Mr Laurence Robertson – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mr Laurence Robertson on 2014-03-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what extra funding his Department plans to provide to smaller schools to help them to provide free school meals for under-sevens; and if he will make a statement.

David Laws

On 6 March the Department for Education announced that we will allocate additional funding totalling £22.5 million in the 2014-15 financial year to help small schools (those with a total roll of up to 150 pupils according to the January 2014 Schools Census) with the transitional costs of implementing the universal infant free school meals policy.

Schools eligible for this funding will receive a minimum of £3,000 to be spent as they choose in support of their implementation of the policy, including for the purpose of improving kitchen or dining equipment.

Further information is available in the departmental advice document on universal infant free school meals, which can be found at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/universal-infant-free-school-meals

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