One in five Scottish children who live in poverty remain ineligible for free school meals.

New analysis from the Child Poverty Action Group has revealed that 25,000 children in Scotland who live in poverty aren’t eligible under the national free school meals scheme.

That compares to one third of children in poverty in England, 15% in Wales and 20% in Northern Ireland too.

It means that despite previously leading the way in the UK in terms of expanding food provision, they are now falling behind Wales and level with Northern Ireland. They do remain ahead of England, though, with their 33% of children in poverty being ineligible for their scheme which accounts to 900,000 children.  

Scotland’s scheme sees every child from P1 to P5 receive free lunch but the government has halted plans to expand that to every child in P6 and P7.

Last week, the Scottish Parliament voted in favour of expanding universal free school meals to all primary school pupils in a non-binding vote rejecting the Scottish Government’s decision to abandon delivery of the policy in the current parliamentary session.

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The latest statistics published by the Scottish Government yesterday found uptake for all school meals, both free and paid for, is highest among pupils with universal entitlement to free school meals and lowest among pupils where access is means-tested.

Research shows children’s health, attainment and social experiences in the dining hall improve when free school meals are available to all children. It also supports home-school relations through the elimination of school dinner debt.

More than 5000 pupils responded to CPAG in Scotland’s Cost of the School Day Big Question and 89% of primary school children said the promise to make sure all of them receive school meals was very important or quite important.

One primary pupil commented: “We can't help what age or class we’re in. Just because we are in primary 6 or 7 does not mean that we have money. It should be equal.”

Another pupil added: “It’s not our fault if our grown-ups can’t afford a lunch”.

CPAG is calling on all UK governments to get free school meals to more children and work towards removing means-testing entirely from the dining hall.

The Director of Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) in Scotland, John Dickie, said: “This new analysis from CPAG is a stark reminder of just how important John Swinney’s promise of free school meals for all primary school pupils in Scotland was. With so many children in poverty missing out, young people themselves telling us what a priority free school meals are, and the Scottish Parliament unanimous in its support the First Minister must surely now reinstate the delivery of free school meals for all primary school pupils.”

Kate Anstey, head of UK education policy at Child Poverty Action Group, said:“The provision of free school meals greatly depends on where you live in the UK but none of the nations are managing to get a free meal in the middle of the day to every child in poverty. 

“That fails some of the children who would benefit the most. The UK Government and devolved governments must change the qualifying criteria so that every child that needs a school lunch has one, while working towards removing means-testing entirely from the lunch hall. School food and its benefits must be available to children in a way that’s reliable, not random.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: "Ministers have consistently warned of the significance of the financial challenges, due to prolonged Westminster austerity, the cost of living crisis & record high inflation - which has placed enormous and growing pressure on the public finances.

“That means that, whilst we remain resolutely committed to the universal expansion of free school meals in primary schools, the funding is not available for this to be completed by 2026. Our immediate focus is now to expand provision further to those in Primary 6 and 7 in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment, which we will deliver in this parliamentary term.

“We continue to make free school meals available for nearly 278,000 pupils in primaries 1 to 5 and special schools, and to those eligible in P6 to S6 saving around £400 per child per year.”