Chamber and committees

Questions and answers

Parliamentary questions can be asked by any MSP to the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body. The questions provide a means for MSPs to get factual and statistical information.

Written questions must be answered within 10 working days (20 working days during recess)
Other questions such as Topical, Portfolio, General and First Minister's Question Times are taken in the Chamber

Urgent Questions aren't included in the Question and Answers search. There is a SPICe fact sheet listing Urgent and emergency questions.

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Question reference: S4W-19813

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many additional children it expects to receive free school meals under its free school meals policy, broken down by (a) local authority and (b) Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation ranking of local authority.

The following table shows the estimated number of children in primary 1 to 3 in each local authority who are not currently registered for free school meals (FSM) under the national eligibility criteria. This is broadly equivalent to the numbers who will become eligible for free school meals as a result of the extension to all children in primary 1 to 3:

Local Authority	Estimate not currently registered for FSM under national eligibility criteria
Aberdeen City	5,100
Aberdeenshire	8,000
Angus	3,100
Argyll and Bute	2,100
Clackmannanshire	1,400
Dumfries and Galloway	3,700
Dundee City	3,100
East Ayrshire	2,900
East Dunbartonshire	3,300
East Lothian	3,200
East Renfrewshire	3,100
Edinburgh City	10,400
Eilean Siar	700
Falkirk	4,400
Fife	9,600
Glasgow City	11,200
Highland	6,200
Inverclyde	1,700
Midlothian	2,300
Moray	2,600
North Ayrshire	3,200
North Lanarkshire	9,200
Orkney Islands	600
Perth and Kinross	3,900
Renfrewshire	4,400
Scottish Borders	3,000
Shetland Islands	700
South Ayrshire	2,400
South Lanarkshire	8,300
Stirling	2,400
West Dunbartonshire	2,200
West Lothian	5,200
All local authorities	135,000

The Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation rankings are assigned to data zones and cannot be summed or averaged to provide rankings at local authority level.

Question reference: S4W-19801

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many school rolls there are that exceed the seating capacity of their canteens.

Question reference: S4W-19798

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government whether free school meals will be allowed to be consumed in classrooms.

School food services across Scotland are designed to suit local and school needs and these vary widely in terms of methods of food preparation, distribution and menu choice. However delivered, the aim should be to optimise the service for quality, food safety and efficiency and ensure that the food served meets the nutritional requirements set out in the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2008.

In preparing to deliver the option of a free school meal to children in primary 1 to 3, schools and local authorities will need to consider the implications for the current school meals service arrangements, any flexibility within these arrangements and any opportunity this may afford to make further improvements.

However, local authorities will not be expected to do this in isolation. The Scottish Government has committed to work in partnership with COSLA over the next year to explore how any practical implications will be addressed, building on the experience of the free school meal trial for primary 1 to 3 pupils which ran over 2007-08.

Question reference: S4W-19804

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government for how many primary schools the catering has been outsourced, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-19802

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government how many catering staff are employed in primary schools, broken down by local authority.

Question reference: S4W-19796

Asked by: Cara Hilton, MSP for Dunfermline, Scottish Labour
Date lodged: Tuesday, 18 February 2014
Current Status: Answered by Alasdair Allan on 28 February 2014

To ask the Scottish Government what its definition is of a free school meal.

For the purposes of the First Minister’s announcement to extend the entitlement for children in primary 1 to 3 to a free school meal, a free school meal is a free school lunch. A free school lunch means any food or drink which an education authority provides free of charge to pupils in the middle of the day and which the education authority consider is appropriate for consumption as a meal at that time of the day. The food and drink provided must adhere to the standards set out in the Nutritional Requirements for Food and Drink in Schools (Scotland) Regulations 2008.