The Government spends over £1bn each year on free school meals. The latest published statistics show that around 2 million pupils are claiming free school meals. This equates to 23.8% of all pupils, up from 20.8% in 2021. Together with almost 1.3 million further infants supported through the Universal Infant Free School Meal (UIFSM) policy, over one third of pupils receive a free meal in school. Free meal support is also available to 90,000 disadvantaged students in further education. We have extended free school meal (FSM) eligibility several times and to more groups of children than any other government over the past half a century. We have permanently extended eligibility to children from all groups with no recourse to public funds and in 2018, we introduced new eligibility criteria for Universal Credit families alongside protections so that no one would lose their entitlement. These protections were recently extended to March 2025. Extending Free School Meals eligibility to all families on Universal Credit would carry a very significant financial cost, quickly running into billions of pounds. It would result in around half of pupils becoming eligible for a free meal, with substantial knock-on impacts for the affordability of linked provision – such as entitlement for Pupil Premium. We think it is right that provision is aimed at supporting the most disadvantaged, those out of work or on the lowest incomes. We do not have plans to change the current eligibility conditions for free school meals, but will continue to keep eligibility under review to ensure that these meals are supporting those who most need them.