Written question asked by Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (Democratic Unionist Party) on Thursday, 17 November 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 21 November 2005. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Basildon (Labour) on Thursday, 24 November 2005 on behalf of the Northern Ireland Office.

Diet

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what action the Government have taken to promote healthy eating in primary schools in South Antrim.

Answer: The Department of Education, in conjunction with the Education and Library Boards and other school authorities, is introducing new nutritional standards for school meals. The Department has provided additional funding to support the initiative and this will mostly be used to raise the food and nutritional content value of school meals to 50p in primary schools, and 60p in post-primary schools, in line with developments in England. There are 50 schools in the North-Eastern Education and Library Board area presently involved in the roll-out of the new standards and a further 78 will follow in January 2006. 17 of the 44 primary schools in South Antrim will be meeting the standards by that date. All schools will eventually be included in the scheme.

Secondary information

Type: Written question
Reference: 439 c2194W;439 c2192W; 31053
Session: 2005-06
Subjects: Food Health education Northern Ireland Nutrition Primary education School meals Antrim
Contains statistics: Yes
Link: View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk