Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to increase free school meal budgets in line with inflation; and if he will make a statement.

The provision of free school meals (FSM) to children from out-of-work families or those on low incomes is of the utmost importance to this government. Under the benefits-related criteria, the department provides a free healthy meal to around 1.7 million children, ensuring they are well-nourished and can concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom.

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, including the introduction of universal infant FSM, and further education FSM.

Schools fund benefit-related FSM from their core funding which they receive through the schools' block of the dedicated schools grant and is derived from the national funding formula (NFF). For the 2022/23 financial year, the funding schools attract through the 'FSM factor' in the NFF is increasing to £470 per eligible pupil.

In recognition of cost pressures, after the NFF rates were set, the department received additional funding from HM Treasury for core schools funding in the 2022/23 financial year, which was distributed through a schools supplementary grant. As a result of this additional funding, core schools funding for mainstream schools has increased by 5.8% per pupil in 2022/23.