Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school children are (a) eligible for and (b) registered to receive free school meals in Gateshead Central and Whickham constituency.

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

The statistics are based on counts of pupils who are eligible for FSM and are known by their school to be claiming. The department does not hold information on pupils who are eligible but do not claim.

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 Gateshead Central and Whickham is made up of elements of two old constituencies: Gateshead and Blaydon. As of January 2024, 35% of pupils at state-funded primary schools in Gateshead and 21% of pupils at state-funded primary schools in Blaydon were eligible for and claiming FSM. This compares with 24% for the whole of England.

The schools and pupils publication 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.