Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department has assessed the potential impact of annual funding cycles for the Nursery Milk Scheme on suppliers and delivery partners.

The Nursery Milk Scheme is a statutory scheme which allows registered early years childcare settings to claim one-third of a pint of milk for all children under the age of five years old who attend the setting for at least two hours per day. The statutory nature of the scheme means that it is not impacted by annual funding discussions, and these discussions therefore have no impact on the childcare settings who use the scheme, or on the suppliers who supply them.