Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the total number of individual children who attended at least one Holiday Activities and Food Programme session over the course of the 2026 school summer holidays; and how many of those children were of (1) primary, and (2) secondary, school age.

The Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, backed by over £600 million of funding for the next three years, provides free nutritious meals, enriching activities, and safe environments to eligible children from reception to year 11 during the school holidays.

Participation data is not yet available for summer 2026. In summer 2025, over 624,000 children and young people attended HAF, of whom over 513,000 were funded directly through the programme and over 434,000 were in receipt of benefits-related free school meals. The department does not currently publish participation data by primary and secondary age phase.

Local authorities have significant flexibility to design and deliver their HAF offer to respond to local need, so the balance of participation between primary and secondary age children varies between areas.