Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in Lancashire were eligible for free school meals in each of the last five years.

The department publishes data on free school meals (FSM) in our annual ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication, which is available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics/2024-25. The most recent data was published on 5 June, and the next publication is planned for summer 2026.

The department does not hold information on the proportion of pupils who are known to be eligible for FSM but do not take them. However, we collect data on the proportion of pupils who are eligible for FSM and the number and proportion of pupils who had taken lunch recorded as taking a FSM on census day.

To access data from previous academic years, visit the 'Releases in this series' section on the publication website. Then, locate the 'School level underlying data' file under 'Additional supporting files'.