Question reference: S6W-10782
- Asked by: Alex Rowley, MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 1 September 2022
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Current status: Answered by Shona Robison on 22 September 2022
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many children have been identified as food insecure in each of the last 10 years.
Answer
Rates of food insecurity, at household level, have been measured by the Family Resources Survey (FRS) since 2019.
The data for Scotland show that, in 2019-2020, 75% of children lived in households that were food secure; 10% lived in households that were marginally secure. The remaining 15% lived in households that were food insecure (8% ‘low’ food security and 7% 'very low' food security).
Due to the impact of COVID-19 on data collection, the quality of the data from the latest FRS (2020/2021) did not meet official statistics standards. The 2019-2020 survey is, therefore, the latest valid measure.
The Scottish Health Survey (SHeS) has also measured food insecurity rates for individual adults since 2017; the data are not directly comparable to the FRS. The rate of food insecurity for SHeS respondents from households with children was 11% in 2017-2018, and 12% in 2018-2019.