Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of the nutritional guidance for school dinners.

The standards for school food are set out in the Requirements for School Food Regulations 2014, to ensure that schools provide children with healthy food and drink options, and to make sure that children gain the energy and nutrition they need across the school day.

The Department believes that the current standards provide a robust yet flexible framework to ensure that pupils in the UK continue to receive high quality and nutritious food, building healthy eating habits for life.

The Department’s current focus is on promoting compliance with the School Food Standards and this will be kept under review. In February 2022, the Levelling Up White Paper outlined what the Department is doing to strengthen adherence, including piloting work with the Foods Standards Agency, investing up to £200,000 in a pilot Governor Training Scheme, and encouraging schools to complete a statement on their school websites setting out their whole school approach to food.