T

The Minister of State, Department for Education, and the Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)

Speaking in the House of Lords on 16 December 2025

Debate

Free School Meals

Contribution

My Lords, the Government already spend £1.5 billion annually supporting the provision of free and nutritious meals for around 3.4 million children. We have set aside a further £1 billion over the multi-year spending review period to fully fund our significant expansion of free meals to all households in receipt of universal credit from September 2026. This new entitlement will mean that more than 500,000 disadvantaged children will begin to access free meals.

More from The Minister of State, Department for Education, and the Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab)

Other recent Hansard contributions by the same speaker.

About Hansard

Hansard is the official verbatim record of proceedings in the UK Parliament. Every word spoken in the Commons and Lords is recorded and published — this page is a single contribution from that record.

Partner sites