Question reference: S6W-18014
- Date lodged: 16 May 2023
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Current status: Answered by Jenny Gilruth on 30 May 2023
Question
To ask the Scottish Government how many local authorities have written off school meal debt in each year since 1999.
Answer
The information you have requested is not held centrally by the Scottish Government as the management of debt is an issue for education authorities and their finance departments.
The Scottish Government is aware, however, that Glasgow City Council announced at the end of March that it would write off outstanding school meal debts at all schools under its management at a cost of around £300,000 to the council; City of Edinburgh Council cancelled £64,000 of outstanding school meal debts in August 2022 and, earlier this month, councillors at Midlothian Council announced they had cancelled all outstanding school meal debts in the area totalling around £32,000.
Local authorities also have the power to make discretionary offers of free school meals to families, where they are experiencing financial hardship due to exceptional circumstances, if they do not meet the regular eligibility criteria.
COSLA, working with partners from across Local Government, have developed a set of good practice principles for the management of school meal debt, which were published on 20 February 2023. The intended audience for these principles is local authority staff across a range of departments (including education, catering, finance and debt collection) as well as Head Teachers, class teachers and other school staff. The principles can be accessed through the following link: COSLA Publish Good Practice Principles for Managing School Meal Debt - 20th February 2023 | COSLA .