Whether it will expand the provision of free school meals to all primary pupils in 2021-22.

Free school meals are a vital support to thousands of children and young people across the country
- ensuring that children are fed and ready to engage in learning. They are also a valued support for family budgets
- by providing a saving of approximately £400 per year per child.
This government has shown its support to children and young people in receipt of free school meals through the additional £51 million of funding to local authorities to continue the provision of free school meals during the period of school closures and through the summer, winter and Easter holidays.
We do review the delivery of free school meals to ensure that it is supporting children and young people and expansion of free school meals to additional year groups is one of those considerations as part of this process. Implementation of a policy of this scale would require significant levels of planning, assessment and delivery in conjunction with COSLA and our partners in local authorities. In 2021-22, we will continue to provide £53 million of funding to local authorities for the universal provision of free school meals to every child in primary 1 to primary 3. We will also continue to provide funding to local authorities to deliver free school meals to all eligible children and young people in primary 4 and above.