Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential merits of extending the national voucher scheme over future school holidays during the outbreak of covid-19 for pupils in receipt of free school meals.

Provision for free school meals is ordinarily term time only. However, during the Easter holidays the department met the costs of offering free school meals to eligible pupils not attending school during term time weeks. This was in recognition of the unprecedented levels of disruption and uncertainty for schools during this time. We currently have no plans to extend the scheme into future holiday periods.

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