Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure that funding for the Nursery Milk Scheme reflects the retail cost of milk.

The Nursery Milk Scheme allows early years childcare settings registered with the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills to reclaim the cost of providing one-third of a pint of milk to children in their care, who are under the age of five years old and who attend the childcare setting for at least two hours per day. The scheme’s legislation allows childcare settings to reclaim the cost of the funds they have spent on milk, and the amount they can claim is not tied to a specific retail price of milk.