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Free School Meals: Pre-school Education

Asked by Daisy CooperLiberal DemocratDepartment for EducationTabled Answered 17 February 2025UIN 29913

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending free school meal provision to include children enrolled in maintained nursery schools.

Answered by Stephen Morgan

Under current programmes, 2.1 million disadvantaged pupils are registered to receive benefits-based free school meals (FSM). This includes pupils attending a local authority maintained, academy or free school nursery who are entitled to FSM, as long as they either are in full-time education or receive education both before and after lunch and meet the benefits-based FSM eligibility criteria.

Further information on the number of pupils registered to receive FSM is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

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