Written question asked by Andrew Snowden (Conservative) on Friday, 10 July 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 14 July 2026. It was answered by Paul Waugh (Labour) on Monday, 3 August 2026 on behalf of the Department for Education.
Free School Meals
- Question
-
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the number of additional children eligible for free school meals from September 2026.
- Answer
-
From the start of the 2026/27 academic year, all children in households receiving Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals (FSM). Over half a million additional children will receive a free, nutritious lunchtime meal every school day. Around 3.4 million children currently receive FSM or universal infant free school meals, and this will rise to around 4 million with the expansion.
We have published data on the number of children who could benefit from expanded provision by constituency/region/local authority at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-school-meals-expansion-impact-on-poverty-levels.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 17840
- Session
- 2026-27
- Subjects
- Free school meals
- Contains statistics
- Yes
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-08-03 15:08:46 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/17840
- In Indexing
- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/17840
- In Solr
- https://search.parliament.uk/claw/solr/?id=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/17840