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18 May 2006 : Column 1140W—continued

Prime Minister

Minister for Europe

Mr. Vara: To ask the Prime Minister in what circumstances the Minister for Europe will attend Cabinet; and if he will make a statement. [71854]

The Prime Minister: I refer the hon. Member to the press briefing given by my official spokesman on 8 May, a copy of which is available on the No. 10 website.

Overseas Visits (Media Airfares)

Mr. Lancaster: To ask the Prime Minister how much has been received from (a) the ITV group, (b) Sky, (c) the BBC and (d) non-UK based television companies in payment for airfares for journalists accompanying him on overseas trips in each of the last five years. [71746]

18 May 2006 : Column 1141W

The Prime Minister: The information is not held in the format requested and could be provided only at disproportionate cost.

Cabinet Office

Knowledge Network

Norman Baker: To ask the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster how much was spent on the Knowledge Network in each year since 1997. [72026]

Hilary Armstrong: The costs of the Knowledge Network for each financial year since its inception in 1999 are shown in the table.

	Gross spend (£ million)
1999-2000	2.0
2000-01	3.6
2001-02	6.4
2002-03	3.2
2003-04	3.2
2004-05	4.8
2005-06	3.7

18 May 2006 : Column 1142W

Up until 2003-04 the Cabinet Office funded the development and operational costs; since that time the Cabinet Office has recovered the majority of the costs from those government departments who are key users of the service.

Education and Skills

Free School Meals

Mr. Amess: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children attending (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in (i) Southend-on-Sea, (ii) Essex, (iii) each local authority in Hertfordshire and (iv) England received free school meals in each year since 1990; and what estimate he has made of the number of children who will receive free school meals for each of the next five years. [69623]

Jim Knight: The available information is shown in the table.

Information on school meals is only available on a consistent basis from 1993 onwards and has also been affected by local government reorganisation since then.

The Department does not produce projected numbers of pupils who will be in receipt of free school meals in the future.

Maintained primary and secondary schools ( 1) : school meal arrangements 1993-2006 (provisional) Position in January each year
Southend-on-Sea local authority
	Maintained primary
	Number on roll ( 2)	Number of pupils taking free school meals ( 3)	Percentage of pupils taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals
1998	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
1999	14,441	2,278	15.8	3,053	21.1
2000	14,503	2,286	15.8	3,023	20.8
2001	14,689	2,089	14.2	2,815	19.2
2002	14,775	1,980	13.4	2,723	18.4
2003	14,730	1,974	13.4	2,608	17.7
2004	14,495	2,049	14.1	2,654	18.3
2005	14,394	1,884	13.1	2,591	18.0
2006 (provisional)	14,152	1,896	13.4	2,450	17.3

	Maintained secondary
	Number on roll ( 2)	Number of pupils taking free school meals ( 3)	Percentage of pupils taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals
1998	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a	n/a
1999	10,743	1,192	11.1	1,668	15.5
2000	11,032	1,099	10.0	1,559	14.1
2001	11,367	1,004	8.8	1,489	13.1
2002	11,711	1,057	9.0	1,401	12.0
2003	12,024	1,066	8.9	1,346	11.2
2004	12,205	967	7.9	1,433	11.7
2005	12,411	1,152	9.3	1,506	12.1
2006 (provisional)	12,601	1,124	8.9	1,480	11.7

18 May 2006 : Column 1143W

18 May 2006 : Column 1144W

Essex local authority
	Maintained primary
	Number on roll ( 2)	Number of pupils taking free school meals ( 3)	Percentage of pupils taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals
1993	122,010	17,714	14.5	20,977	17.2
1994	123,997	19,435	15.7	23,202	18.7
1995	128,567	19,299	15.0	23,219	18.1
1996	132,554	19,762	14.9	23,562	17.8
1997	136,385	18,654	13.7	23,090	16.9
1998	139,094	17,282	12.4	21,543	15.5
1999	112,834	11,883	10.5	15,433	13.7
2000	112,913	11,355	10.1	14,503	12.8
2001	112,434	10,308	9.2	13,156	11.7
2002	112,156	9,813	8.7	12,774	11.4
2003	111,149	9,782	8.8	12,391	.11.1
2004	110,131	9,785	8.9	12,335	11.2
2005	108,391	9,576	8.8	11,788	10.9
2006 (provisional)	107,125	9,430	8.8	10,801	10.1

	Maintained secondary
	Number on roll ( 2)	Number of pupils taking free school meals ( 3)	Percentage of pupils taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals
1993	98,730	7,444	7.5	10,569	10.7
1994	95,463	8,830	9.2	11,775	12.3
1995	96,307	9,350	9.7	12,497	13.0
1996	96,535	9,579	9.9	12,783	13.2
1997	97,620	9,236	9.5	12,537	12.8
1998	98,590	8,999	9.1	12,275	12.5
1999	82,185	6,622	8.1	9,051	11.0
2000	84,218	6,552	7.8	8,825	10.5
2001	86,251	6,107	7.1	8,601	10.0
2002	87,802	6,052	6.9	8,198	9.3
2003	89,496	6,001	6.7	7,992	8,9
2004	90,686	6,283	6.9	8,163	9.0
2005	90,909	6,041	6.6	7,772	8.5
2006 (provisional)	91,140	5,841	6.4	7,595	8.3

Hertfordshire local authority
	Maintained primary
	Number on roll ( 2)	Number of pupils taking free school meals ( 3)	Percentage of pupils taking free school meals	Number of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals	Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for free school meals
1993	82,844	9,652	11.7	10,795	13.0
1994	84,825	10,659	12.6	11,979	14.1
1995	87,464	10,447	11.9	12,139	13.9
1996	89,738	10,580	11.8	12,595	14.0
1997	92,397	9,452	10.2	11,259	12.2
1998	94,606	8,649	9.1	10,299	10.9
1999	95,259	7,939	8.3	9,749	10.2
2000	96,095	7,628	7.9	9,410	9.8
2001	96,956	6,995	7.2	8,870	9.1
2002	97,101	6,746	6.9	8,493	8.7
2003	95,907	6,766	7.1	8,387	8.7
2004	94,309	6,868	7.3	8,801	9.3
2005	93,154	6,277	6.7	8,107	8.7
2006 (provisional)	92,173	6,126	6.6	7,455	8.1

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