Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether his Department has made an estimate of the cost of providing universal free school breakfast and lunch for all state school pupils in England.

Education, including free school meals (FSM), is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The department is committed to continuing support for school food. We are investing up to £24 million to continue our national school breakfast club programme until July 2023, and over £1 billion per year in FSM provision, to provide healthy and nutritious lunches to pupils eligible for benefits-related free school meals and to all infants. This equates to 37.5% of all pupils.

The department’s priority has always been to target investment to support pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds who are most in need of support. The significant costs associated with extending FSM eligibility to all pupils would have substantial knock-on impacts for the affordability of linked provision, such as entitlement for pupil premium.

In providing both breakfasts and FSM, the department’s position remains that the current eligibility, which enables more children to benefit while remaining affordable and deliverable for schools, is the right approach in England, targeting those who need it most.

The department does not have any plans to extend provision in England, but it will continue to keep all FSM eligibility under review, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.