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 (i) Enfield North constituency, (ii) the London Borough of Enfield and (iii) London.

Over a third of pupils in England now receive FSM in schools and colleges, compared with 1 in 6 in 2010. The Government has extended eligibility several times to more groups of children than any other Government over the past half a century. This includes introducing new eligibility criteria for families receiving Universal Credit, to ensure even more children are eligible FSM.

The Department publishes annual data on free school meal (FSM) eligibility for pupils at schools in England. The most recently published data is for January 2023, and is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2022-23. Data for primary and secondary schools in London and Enfield Local Authority can be found at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/7b574105-ac0c-4c93-311f-08db81f158b1.

In Enfield North, 23.3% (1,724) of pupils in state funded primary schools, and 19.6% (1,168) of pupils in state funded secondary schools were eligible for FSM.