Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what additional funding he plans to allocate to tackle holiday hunger during school holidays.

The holiday activities and food scheme is integral to our approach to provide healthy food to children over the summer. It will ensure thousands of disadvantaged children have access to healthy meals and holiday activities in summer 2020 – building on the success of the 2018 and 2019 programmes – and backed by £9 million of government funding.

In addition, the government continues to invest significantly in welfare benefits for people of working age, supporting people when they need it, including those who are out of work or on a low income. During the COVID-19 outbreak, the government has announced a package of temporary welfare measures. Taken together, these measures provide over £6.5 billion of additional support through the welfare system for people affected by COVID-19.