Emma Lewell-Buck – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Work and Pensions

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Emma Lewell-Buck on 2015-01-15.

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what resources from the UK’s allocatons of EU Structural Funds have been used to support food banks.

Esther McVey

The European Commission implementing decision of 3 April 2014 transferred €3.96m from the UK’s structural funds allocation to the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived.

The Government announced on 18 December 2014 that the Fund for European Aid to the Most Deprived will be used to support additional breakfast clubs in schools in deprived areas in England, subject to agreement with the European Commission. We believe that breakfast clubs effectively target help to many of the most deprived children – providing nutritious meals in some of the poorest areas, supporting academic attainment, promoting healthy eating habits at a young age and saving families money. This funding would be in addition to existing support provided by the Government – we have already committed just over £1 million over two years to support an expansion of breakfast clubs in poor areas.