PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Free School Meals: Coronavirus (12 January 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will publish details of the tendering process for the provision of food parcels to children eligible for free school meals who are learning at home during the January 2021 covid-19 lockdown.

Asked by:
Charlotte Nichols (Labour)

The Department for Education does not directly contract school catering firms for the provision of school meals or lunch parcels. These contracts are negotiated and held at school level.

It is integral that we quickly put support in place for pupils who are eligible for free school meals when they are at home, and that is why we are reopening the national voucher scheme. By the time the previous scheme closed in the summer, more than £380 million worth of vouchers had been successfully redeemed into supermarket gift cards.

We will be working with Crown Commercial Service to launch a cross-government and wider public sector tender for retails vouchers, including food vouchers, that can be used by schools and other local authority bodies. We expect further details to be released shortly.

Answered by:
Vicky Ford (Conservative)
20 January 2021