Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what progress is being made on the commitment to offer free sanitary products to schools by the start of the 2019-20 school year.

The former Chancellor of the Exchequer (Philip Hammond), my right hon. Friend, the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge, announced in his Spring Statement on 13 March 2019 that the Department for Education will lead a scheme to provide access to free sanitary products in all secondary schools and colleges across England. On 16 April 2019, the former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Children and Families (Nadhim Zahawi). my hon. Friend, the Member for Stratford-upon-Avon, announced that funding would be extended to cover need in primary schools and that national roll-out would take place in early 2020.

The invitation to tender for the period products scheme closed on 15 July 2019. The department is also working with stakeholders to develop guidance that will support institutions in embedding this scheme.