§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will reintroduce national minimum nutritional standards for school meals: and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. DunnNo. The Government's views were set out in their response to the seventh report from the Education, Science and Arts Committee 1981–82 (Cmnd. 8740), a copy of which is in the Library.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if the Government will review their policy on the provision of free school meals with a view to extending the categories of children who are eligible and minimising the stigma associated with this service.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science what advice is available to local education authorities from his Department about means of making more efficient their school meals service without cutting the service.
§ Mr. DunnFrom time to time the Department has issued to LEAs notes on practice in school meals. Additionally the Department's catering adviser visits LEAs regularly and is available to any LEA which wishes to discuss a particular problem. It is, however, for LEAs to decide whether to provide a service to the paying pupil and, if so, the form, content and price of the meal.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many people are currently employed in the provision of school meals; and how the figure compares with (a) five years and (b) 10 years ago.
§ Mr. DunnThis information is not collected centrally. However, the school meals census contains figures for the numbers of school meals provided for kitchen staff as part of their conditions of service. This provides a reasonable proxy. In October 1982 the number of staff benefiting in this way was 122,000 compared with 170,000 in 1977. These data were not collected prior to 1977.
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the price of a school meal in a secondary school in each local education authority in England and Wales and indicate how this compares with the academic year 1978–79 in both money and real terms.
§ Mr. DunnSchool meals in Wales are the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales. In England many authorities no longer have a fixed charge for meals provided at secondary schools as they operate cash cafeterias. For those authorities which have a fixed charge, the latest information is contained in the school meals census for 1982 which is available in the Library. In 1978–79 the fixed meal charge for both primary and secondary schools was 25p; there no longer is a national fixed meal charge.
557W
§ Mr. Freudasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many local education authorities provide free school meals additional to those which it is their statutory duty to provide.