Child poverty

You asked

Please provide the following information:

1. How many children approximately have been reliant on free government provided school meals in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) between 2018 and 2019?

2. How many children have died in the UK over the last 20 years as a result of starvation and poverty?

3. How many school meals have been provided during the lockdown period of March 2020 to June 2020?

4. How many families in the UK claim related benefits to free school meals on a yearly basis starting from 2000?

We said

Thank you for your request. Please find the following answers to your questions.

1. How many children approximately have been reliant on free government provided school meals in the UK (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) between 2018 and 2019?

Unfortunately, we do not hold this information. The Department for Education (DfE) maybe better placed to assist. They can be contacted via the following FOI contact form: DfE FOI Contact Form.

2. How many children have died in the UK over the last 20 years as a result of starvation and poverty?

We are responsible for mortality statistics for England and Wales. National Records Scotland (NRS) and Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (NISRA) are responsible for statistics pertaining to Scotland and Northern Ireland. They can be contacted at foi@nrscotland.gov.uk and info@nisra.gov.uk respectively.

Our mortality data comes from the information collected at death registration. All of the conditions mentioned on the death certificate are coded using the International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision (ICD-10). From all of these causes an underlying cause of death is selected using ICD-10 coding rules. The underlying cause of death is defined by WHO as:

a) the disease or injury that initiated the train of events directly leading to death, or

b) the circumstances of the accident or violence that produced the fatal injury

It is possible for starvation to be written on the death certificate, however it is likely that it would be coded, following the rules above, as malnutrition. Other causes might also be coded depending on the circumstances of the death and how it is reported at death certification. These could be, for example, lack of food or symptoms or signs concerning food and fluid intake and each of the causes will be coded, either as the underlying cause or as a contributory factor in the death.

It is important to note that there are also many explanations as to why someone becomes malnourished and many of the deaths that mentioned malnutrition on the death certificate will be in people who already have a serious illness, and it is this illness that is recorded as the underlying cause of death, rather than malnutrition. There will be more cases where malnutrition is recorded as a contributory factor than cases where it is recorded as the underlying (primary) cause.

ICD-10 provides the following codes related to starvation:

• E40-E46 Malnutrition

• X53 Lack of food

• R63 Symptoms and signs concerning food and fluid intake

You can obtain death registrations data by cause (ICD-10 code) for 2013 to 2019 by using our NOMIS webservice, which enables users to produce customised dataset using filters. Data can be filtered by age bracket and cause of death. This is available via the following link: NOMIS Webservice.

Please see the following information regarding malnutrition, which has been taken from the NOMIS webservice:

Mortality statistics – underlying cause, sex and age

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Unfortunately, we would be unable to provide you with a full dataset with the number of children in the UK who have died over the last 20 years as a result of starvation and poverty. In order to fulfil this request, we would need use a high level of statistical skill and judgement in order to create a bespoke analysis or table. Under the Freedom of Information Act 2000, Public Authorities are not obligated to create information in order to respond to requests. We therefore consider this to be information not held.

However, information on the number of children in the UK who have died over the last 20 years as a result of starvation and poverty may be available to commission as bespoke analysis. Such services would be subject to legal frameworks, disclosure controls, resources and agreement of costs. If you would like to request this bespoke dataset, please contacthealth.data@ons.gov.uk to discuss your enquiry further. Please note, there will be a charge for this work which would be subject to our charging policy.

You may be interested in the following bespoke table regarding deaths from malnutrition from 2001 to 2017: Deaths where malnutrition was the underlying cause of death or was mentioned anywhere on the death certificate, persons, England and Wales, 2001 to 2017. However, this does not contain any statistics regarding children specifically.

3. How many school meals have been provided during the lockdown period of March 2020 to June 2020?

Unfortunately, we do not hold this information. The Department for Education (DfE) maybe better placed to assist. They can be contacted via the following FOI contact form: DfE FOI Contact Form.

4. How many families in the UK claim related benefits to free school meals on a yearly basis starting from 2000?

Unfortunately, we do not hold this information. The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) maybe better placed to assist. They can be contacted via email at freedom-of-information-request@dwp.gov.uk.