member for Telford (Shaun Davies) mentioned. If there is one immediate outcome of this debate, I hope it is to reinforce the message to parents that no one can now identify which child is on a free school meal. There is no stigma in claiming—please make the application.

We know also that the same barriers exist as with any other form of state support, where barriers of language, agency, awareness and ability ensure that those facing the greatest disadvantages in our society are the least likely to access the support available. These are the families who would benefit most from this legislation.

--- Later in debate ---

[Shaun Davies (Telford) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend the Member for Crawley (Peter Lamb) for bringing forward this private Member’s Bill on a process that, as a former council leader, I saw as a bureaucratic, red-tape nightmare. Children eligible for free school meals were not accessing them simply because a form was not filled in. Even though local authorities, schools and communities knew exactly who those children were, bureaucracy was getting in the way. I was pleased to hear the Minister say at the Dispatch Box that he is working with the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology to look at ways in which data sharing and passported benefit checks could be used to ensure that more children get food.

However, this must be looked at in the round. I heard from a constituent this week who has just taken their child out of a breakfast club because the cost of the club has gone up by £15 a week. Sadly, that school is not one of the 750 early adopters of breakfast clubs, but it will benefit from that policy initiative as it is rolled out. It is an excellent initiative and we should be proud of it. We should call on the Government to go harder, faster, in implementing the policy.

Some 900,000 more children in working households were living in poverty in 2023 than in 2010. That means that 1,350 children entered poverty every single week for the first 13 years the Conservatives were in power. In my area, Telford, absolute poverty rose from 14.9% to 18.4% between 2014 and 2023, and we know that a huge number of families who are not included in the poverty figures were also struggling to make ends meet.

Ultimately, we need an economy that is growing and getting people into work so that the poverty trap can be removed. Like the shadow Minister, I declare an interest: my wife is a primary school teacher in Telford. She tells me about the direct contrast between the children she teaches now and the cohort that she taught when she started 20 years ago. Children are coming in with major social issues, and those social issues have to be addressed as a whole.

The Government also need to consider the huge regional inequality in deprivation. Child poverty in some parts of the country went down under the last Conservative Government, but in my region it soared. We need to engage with councils and, where applicable, with combined authorities and mayors to ensure a systematic approach.

[Claire Hughes (Bangor Aberconwy) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend mentions working with regions. May I add a point about nations? In Wales, all primary school children have been eligible for free school meals since September last year. Does my hon. Friend agree that in designing the roll-out of free school meals in England, the UK Government could learn from the experience in Wales?

[Shaun Davies]

I absolutely agree. My county borders Wales, so I know Wales very well indeed. The Westminster Government should absolutely learn from the Welsh Labour Government’s approach to child poverty, and to inequality more generally. We should congratulate and acknowledge the work of Welsh Labour in that space.

I welcome the previous Government’s household support fund and its extension by this Government. As a council leader and as chair of the Local Government Association, I worked with Conservative Ministers on the fund. The approach and ideals were absolutely right, but the one-year duration means that the money is not being used to the best possible extent. That goes back to the point about the importance of a cross-ministerial taskforce looking at the issue in the round.

We have heard a lot this week, from the Prime Minister downwards, about the need for delivery, about urgent action and about the ability to make a difference and demonstrate change. As a Labour Government, we cannot be in a position where, in four or five years’ time, we point to bureaucracy and red tape as the reason why we have not made a huge impact on the lives of the poorest children in our country.