Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 31 May 2022
To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide a breakdown of the level of food insecurity in each local authority area, in each of the last five years.
Food security levels in Scotland have been measured using the Scottish Health Survey since 2017. Survey respondents are defined as being food insecure if they answer positively to the question: ' During the last 12 months, was there a time when you were worried you would run out of food because of a lack of money or other resource?'.
Sample sizes for local authority areas are too small to publish statistics annually, however, by combining data from multiple years (2017-2019), local authority level figures can be produced. Statistics are publicly available on the Scottish Health Survey dashboard: Scottish Health Survey (shinyapps.io) .