Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the average profit made by private caterers of free school meals through the provision of food parcels to children on free school meals.

As both my right hon. Friends the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the Government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. We know that many schools are successfully delivering food parcels or arranging food collections for eligible children, and we encourage this approach where it is possible.

We would always encourage suppliers to work with schools to ensure pupils are provided with healthy and nutritious meals. We are aware of excellent examples of schools working with caterers and other organisations to arrange high quality and healthy free meals for eligible children, and would like to extend our thanks and appreciation to all those involved during this very challenging period.

The department has published advice for schools on providing free school meals at this time: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance/covid-19-free-school-meals-guidance-for-schools.

The government will continue to provide schools with their expected funding, including funding to cover free school meals and universal infant free school meals, throughout this period of closure. Where a school’s caterer is continuing to provide free meals to eligible children through food parcel arrangements, the school will continue to ensure that the service delivers value for money.

These are rapidly developing circumstances; we continue to keep the situation under review and will keep Parliament updated accordingly.