Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 1 June 2020 to Question 48566 on Free School Meals: Voucher Schemes, on what date the first e-Code email that hard bounced was sent prior to being discovered by Edenred on the weekend starting 2 May 2020; for what reason there was a gap between that discovery and Edenred contacting schools to alert them to the problem on 7 May 2020; and what estimate he has made of the number of eligible children who missed out on free school meals as a result of that issue.

During this period, we are asking schools to support children at home who are eligible for and claiming benefits-related free school meals by providing meals or food parcels through their existing food providers wherever possible. However, we recognise that providing meals and food parcels is not a practicable option for all schools. That is why on 31 March, we launched a national voucher scheme as an alternative option, with costs covered by the department.

For the national voucher scheme, our supplier, Edenred, has indicated that orders are processed within four days. The latest information provided by Edenred indicates that parents and schools are facing minimal or no waiting time for orders that are placed online, despite continued growth in the number of parents and schools using the scheme.

We do not hold data regarding the timescale of individual hard bounces, but we can confirm that Edenred acted promptly upon discovering the issue. On 7 May, Edenred issued communications to schools with hard bounce backs to let them know that they had input incorrect parent email addresses. Further to this, in the week commencing 11 May, Edenred issued additional communications to schools to address a number of incomplete orders which required further action from the schools, and again highlighted that some orders used incorrect or invalid parent email addresses.

We are continuing to work very closely with Edenred to improve the performance of the national voucher scheme. The scheme continues to get easier and faster to use, putting supermarket vouchers into the hands of thousands of families and schools.

The department is closely monitoring the delivery of the national voucher scheme. However, we do not hold information on provision for each eligible family.

As of Wednesday 3 June, Edenred has reported that over £129 million worth of voucher codes had been redeemed into supermarket e-gift cards by schools and families through the scheme. Edenred has reported that over 17,500 schools had placed orders for the scheme as of Tuesday 26 May.

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