Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to lift the limitations which prevent access to free school meals on the grounds of immigration status.

The government will be extending free school meal eligibility to children from all households with no recourse to public funds. I refer the noble Lord to the statement I made on 24 March for more information on this: https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-statements/detail/2022-03-24/hlws695. This builds on our existing benefits-related criteria which ensures 1.7 million children receive a free nutritious school meal each day, and our universal infant free school meal policy which has been in place since 2014, benefitting a further 1.3 million infant children.