§ Gillian MerronTo ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what assessment he has made of the provision of subsidised break time milk for(a) nursery school children and (b) primary school children in (i) Lincolnshire and (ii) England; [65032]
(2) how many schools in (a) Lincolnshire and (b) each other county are benefiting from the EU School Milk Subsidy Scheme. [65034]
§ Mr. MorleyI have been asked to reply.
It is not possible to provide a breakdown of uptake between primary and nursery school children, or details of the number of schools participating in the scheme, as this information is known only to the local education authorities which make claims for subsidy to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA). On the basis of the amount of milk on which subsidy is claimed, the RPA estimate that 624W around one in 10 eligible pupils in Lincolnshire is a beneficiary of the scheme. This compares with around one in five for England as a whole. Given the basis on which claims are made, comparable county-by-county figures could only be provided at disproportionate cost.