School Meal Debt Fund: FOI release

Information requested

You asked for us to provide you with the following information for the period up until, and including, the date of your request:

1. What is the total value of funding received so far by local authorities through the Scottish Government’s school meal debt fund (announced in 2024-25 budget and confirmed on May 5 by the First Minister)?

2. Which local authorities have applied to the school meal debt fund, how much did each apply for, and what amount of funding did each receive? Please break down per local authority.

3. What criteria was applied to each local authority to access the school meal debt fund and what supporting information or evidence was required in order to receive funding?

4. What is the total number of children/families who have had school meal debt written off as a result of the delivery of the school meal debt fund? Please provide the total number for Scotland and broken down by each local authority.

Response

The answers to your questions are as follows:

1. The Scottish Government is currently analysing bids to the School Meal Debt Fund and is following up with local authorities on the information provided. Therefore, no funding has been issued at this time.

The funding will be issued as soon as all due diligence processes are complete.

2. An exemption under section 29(1)(a) of FOISA applies to the information you have requested.

Information is exempt under Section 29(1)(a) if it relates to the formulation or development of government policy. As consideration is still being given to the bids received by local authorities, this exemption applies to this part of your FOI request.

This exemption is subject to the 'public interest test'. Therefore, taking account of all the circumstances of this case, we have considered if the public interest in disclosing the information outweighs the public interest in applying the exemption. We have found that, on balance, the public interest lies in favour of upholding the exemption. We recognise that there is some public interest in release due to the general public interest in school meal debt. However, this is outweighed by the public interest in allowing officials and Ministers to have a private space in which to develop policy.

3. Local authorities were asked to consider whether they wished financial support to cancel school meal debt while adhering to guidance produced by COSLA on the issue. Local Authorities are expected to use any grant for the purpose of clearing school meal debt and that in accepting the offer of funding, local authorities will agree to adhere to the COSLA Good Practice Principles for School Meal Debt Management in their management of school meal debt going forward. The COSLA Good Practice Principles are available through the following web link: Good-Practice-Principles-for-School-Meal-Debt-Management.pdf (cosla.gov.uk).

Local Authorities were asked that any bid included details of the amount of school meal debt accrued as at 31 March 2024, as well as the amount that they were seeking to write off. This could include any debt that the local authority has cleared prior to that point.

4. This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested. The Scottish Government does not have the information you have asked for because we are currently analysing bids to the School Meal Debt Fund and following up with local authorities on the information provided.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.