HC Deb 26 January 2004 vol 417 cc174-5W
Mr. Burstow

To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will set out for each of the last 10 years for(a) England, (b) each NHS region and (c) each strategic health authority the number and proportion of (i) boys, (ii) girls, and (iii) children aged (A) 4–5, (B) 6–7, (C) 8–9, (D) 10–11, (E) 12–13, (F) 14–15 and (G) 16–17 who have nothing to eat before school (1) once a week, (2) twice a week, (3) three days a week, (4) four days a week, (5) every school day and (6) at weekends [146352]

Miss Melanie Johnson

Information is not collected in the form requested. However, the National Diet and Nutrition Survey, which carried out a survey in 1997 of the food consumption of young people aged four to 18 years, found that the youngest group of children, aged four to six years, were significantly more likely than the oldest group, aged 15 to 18 years, to have eaten breakfast cereals (not whole-grain or high fibre types). Boys were more likely than girls to eat non-whole-grain or high fibre cereals—74 per cent, to 64 per cent.