§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many children are receiving free school meals in the Greater London area. [112619]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisIn January 1999, the latest date for which information is available, there were 225,566 pupils taking a free school meal in maintained schools in the Greater London area. This figure represents 22 per cent. of day pupils educated in these schools.
Information on free school meals is published annually in the Statistical Volume 'Statistics of Education Schools in England', copies of which are available from the Library.
§ Mr. RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the 50 local education authorities with the highest percentage of pupils that are entitled to free school meals ranked in descending order of percentage. [113200]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe information requested is shown in the table.
476W
Number and percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals in maintained nursery, primary, secondary and
special schools 1 by local education authority area 2 in England
January 1999
Number of pupils known to be eligible for a free school meal Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for a free school meal3 Tower Hamlets 21,857 59.2 Hackney 12,140 46.3 Islington 10,871 45.4 Knowsley 13,443 44.8 Manchester 31,045 44.5 Southwark 14,940 43.5 Lambeth 11,872 42.5 Westminster 7,127 39.6 Haringey 13,104 39.5 Newham 18,890 39.1 Liverpool 31,560 38.7 Kensington and Chelsea 4,065 38.7 City of London 83 38.4 Hamersmith and Fulham 6,484 38.4 Greenwich 13,633 37.3 Camden 8,155 35.6 City of Nottingham 15,189 35.4 Lewisham 12,282 35.2 Birmingham 60,800 33.7 Wandsworth 9,115 32.2
Number and percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals in maintained nursery, primary, secondary and
special schools 1 by local education authority area 2 in England
January 1999
Number of pupils known to be eligible for a free school meal Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for a free school meal3 Newcastle upon Tyne 13,019 32.2 Middlesbrough 8,281 32.1 Salford 11,142 30.3 Waltham Forest 10,643 29.8 South Tyneside 7,836 29.6 Sunderland 14,716 29.3 Wirral 15,921 28.8 Halton 6,133 27.8 Stoke 10,865 27.6 Blackburn and Darwen 7,200 27.6 Brent 10,293 27.6 City of Kingston-upon-Hull 12,060 27.5 Rochdale 10,072 27.1 Redcar and Cleveland 7,044 26.6 Hartlepool 4,571 26.6 St. Helens 8,031 26.5 Bradford 23,555 26.4 Ealing 11,184 26.1 Blackpool 5,272 26.0 Barking and Dagenham 7,358 25.3 Barmsley 8,739 24.7 Sheffield 18,415 24.2 City of Bristol 12,664 24.1 Hounslow 8,612 24.1 Luton 7,637 23.9 Leicester City 11,680 23.7 Gateshead 7,219 23.6 Oldham 9,878 23.5 Sandwell 12,264 23.2 Sefton 10,864 22.4 1 Includes maintained and non maintained special schools. 2 The table includes the 50 local education authorities with the highest percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals. 3 The Number of pupils known to be eligible for free schools meals expressed as a percentage of the number of day pupils in school.
§ Mr. RuaneTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many children(a) were entitled to free school meals and (b) claimed free school meals in each of the past 10 years. [113206]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThe available information is shown in the table:
Number of pupils who take or are known to be eligible for free school meals in maintained nursery, primary, secondary and
special schools in England: 1991–99
Position as at January
Number of pupils who take a free school meal Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals 1999 1,088,194 1,416,709 1998 1,130,476 1,465,213 1997 1,189,415 1,536,300 1996 1,260,426 1,570,561 1995 1,234,837 1,540,505 19941 1,217,126 1,505,875 1993 1,137,895 1,425,141 1992 999,011 2— 1991 818,930 2— 1 From 1994, figures exclude sixth form colleges which ceased to be classified as schools 2 Not available