Question follow-through · 73056

Free School Meals: Costs

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.

answeredDepartment for Education

About this written question

A written question asks a government minister for information in writing. Parliament publishes the question and any answer.

Answering body: Department for Education
Tabled: 29 Aug 2025
Target answer date: 2 Sept 2025
Answer: 4 Nov 2025 · 67 calendar days after tabling

Elapsed calendar days describe the record timeline, not whether Parliament considers an answer on time.

Recorded timeline

29 Aug 2025
Question tabled
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.
2 Sept 2025
Target answer date
Date supplied by the official written-questions record.
4 Nov 2025
Answer published
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 a...

Open official record

Official data retrieved 28 Sept 2026.

Later records

Possible follow-up questions

Strong links require the same MP, department and exact heading. Other same-department questions are shown as unreviewed candidates, not as confirmed follow-ups. No debate link is asserted unless a stable source relationship exists.