Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the joint report by Barnardo's and the Co-op A recipe for success: How do children and young people want to access food in their communities?, published in September, what steps they will take to set out plans to address holiday hunger after the Holiday Activities and Food Programme ends in March 2025, including efforts to (1) increase uptake, and (2) extend eligibility.

All 153 local authorities in England have been delivering the Holiday Activities and Food Programme during the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays supported by £200 million annual investment.

The HAF programme supports disadvantaged children and their families with enriching activities, providing them with healthy food and helping them to learn new things, improving socialisation and benefiting their health and wellbeing during school holidays.

While the HAF programme is targeted primarily towards children in receipt of benefits-related free school meals, local authorities also have flexibility to use up to 15% of their funding to target and support other children and families that align with the local authorities’ own priorities.

The future of the HAF programme beyond 31 March 2025 is subject to the next government Spending Review taking place this autumn and the outcome of the review will be communicated in due course.