Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has had with HM Treasury on increasing funding for Free School Meals, in response to the recent increase in the National Living Wage.

The department supports over 1.7 million pupils from the lowest income families to concentrate, learn, and achieve in the classroom through the provision of free school meals.

The National Funding Formula (NNF) includes a free school meal factor value of £460 per eligible pupil. This factor value will increase to £470 per eligible pupil as part of the overall increase to the core schools budget for financial year 2022-23. Local authorities distribute this money to schools through their local funding formula, which must include additional funding for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, such as those eligible for free school meals.

The department is investing a further £4.7 billion by financial year 2024-25 for the core schools budget in England, over and above the Spending Review 2019 settlement for schools in 2022-23.

The £4.7 billion investment includes a further £1.6 billion in financial year 2022-23, on top of the year on year increase already announced as part of the 2019 spending round. This additional funding will help the school sector respond to the pressures we know they are facing.

The NNF continues to distribute this fairly, based on the needs of schools and their pupil cohorts. The department will make announcements on the breakdown of the financial years 2023-24 and 2024-25 core school budgets in due course, as well as the distribution of the additional £1.6 billion of funding confirmed for 2022-23.