Free School Meals
(asked on 3rd March 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask Her Majesty's Government how many pupils took up free school meals in England and Wales in each year since 2015.
The Department for Education publishes figures for the number of pupils taking a free school meal on the day of the January census in schools in England. The figures from 2014/15 to 2018/19 are shown in the table below. All infant pupils are eligible for free school meals (FSM) under the Universal Infant Free School Meals (UIFSM) policy. Meals delivered under the universal eligibility are presented separately in the table. ‘FSM eligible meals taken’ includes those infant pupils who would already have been eligible for FSM under the income-related criteria.
| FSM | UIFSM | |
Academic year | FSM eligible | FSM taking a meal on census day | UIFSM meals taken |
2014/15 | 1,195,600 | 1,000,200 | 1,375,300 |
2015/16 | 1,142,000 | 926,600 | 1,417,700 |
2016/17 | 1,128,400 | 899,000 | 1,466,200 |
2017/18 | 1,106,600 | 872,700 | 1,472,900 |
2018/19 | 1,270,900 | 1,000,900 | 1,433,700 |
Free school meals provision in Wales and the associated data is the responsibility of the administration in Wales.