§ Mr. Norman HoggTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what is the average subsidy paid by both local government and Her Majesty's Government for each paid school meal.
§ Mr. FallonThis information is not collected centrally.
§ Mr. Norman HoggTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many children are on the school roll in England and Wales; and how many of those receive free school meals in primary, secondary and special schools, respectively.
§ Mr. FallonA table showing provisional figures for the number of children on roll in maintained primary, secondary and special schools in England in January 1991 and, of those, the number receiving free school meals on the census date follows. Information on schools in Wales is the responsibility of my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Wales.
Pupils on roll Free Meals Primary Schools 4,099,607 562,993 Secondary Schools 2,848,224 235,107 Special Schools 82,952 23,273
§ Mr. Norman HoggTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much it would cost to extend the provision of free school meals beyond children of families in receipt of income support to children of families in receipt of family credit.
§ Mr. FallonFamily credit rates already include an allowance towards school costs. As the cost of a school meal is not fixed it is impossible to calculate the figure requested.
§ Mr. Norman HoggTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how much it would cost to make free school meals available to all, assuming the current take-up rate of 75 per cent.; and what increase in the education budgets of both central and local expenditure this would represent.
§ Mr. FallonProvision of school meals and the level of charges for them are matters for local education authorities. In 1989–90 local education authorities in England collected some £296 million of income from customers as payment for school meals and milk. That represents some 1.9 per cent. of their total net recurrent expenditure on education.