Sharon Hodgson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Sharon Hodgson on 2016-04-18.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to assess the potential benefits of applying school food standards to all schools as part of the Government’s childhood obesity strategy.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Tackling obesity, particularly in children, is one of our major priorities. We will be launching our cross-government Childhood Obesity Strategy in the summer. It will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese. It will also set out what more can be done by all.

The School Food Standards apply to all local authority maintained schools and to academies that opened prior to 2010 and from June 2014 onwards.

1,420 academies have voluntarily registered to follow the standards, including some of the largest Multi-Academy Trusts. Many academy caterers also hold the Food for Life Catering Mark, which also guarantees compliance with the School Food Standards.