§ Mr. Pendryasked the Secretary of State for Wales how many pupils were in attendance in maintained schools in Wales on the specified day in the autumn term in each of the following years when school meal statistics were collected: 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982; and how many pupils were in attendance when the school meals census was done in these years were taking their own food.
§ Mr. John Stradling ThomasOn the day that the information was collected in 1982 there were 443,965 pupils in attendance at maintained schools of whom
Percentage of pupils present taking school meals Percentage of pupils present taking own food to school LEA (i) on payment (ii) free 1978 1982 1978 1982 1978 1982 Clwyd 49.2 30.2 15.1 13.4 16.0 28.6 Dyfed 57.4 58.5 17.3 13.5 8.9 13.5 Gwent 37.0 31.0 17.7 20.6 11.6 16.8 Gwynedd 51.9 45.1 25.2 17.2 6.5 18.9 Mid Glamorgan 47.1 37.7 15.3 18.9 10.2 16.5 Powys 66.2 54.8 14.7 11.8 6.3 14.9 South Glamorgan 34.1 19.0 17.7 18.8 14.3 27.3 West Glamorgan 46.5 32.6 14.1 17.7 12.3 22.8 The corresponding information for the years 1979, 1980 and 1981 is published in section 8 of volumes 5, 6 and 7 of "Statistics of Education in Wales", copies of which are in the Library.