Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with stakeholders on the potential merits of auto-enrolling all eligible families to the Healthy Start programme.

The Healthy Start scheme was introduced in 2006 to encourage a healthy diet for pregnant women, babies, and young children under four years old from very low-income households. It can be used to buy, or put towards the cost of, fruit, vegetables, pulses, milk, and infant formula. Those on the scheme have access to free Healthy Start Vitamins for pregnant women and children aged under four years old.

The Department has been approached by, and engaged with, stakeholders regarding autoenrollment. The scheme is kept under review, and we remain open to all viable routes to improve uptake to ensure that as many eligible people as possible are accessing the scheme, to support their children with a healthy start in life. In January 2025, Healthy Start supported over 353,000 people.