Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of pupils were eligible for free school meals in (a) state, (b) academy, (c) free, (d) faith and (e) private schools in each of the last five years.

Information on the number of pupils known to be eligible for and claiming free school meals in state-funded schools (including academies and free schools) is published in the “Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2015” Statistical First Release[1], and previous versions of this release[2].

Pupils attending independent (private) schools cannot be eligible for free school meals.

[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/schools-pupils-and-their-characteristics-january-2015

[2] https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/statistics-school-and-pupil-numbers