FOI Request - Free School Meals Cost
Request 101003305610
1. Can you provide the numbers of how many families receive free school meals this academic year, including over any holidays, and a list of families who received free school meals during the academic year 2021-2022 and 2020-2021.
2. And can you provide the cost of each free school meal lunch.
Response 23-05-2023
1. We do not hold information on the number of families. Information that is not held falls under Section 17 of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002 - Information not held. We are unable to provide a list of families who received free school meals during the academic year 2021-2022 and 2020-2021 as this information is exempt under section 38(1)(b) of the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002, Personal Information.
We can instead offer the number of children who received free school meals during those academic years, including over the holiday. Please see table below.
| 2020/21 | 2021/22 | 2022/23 | |
| Primary pupils financially eligible for FSM & holiday payments | 1014 | 908 | 854 |
| Secondary pupils financially eligible for FSM & holiday payments | 625 | 573 | 585 |
| Total pupils financially eligible for FSM & holiday payments | 1639 | 1481 | 1439 |
| Primary 1-5 eligible for FSM under universal scheme* | 2489 | 3314 | 5633 |
* Universal FSM scheme extended to include P4 from August 2021 and P5 from January 2022
2.
20/21 £5.64 - this includes all costs to provide a meal - during the periods that schools were open due to COVID restrictions.
21/22 £4.62 - this includes all costs to provide a meal.