HC Deb 20 February 1981 vol 999 cc254-6W
Mr. Field

asked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will list the local education authorities in England which provide free school meals for children (a)only in families receiving family income supplement and supplementary benefit, (b) on the basis of the income eligibility test operated in 1979–1980, (c) on the basis of an income eligibility test less generous than that operated in 1979–1980, (d) on the basis of the income eligibility test circulated by his Department, (e) on the basis of an income eligibility test more generous than that circulated by his Department and (f) according to any other criterion.

Mr. Macfarlane

Information is not available within the Department in precisely the form requested. However, the policies for granting free school meals that were in operation among English local education authorities during the 1980 autumn term were, on the basis of the five broad categories adopted for the purpose of the October 1980 census of school meals, as follows.

(a) Entitlement determined by parents' receiving supplementary benefit of family income supplement:

  • Barnet
  • Berkshire
  • Bromley
  • Buckinghamshire
  • Bury
  • Cheshire (secondary schools)
  • Cornwall
  • Croydon
  • Devon
  • Dorset
  • Essex
  • Gloucestershire
  • Hampshire
  • Hereford and Worcester
  • Isles of Scilly
  • Isle of Wight
  • Kent
  • Lincolnshire
  • Norfolk
  • Northamptonshire
  • Nottinghamshire
  • Oxfordshire
  • Redbridge
  • Rotherham
  • Sefton
  • Solihull
  • Staffordshire
  • Suffolk
  • Sutton
  • Trafford
  • Warwickshire
  • West Sussex
  • Wiltshire

(b) Entitlement determined by reference to the November 1979 national scale of parental net income.

  • Avon
  • Barking
  • Barnsley
  • Bedfordshire
  • Bexley
  • Bolton
  • Bradford
  • Brent
  • Calderdale
  • Cambridgeshire
  • Cheshire (primary schools)
  • Cleveland
  • Coventry
  • Derbyshire
  • Doncaster
  • Dudley
  • Durham
  • Ealing
  • East Sussex
  • Enfield
  • Gateshead
  • Haringey
  • Harrow
  • Havering
  • Hillingdon
  • Hounslow
  • Humberside
  • ILEA
  • Kirkless
  • Knowsley
  • Leeds
  • Liverpool
  • Manchester
  • Merton
  • Newham
  • 256
  • North Tyneside
  • Rochdale
  • St. Helens
  • Salford
  • Sandwell
  • Shropshire
  • South Tyneside
  • Stockport
  • Sunderland
  • Tameside
  • Wakefield
  • Walsall
  • Waltham Forest
  • Wigan
  • Wirral
  • Wolverhampton

(c) Entitlement determined by reference to a parental net income scale based on supplementary benefit rates:

  • Birmingham
  • Kingston Upon Thames
  • Lancashire

(d) Entitlement determined by reference to a parental gross income scale based on family income supplement rates:

  • Leicestershire
  • Oldham
  • Richmond

(e) Entitlement determined by reference to some other criterion:

  • Cumbria
  • Hertfordshire
  • Newcastle
  • Northumberland
  • North Yorkshire
  • Sheffield
  • Somerset
  • Surrey

The note by the Department which the local authority associations circulated to their members set out three illustrative scales based on SB and FIS rates.