Schools urged to offer healthier lunches

A third of the ingredients used in school dinners should be organic, Liberal Democrats will argue today.

Party members want huge improvements in the quality of meals served to pupils.

It has been revealed that some councils spend only 42p per pupil on ingredients - 18p less than the average amount spent on prisoners.

There are also fears that some schools are fuelling the obesity crisis by failing to provide healthy options at lunch. In a motion today, Baroness Miller will say there should be new minimum standards for school meals. She believes 30 per cent of the ingredients used should be organic, while five per cent should be unprocessed.

She said: "We need to get schools thinking about the ingredients they are using for meals. We would not want to make statutory requirements to use organic or fresh ingredients, but by setting targets, we think we could get people thinking in the right way."

During a debate on healthy eating today, Baroness Miller will also say that drinking water should be more readily available in schools.

Although many do now provide free water for pupils, most insist that bottles are not taken into the classroom, for fear of discipline problems.

Baroness Miller said: "You wouldn't dream of telling an adult that they could not drink water at their desk, or on the

Tube, so why should there be different rules for children?

"Of course there is a possibility that a pupil would pour his water down someone's neck, but you might just as well ban pens, in case pupils draw on each other's shirts."

Today's motion will call for a single Cabinet minister to take responsibility for a national food policy, formulating rules on areas such as food labelling.

Baroness Miller will also push for the return of cooking lessons to the curriculum.