Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's news story of 4 January 2020, Free meals and summer holiday activities for children, what estimate he has made of the number of children who will be eligible for a free school breakfast as a result of the additional Government funding of up to £11.8 million to support disadvantaged families.

The department is investing up to a further £11.8 million into the National School Breakfast Programme using funds from the Soft Drinks Industry Levy revenues. This additional funding will kick-start or improve sustainable breakfast clubs in up to a further 650 schools. The total investment into this programme over 2018-2021 will be up to £35 million which will benefit up to 2,450 schools.

A contract was awarded to Family Action in March 2018 and will run until March 2021. This contract is based on recruiting schools in the most disadvantaged areas of the country, including the department’s Opportunity Areas, to help ensure every child gets the best start in life. Our targets are therefore based on the number of schools we support, rather than targeting a specific number of children. Family Action have reported in the Food for Thought Progress Report 2019 that there are already more than 1,800 schools benefitting from the programme and estimate 280,000 pupils receiving a breakfast meal per day.

We will provide further information on the impact of the programme once the contract has concluded.