School Milk

(asked on 13th May 2022) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has undertaken an assessment of the affordability of subsidised milk under the School Milk Subsidy Scheme in the context of the increasing cost of living; and what steps the Government is taking to ensure that families are able to afford to purchase subsidised milk for their children in schools.


Answered by
Will Quince Portrait
Will Quince
This question was answered on 18th May 2022

Milk is an excellent food for children’s growth and development. This is why under the school food standards, schools must ensure it is available to all pupils who want it during school hours. Further guidance on the school food standards can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-food-standards-resources-for-schools.

Lower fat milk or lactose reduced milk must be available for drinking at least once a day during school hours and milk must be provided free of charge to pupils eligible for free school meals. Schools may offer milk as many times as they wish, however it must be free to infant and benefits-based free school meal pupils when it is offered as part of their school meal and free to benefits-based free school meal pupils at all other times.

Where schools provide milk, they can also choose whether to participate in the School Milk Subsidy Scheme which can be used to reduce the cost of the milk. The rate for the subsidy is topped up nationally for pupils in primary education.

Further information about the scheme is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/the-school-milk-subsidy-scheme-guidance.

As announced in the Spring Statement, the government is continuing to provide targeted cost of living support for households most in need. From April 2022, the government is providing an additional £500 million to help households with the cost of household essentials, on top of what we have already provided since October 2021, bringing the total funding for this support to £1 billion.

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