Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme will be re-instated (a) when children return to school, and (b) for the September 2020 term.

As both my right hon. Friends, the Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer have made clear, the government will do whatever it takes to support people affected by COVID-19.

Our latest guidance for schools is set out below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-for-schools-and-other-educational-settings.

It was announced on 18 March that as of 20 March all schools in England would remain open only for a very limited number of pupils (children of key workers and vulnerable children), until further notice. Primary schools were asked to plan to welcome back nursery, reception and year 1 pupils as of 1 June 2020.

A decision was taken in March that the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme would not operate for the whole of the period which would have been the Summer term of 2020, recognising the substantial operational difficulties which would need to be resolved in order to restart such a large, national scheme part-way through a term.

At present it is not known how events may develop and so we are not yet in a position to confirm whether or not the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme will operate in the Autumn term.

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