Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many children were eligible for free school meals in (1) October 2018, and (2) October 2020; and what financial support they are providing to help pay for these meals.

In October 2018, 1,205,000 pupils in England were eligible and claiming free school meals, which is 14.7% of all pupils in state-funded schools. The department plans to publish the information relating to October 2020 in due course.

Where pupils become newly entitled to free school meals, local authorities and schools are able to quickly verify their eligibility using the department’s electronic Eligibility Checking System to ensure that this vital support is available immediately.

We have introduced a number of immediate measures, including the launch of the National Voucher Scheme, to ensure that children who usually receive benefits-related free school meals still had access to this support during the period that schools were previously restricted from opening to the majority of pupils. Schools received, and continue to receive, their funding for free school meals as normal.

Building on the significant support given to the most vulnerable during the COVID-19 outbreak, a new £170 million Covid Winter Grant Scheme has been launched by the Department for Work and Pensions, and will be run by councils in England. A link to the scheme is available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/covid-winter-grant-scheme.