15126 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education

15126 (2025). Hon Willow-Jean Prime to the Associate Minister of Education: What are the penalties, if any, for late delivery of meals as part of the school lunch program?

Hon David Seymour: The Ministry of Education (the Ministry) expects all suppliers to meet performance targets and contractual requirements. Services Agreements between the Ministry and a supplier include provisions for monitoring performance against agreed service levels and are regularly assessed throughout the contract duration. The late delivery of meals to schools happens for a variety of reasons, including production kitchen fault, road works or truck mechanical reasons. While suppliers may sometimes deliver meals late and not fully meet the required standards, this should only happen occasionally. Where meals are continually delivered late, the Ministry will work with suppliers on corrective action to make sure they meet the standards in future. The actual clauses are commercially sensitive.