Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many (a) primary and (b) secondary school students receive free school meals in Runcorn and Helsby constituency.

The most recently published figures on free school meals (FSM) eligibility are from the January 2024 school census, which were published in June 2024 here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics

Where statistics were published prior to the changes in parliamentary constituency boundaries, they will be updated to reflect the new boundaries in the next publication of statistics. This is expected to be in June 2025 for schools and pupils statistics.

The constituency of Runcorn and Helsby is made up of elements of five old constituencies: Weaver Vale, Halton, Ellesmere Port and Neston, Eddisbury, and City of Chester. The attached Excel table gives FSM rates as of January 2024 for schools in those constituencies.

The ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication linked above includes data at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency, which can be accessed here: https://get-information-schools.service.gov.uk/. GIAS reflects the changes made following the general election parliamentary constituency changes. Updates to geographical data in GIAS are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS).