Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their estimate of the annual cost of extending free school meals to all children in families on Universal Credit over and above that of the proposed income threshold scheme, broken down by costs for (1) free school meals, and (2) the pupil premium.

We estimate that providing free school meals (FSM) to all children from households receiving Universal Credit would result in around half of all pupils becoming eligible for FSM. This would be over three times as many as the 1.1 million (14%) that are currently eligible for and claiming FSM in the latest figures. We estimate that this would cost in excess of £3 billion more a year, including the cost of the extra meals and associated school deprivation funding, such as the pupil premium. The additional meal costs alone would be in excess of £450 million per year.