Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of the level of the grant paid for free school meals.

The Department recognises the cost pressures that some schools and suppliers may be facing. The Department is holding regular meetings with other Government Departments and with food industry representatives, covering a variety of issues including public sector food supplies.

The Department keeps funding under review to ensure that schools continue to be able to provide healthy and nutritious meals. The funding for the free school meals programme is increasing in 2023/24, in line with the latest available gross domestic product deflator forecast when the National Funding Formula was published in July 2022.

Universal Infant Free School Meals are funded through a direct grant to schools. The funding rate for the 2023/24 academic years stands at £2.53. This represents a 5% increase on the previous year’s rate.