§ 34. Mr. LockTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment by what means education authorities which do not operate a school meals service determine for the purposes of deprivation statistics the number of children in their area who would be entitled to free school meals; and if he will make a statement. [68907]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeAll Local Education Authorities are required to provide a school meal service to those pupils entitled to free school meals. Information on the number of pupils known to be eligible and the number of pupils taking free school meals is derived from returns made by schools to the Department in January each year on the Annual Schools' Census (Form 7).
The number of pupils eligible and taking free school meals is published by Local Education Authority area in the "Statistics of Education, Schools in England, January 1998", published in November 1998.