Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when her Department plans to make a decision on the extension of transitional protections for free school meal entitlements beyond 31 March 2025.

The continued provision of school food has an important role to play in breaking the unfair link between background and opportunity, which is why the department is considering the government’s school food offer as part of our work on child poverty.

As part of our Plan for Change, we have already taken wide-ranging action, despite this government’s incredibly challenging fiscal inheritance, including setting up the Child Poverty Taskforce.

The transitional protections policy on free school meals (FSM), put in place in 2018 during the roll out of Universal Credit (UC), ensures that households in receipt of FSM will retain their entitlement during UC migration.

As with all government programmes we will keep our approach, including to FSM and Pupil Premium, under continued review.