Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people took a GCSE or equivalent qualification in Food Technology in each of the past 15 years.

The total number of pupils, at the end of key stage 4[1], who entered GCSE (or equivalent) food technology between 2002/3 and 2016/17 is published as part of the Department’s key stage 4 statistical first release[2]. The figures are presented in the table below.

[1] Pupils are identified as being at the end of key stage 4 if they were on roll at the school and in year 11 at the time of the January school census for that year. Age is calculated as at 31 August for that year, and the majority of pupils at the end of key stage 4 were age 15 at the start of the academic year. Some pupils may complete this key stage in an earlier or later year group.

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/gcse-and-equivalent-results-2016-to-2017-provisional (Subject time series table). Figures for pre 2010 are accessible on the national archives website.

[3] In 2004/05 – 2007/08 an additional table provides a slightly different figure (varying by 1-300 from those provided in this table). This has no meaningful impact on the figures or trend.

[4] Includes pupils who were absent, whose results are pending and results which are ungraded or unclassified.

[5] 2017 figures are based on provisional data. Figures for all other years are final.

[6] In 2013/14, two major reforms were implemented which affect the calculation of key stage 4 performance measures data: 1) Professor Alison Wolf’s Review of Vocational Education recommendations which: restrict the qualifications counted; prevent any qualification from counting as larger than one GCSE; and cap the number of non-GCSEs included in performance measures at two per pupil, and 2) an early entry policy to only count a pupil’s first attempt at a qualification, in subjects counted in the English Baccalaureate.