§ Mr. Gouldasked the Secretary of State for Education and Science if he will publish in the Official Report a table showing by education authority (a) the most recently available number of school pupils receiving free school meals, (b) the numbers receiving free school meals as a percentage of the school population, (c) the average number of pupils receiving free school meals during the academic year 1978–79 and (d) the average numbers receiving free school meals expressed as a percentage of the average school population during the academic year 1978–79.
§ Mr. Dunn[pursuant to his reply, 17 November 1986, c. 15–16]: The information available is shown below, based on the October school meals census data for 1978 and for 1984, the latest date for which information is available. Free pupil meals take-up is expressed as a percentage of the total number of children in school on the day for the census.
Average figures for meals take-up throughout the year are not available.
139W140W141W
October 1978 October 1984 Number per cent. Number per cent. Enfield 3,047 7.1 3,455 9.5 Haringey 4,956 15.5 5,355 22.0 Harrow 1,731 6.1 1,795 7.5 Havering 2,910 7.0 2,496 7.1 Hillingdon 3,086 8.0 2,627 9.0 Hounslow 3,080 9.4 3,739 12.9 Kingston-upon-Thames 1,629 8.5 1,174 7.2 Merton 2,243 9.2 1,519 6.7 Newham 4,267 11.6 5,141 16.5 Redbridge 2,776 8.9 1,833 6.7 Richmond-upon-Thames 1,686 9.9 1,327 9.4 Sutton 2,583 10.4 1,200 5.7 Waltham Forest 3,648 10.7 5,046 17.6 ILEA 76,866 24.0 83,115 33.5 Birmingham 36,425 19.6 50,657 32.1 Coventry 11,138 18.3 12,707 26.7 Dudley 3,639 7.0 6,873 15.7 Sandwell 7,455 12.6 12,536 25.8 Solihull 4,842 12.1 4,235 12.9 Walsall 7,176 13.1 11,204 24.9 Wolverhampton 6,853 13.7 10,100 23.1 Knowsley 11,424 30.7 11,993 45.0 Liverpool 23,603 25.9 25,623 35.5 St. Helens 5,009 13.9 n/a n/a Sefton 8,644 16.0 7,803 18.1 Wirral 8,939 15.2 12,687 25.2 Bolton 7,920 16.6 9,326 22.7 Bury 3,823 13.0 3,960 15.2 Manchester 26,926 32.3 28,830 44.6 Oldham 6,526 16.6 10,704 29.7 Rochdale 7,491 18.7 10,078 28.3 Salford 10,335 21.8 11,538 31.4 Stockport 7,035 13.7 6,852 16.1 Tameside 6,364 15.9 7,923 23.9 Trafford 6,309 16.8 4,294 14.8 Wigan 9,385 15.3 10,685 20.5 Barnsley 5,696 140 12,515 35.9 Doncaster 6,855 12.3 15,384 33.2 Rotherham 6,319 12.9 11,300 26.9 Sheffield 9,856 10.7 16,061 22.1 Bradford 15,818 19.4 23,116 31.6 Calderdale 5,549 15.6 7,335 23.3 Kirklees 9,892 14.4 12,559 20.8 Leeds 20,594 16.5 23,121 22.7 Wakefield 7,326 13.0 14,225 30.0 Gateshead 7,272 19.6 7,772 26.3 Newcastle-upon-Tyne 11,936 26.1 13,524 35.4 North Tyneside 5,143 15.3 6,413 22.4 South Tyneside 5,253 17.8 7,098 29.0 Sunderland 11,797 19.6 16,556 33.9 Isles of Scilly 77 19.4 n/a n/a Avon 19,494 13.7 21,215 16.2 Bedfordshire 8,796 9.8 8,910 11.7 Berkshire 10,721 10.0 6,939 6.8 Buckinghamshire 6,376 6.7 8,148 9.1 Cambridgeshire 10,086 10.6 10,742 12.1 Cheshire 19,739 12.0 22,243 15.8 Cleveland 17,555 15.7 27,459 29.3 Cornwall 13,953 20.8 9,350 15.5 Cumbria 10,827 13.0 8,475 11.7 Derbyshire 16,269 10.5 26,008 19.6 Devon 23,559 17.2 16,034 13.3 Dorset 13,279 16.2 5,358 7.2 Durham 19,003 17.7 25,243 27.7 East Sussex 14,718 17.1 9,059 12.0 Essex 24,408 10.0 19,966 9.3 Gloucestershire 12,522 14.7 7,201 9.7 Hampshire 29,539 12.1 19,770 9.7 Hereford and Worcester 11,080 11.1 9,166 11.3 Hertfordshire 14,667 8.8 9,769 6.9 Humberside 20,384 12.9 26,281 19.9 Isle of Wight 2,142 12.4 2,061 13.3 Kent 26,257 11.0 21,216 10.1 Lancashire 33,427 14.6 43,034 21.9 Leicestershire 16,534 11.4 18,687 14.7 Lincolnshire 9,482 10.6 6,130 7.6
October 1978 October 1984 Number per cent. Number per cent. Norfolk 14,743 13.8 11,060 11.5 North Yorkshire 13,415 12.5 11,279 11.8 Northamptonshire 10,254 10.8 11,725 13.2 Northumberland 7,682 15.4 7,936 17.1 Nottinghamshire 23,571 13.8 28,513 20.3 Oxfordshire 8,750 10.4 5,570 7.9 Salop 7,875 12.2 9,280 16.2 Somerset 9,455 14.3 7,470 12.1 Staffordshire 18,326 10.4 20,351 13.1 Suffolk 12,319 13.2 7,758 9.1 Surrey 10,395 7.3 6,128 5.2 Warwickshire 7,923 9.4 7,602 10.6 West Sussex 10,134 11.0 5,647 6.6 Wiltshire 11,781 13.7 7,589 10.1 ENGLAND 1,074,143 13.9 1,147,886 17.4 Notes:
1. Free school meals are available on either of two bases:
(a) Statutory: to children from families in receipt of supplementary benefit or family income supplement.
(b) Discretionary: Under the Education Act 1980, LEAs have powers to provide free or reduced cost school meals if they consider it appropriate. Low income scales and other criteria qualifying children for free meals may vary from year to year and from one LEA to another. Prior to 1980, income scales were laid down by the Secretary of State in regulations.
2. The free meal pupil number total for England in 1984 includes an estimate for St. Helens as the authority was unable to complete a census return for 1984.