Written question WQ87848
- Asked by
- Laura Anne JonesConservative
- To be answered by
- Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
- Tabled
- Due
- Answered
- Time to answer
- 7 days
Question
What is the average cost, per head, of providing free school meals?
Answer
Answered by Minister for Education and the Welsh Language
Under section 512ZB of the Education Act 1996, local authorities are required to provide a free school meal at lunchtime for eligible free school meal pupils. Funding for this is un-hypothecated and is provided to local authorities through the local government Revenue Support Grant (RSG) settlement. Local authorities are responsible for allocating budgets in relation to this provision.
It is not possible to isolate the funding provided to schools in Wales for free school meals because this is included in an overarching category of ‘delegated school catering expenditure’ in the Local Government Settlement.
Regarding Universal Primary Free School Meals, £200m of revenue funding has been committed across the three years 2022-23 to 2024-25 to implement the programme over the course of the Co-operation Agreement.
The unit rate per meal is currently set at £2.90. A review of the unit rate is underway to develop a deeper understanding of costs and possibly refine the rate for future years.
The universal provision of free school meals in primary schools is being delivered in collaboration with Plaid Cymru as part of the Co-operation Agreement.