§ Mr. WillisTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills pursuant to his answer of 22 March 2004,Official Report, column 626W, on school meals, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school pupils live more than three miles away from the school that they attend; and how many of those are eligible for free school meals. [166999]
Mr. Miliband [holding answer 22 April 2004]: The information requested is shown in the table.
Numbers of pupils living more than three miles1 from the maintained primary and secondary schools2 that they attend— January 2003 Primary Secondary Number of pupils travelling more than three miles
155,187 583,446 Percentage of pupils travelling more than three miles (as percentage of all pupils)
3.7 17.8 Number of pupils eligible for free school meals travelling more than three miles
12,204 46,596 Percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals travelling more than three
miles (as percentage of all FSM pupils)
1.7 9.8 1 Distances calculated are straight line 2 Includes middle schools as deemed Source: Pupil Level Annual Schools' Census