Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether she plans to increase funding for (a) free school meals and (b) universal infant free school meals to help source school meals from British produce.

The department spends approximately £1.5 billion annually on free lunches for 2.1 million school age pupils under benefits-based free school meals, over 90,000 disadvantaged students in further education, and around 1.3 million infant pupils under the Universal Infant Free School Meal scheme to ensure they receive a nutritious lunchtime meal.

Funding is not ring-fenced, meaning that schools have autonomy over delivery, including entering into catering contracts with suppliers and allocation of funding within their budgets.

The department regularly speaks to food industry representatives on a range of issues including sector challenges such as funding.

As with all government programmes, the department will keep our approach to free school meals, including funding, under continued review.