Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to review the eligibility criteria for the Holiday Activities and Food programme.

The department is investing over £200 million per year in free holiday club places for children from low-income families through the Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme.

HAF supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food, helping them to learn new things, and improving socialisation.

The programme takes place all across England and has reached over 685,000 children, of which 475,000 children were receiving benefits-related free school meals (FSM), during last year’s summer holidays.

While the department asks local authorities to focus the majority of the funding on FSM children, local authorities have the flexibility to use up to 15% of their funding to target and support other children and families that align with the local authorities’ own priorities.