Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many primary school children are eligible for free school meals in (a) the North East and (b) Hexham constituency.

The department publishes the number of pupils in primary schools who are eligible for free school meals (FSM). The most recent figures, including regional level data, can be found here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

Parliamentary constituencies are based on their boundaries at the time of the January school census each year, therefore, the 2024 Parliamentary boundaries do not reflect the changes made in the summer of 2024.

​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 the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication.

FSM data is published at school level. This can be combined with information from ‘Get Information About Schools’ (GIAS) to identify parliamentary constituency. GIAS currently reflects the changes made following the general election Parliamentary constituency changes. Updates to geographical data are made on a quarterly basis using data published by the Office for National Statistics.