Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether it is a requirement of the universal infant free school meals provisions that a hot meal should be provided for certain infant pupils.

The Department for Education expects all schools to be routinely offering a hot meal option to all their infant pupils. We know that over 98.5% of schools were on track to do so at the start of the autumn term. The Department is working with the small number of schools that were not, so that they can do so as quickly as possible.

There is no legal requirement that meals should be hot, but it is much harder to meet the requirement to comply with the School Food Standards through the provision of cold food.