Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate his Department has made of the number of school children who will be affected by the discontinuance of subsidies from the European School Milk Scheme.

The Secretary of State and I have regular discussions with ministers in other government departments on a range of matters.

We want children to be healthy and well-nourished and the dairy industry makes an important contribution to this. Alongside the European Union (EU) scheme, the Government is already doing a great deal nationally to promote children’s dairy consumption through, for example, the much larger national free Nursery Milk Scheme, and by ensuring the availability of milk for pupils under the School Food Standards, including free milk for disadvantaged pupils. The longer-term approach to the EU Scheme is still under consideration.