Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate he has made of the effect of the covid-19 outbreak on the number of children (a) eligible for and (b) receiving free school meals in England.
The latest school census data published on 25 June 2020 in ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ shows that the number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals is over 1.4 million, as of January 2020. The data is available here:
https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.
We do not hold information on the number of children that have become eligible for benefits-related free school meals due to the COVID-19 outbreak.