Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether the Government has plans to introduce an automatic registration process for free school meals.

The department provides an Eligibility Checking System (ECS) to make the checking process as quick and straightforward as possible. We continue to use and refine a model registration form to help schools encourage parents to sign up for free school meals (FSM).

The department also provides guidance to Jobcentre Plus advisers so that they can make Universal Credit recipients aware that they may also be entitled to wider benefits, including FSM.

The department continues to explore the delivery feasibility of introducing auto-enrolment functionality. There are, however, complex data, systems, and legal implications to such a change.

Under this government, eligibility for FSM has been extended several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century.

In setting eligibility for FSM, provision is targeted at supporting those who are out of work or on the lowest incomes. The department will continue to review FSM eligibility, to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.