Free School Meals: Costs
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the adequacy of the meal rate for Universal Free School Meals to cover the costs school face in providing them.
Answered by Olivia Bailey
The department spends around £600 million annually supporting the provision of free and nutritious meals to around 1.3 million infants and almost £1 billion supporting around 2.2 million of the most disadvantaged pupils. In addition to this, we have set aside over £1 billion over the multiyear spending review period to back our significant expansion of free meals support to all households on Universal Credit, taking effect from September 2026. This will benefit over half a million children.
For the 2025/26 academic year, we have allocated a meal rate of £2.61 for universal infant free school meals. As with all policies, we continue to keep free meals policy, including funding, under review to ensure that nutritious meals continue to be deliverable. Departmental officials meet regularly with the sector, including the school catering industry, and use these insights to inform our work.
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