To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many (a) schools and (b) children have received free fruit and vegetables under the school fruit and vegetable scheme; how much fruit has been provided under the scheme; what account is taken of pupil absence rates in provision of fruit to schools under the scheme; how much the scheme has cost in each year of its operation; and if he will make a statement. (294326)

In the year to September 2009 the school fruit and vegetable scheme (SFVS) has distributed around 440 million pieces of fruit and vegetable each year to over two million children in over 16,300 schools. In April 2004 the Department took over the scheme from the Big Lottery Fund, and the funding for each year for figures available is as follows:

Every local education authority (LEA) has its own absenteeism rate, and the national health service supply chain, who runs the SFVS, applies this to the number of children eligible at schools within all LEAs and, where necessary, reduces the fruit delivery by this amount.