§ Mr. McMasterTo ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what was the percentage of pupils entitled to free school meals in each year since 1975 until the latest year for which figures are available in each Scottish region; and if he will make a statement. [24063]
§ Lord James Douglas-HamiltonInformation on entitlement to free school meals has been collected in the annual January census of school meals since 1989. The available information is given in the table:264W
Percentage of pupils on the registers of education authority schools entitled to free meals, at January Education authority 1989 1990 1991 1992 11993 1994 Borders 4.1 4.1 5.0 5.6 5.6 5.6 Central 15.7 15.6 15.7 18.4 17.7 18.6 Dumfries and Galloway 9.6 9.9 9.3 9.7 10.5 10.5 Fife 14.2 14.0 14.1 15.7 16.5 17.2 Grampian 6.3 5.8 6.3 6.7 7.4 7.5 Highland 12.3 10.7 10.8 11.5 12.2 14.1 Lothian 14.7 17.7 18.5 19.0 20.8 20.7 Strathclyde 22.1 22.0 22.3 23.7 25.4 25.6 Tayside 14.1 13.7 13.5 13.3 13.2 13.8 Orkney 8.1 6.1 6.6 7.5 7.0 7.8 Shetland 4.1 3.8 4.3 5.6 6.2 6.2 Western Isles 17.5 14.3 14.1 13.7 14.0 12.3 Scotland 16.8 16.9 17.2 18.2 19.3 19.7