What his most recent assessment is of the educational achievement of pupils eligible to receive free school meals.

May I make it clear that I replied to the letter from Michael Gove this morning? I am only disappointed that he did not ask me those questions because I could have given him detailed answers.

In the past decade, primary and secondary schools that serve the most deprived intakes have achieved the largest increase in key stage 2 and GCSE results. In schools with more than 50 per cent. of pupils eligible for free school meals, the proportion of pupils achieving five good GCSEs, including English and maths, has increased from 24 per cent. in 2005 to 33 per cent. in 2008-double the rate of increase in the least deprived schools.

Is it not unacceptable that under half of white British boys eligible for free school meals achieve the expected standards in English and maths at the end of their primary school stage? Does the Secretary of State agree that part of the answer is more new academies, such as the excellent All Saints academy in Dunstable in my Constituency?

Since I became Secretary of State, I have approved 136 new academies, precisely because they show that they can raise standards, including for white boys, in the most disadvantaged areas. Of course, it is disappointing that we have not seen faster progress for white boys, but, as I said, the exam results for pupils from the most deprived backgrounds have increased faster in the past 10 years. That is true for primary and secondary schools and for English and maths. We are narrowing the gaps through investing in good schools, good teachers and the one-to-one tuition that is needed for pupils to make progress.

The facts that the Secretary of State has given the House are interesting, but does he agree that the concept of free school meal status being an adequate measure of social or economic disadvantage has outlived its usefulness? There are better measures and we should start to pursue some improved statistic.

My hon. Friend makes an important and interesting point, which I would be happy to debate with him and the Minister for Schools and Learners in due course. However, the question was about the progress that free school meal pupils had achieved in the past decade, and the answer is that they have made progress faster than the average pupil-and much faster than in the previous decade. The picture is therefore good and improving, but we need to do more to narrow those gaps.

The report on social mobility by the Secretary of State's old friend Mr. Milburn earlier this year proposed a Liberal Democrat policy to improve the targeting of young people with educational disadvantages-the pupil premium. When will the Government formally respond to the right hon. Gentleman's report and when will they get on with introducing a pupil premium?

We have already responded by setting out the way in which we will enhance information, advice and guidance. As the hon. Gentleman knows, a review of the pupil premium is going on at the moment. To be honest, as we have debated previously, a pupil premium could accompany an increase or a reduction in the amount of money that goes to the most disadvantaged. That would depend on whether the budgets were increasing or decreasing, but if we genuinely want to make progress, we have to guarantee that any pupil in years 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 who falls behind will get one-to-one, catch-up tuition to get them back on track. That is in our pupil guarantee and our legislation. Rather than criticising and refusing to back our guarantees, the hon. Gentleman should match and support them. In that way, we can make more progress on closing the gap to which he refers.

On free school meals as in so many other areas of policy, is it not right that Members of Parliament should set an example to young people by doing their homework before making inaccurate and sensational claims at the Dispatch Box?

We all know what my hon. Friend is alluding to, and I will not go over that past territory other than to agree that getting homework right is very important.

May I correct the record again for the House on an error made by my Department at the end of last year? In a parliamentary answer, we made an error when we said that the most disadvantaged pupils had seen their results go up by 13 per cent. over the last 10 years. In fact, the correct figure was 33 per cent. Our statisticians corrected that, we corrected the parliamentary answer and the Minister for Schools and Learning has written twice to correct it, but the Shadow Secretary of State repeats that wrong statistic again and again-

Order. The Secretary of State has made his position clear and I want to make progress on the Order Paper.

I am very grateful to the Secretary of State for correcting his Department's mistake. I am also grateful to him for writing to me; I have not yet received that letter and I would be grateful for any clarification that he can give at the Dispatch Box.

The Sutton Trust has expressed its deep concern about the continuing under-achievement of children eligible for free school meals. It says that far from acting as a great leveller, the current education system is perpetuating inequalities. Nearly 40 per cent. of pupils eligible for free school meals do not even get a single grade C at GCSE. The 16-year-olds who left school this year had their entire education under Labour. Sir Terry Leahy has expressed his concern that standards are still woefully low and Sir Stuart Rose has said that school leavers cannot do reading, cannot do arithmetic and cannot do writing. Are Sir Terry and Sir Stuart wrong?

I am very concerned that the hon. Gentleman continues on his path of undermining the progress being made by pupils and teachers all over the country. As I said, 33 per cent. of children in schools with more than 50 per cent. entitled to free school meals are getting five good GCSEs with English and maths. The Minister for Schools and Learning has twice written to the hon. Gentleman-in January and again this autumn-but in his speech in November the hon. Gentleman repeated the wrong figure, even though he knows that it is wrong. Undermining confidence by peddling false statistics is the wrong thing to do: it is the hon. Gentleman's credibility that is now in doubt on this matter.