Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to extend the provision of free school meals to all children living in households in receipt of Universal Credit.

The government is driving an agenda of change through working across local and national government to break down the barriers of opportunity and reduce child poverty.

Child poverty has increased by 700,000 since 2010, with over four million children now growing up in a low-income family. That is why the government is committed to delivering an ambitious strategy to reduce child poverty by tackling the root causes and giving every child the best start at life. To support this, a new Ministerial taskforce has been set up to begin work on a Child Poverty Strategy, co-chaired by my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education and my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

To set children up for the day and ensure they are ready to learn, while also supporting parents and carers to work, the government is committed to introducing free breakfast clubs in every primary school.

Disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools, as well as 16 to 18 year old students in further education, are entitled to receive free meals on the basis of low income. 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive free school meals (FSM) and a further 90,000 are registered to receive further education free meals. In addition, all children in reception, year 1 and year 2 in England's state-funded schools are entitled to Universal Infant Free School Meals, which benefits around 1.3 million pupils. As with all government programmes, we will keep our approach to FSM under review.