Free School Meals and Governmental Responsibility for Food Provision

Abstract

In Summer 2020 when the UK government announced that it would be stopping the provision of free school meals in England over the summer holidays the announcement was met with public outcry. When the UK government then u-turned on that policy decision this outcome was attributed to a successful online campaign led by footballer Marcus Rashford. In the background human rights lawyers had issued a judicial review pre-action protocol to the Secretary of State for Education. When the UK government reversed the decision on free school meals the legal proceedings were halted and, as a result, potentially significant legal precedent was lost. This comment sets out the legal grounds against the UK government in respect of not providing free school meals in England that may be of renewed and wider relevance in the future.

Keywords: free school meals; right to food; government responsibility for food; human rights; ESCR; ECHR