John Swinney shelves commitment to free school meals for all Scotland primary pupils

John Swinney has shelved a Scottish Government commitment to roll out free school meals to all primary school pupils, despite pledging that tackling child poverty was “first and foremost” in his priorities.

The First Minister quietly dropped a pledge to expand “universal” provision to P6 and P7 pupils within the next couple of years. It came as he outlined his Programme for Government in the Scottish Parliament on Wednesday, just 24 hours after announcing up to £500 million of cuts.

First Minister John Swinney during a visit to Castlebrae Community High School, in Niddrie, Edinburgh, to meet teachers and students. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/PA Wire | PA

The 47-page legislative blueprint was clearly hamstrung by the fraught financial situation in Scotland, and included little in terms of concrete new action. However, Mr Swinney pledged “significant reform” of public services to provide “whole family support” in an effort to eradicate child poverty.

He said his goal was to lift “every child in Scotland who is in poverty out of it”. He said the Scottish Government would invest “nearly £1 billion a year in affordable, high-quality and funded early learning and childcare”.

Elsewhere, Mr Swinney committed to introducing rent controls in new legislation, and announced support for Creative Scotland to restart its open fund.

He said the rules governing the conduct of ministers would also be overhauled, with a new ministerial code published by the end of the year. This will allow independent advisers to launch their own investigations, as opposed to requiring the First Minister to call for a probe.

“I want my Government to set the highest standard of propriety and integrity,” Mr Swinney said. “I want trust to be at the heart of our relationship with the people of Scotland.”

The move follows high-profile scandals such as the near-£11,000 iPad bill racked up by former SNP minister Michael Matheson.

Meanwhile, plans for separate legislation in Scotland to ban conversion therapy have been paused in favour of a UK-wide approach. The Scottish Greens criticised the decision, with the party’s equalities spokeswoman Maggie Chapman describing it as “deeply disappointing”.

Pupils in P1 to P5 currently receive free school meals in Scotland, and SNP ministers previously pledged to expand this to all primary children. However, this has now been shelved in favour of a means-tested approach. Mr Swinney did not mention this in his speech to MSPs.

His Programme for Government simply said his administration would “work towards further expanding free school meals to those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment in Primary 6 and Primary 7, and provide £21.75 million for free school meal alternatives in all school holidays for eligible families”.

The SNP’s 2021 manifesto said: “We will provide free school breakfasts and lunches to every primary school pupil in Scotland, all year round, and for all children in state-funded special schools in Scotland.”

And last year, former first minister Humza Yousaf’s legislative plans said the Government would work with council leaders “to prepare schools and infrastructure for the expansion of universal free school meal provision to Primary 6 and Primary 7 pupils during 2026, starting with those in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment”.

Green MSP Ross Greer said: “It is outrageous that so many children live in poverty across the UK, one of the richest countries in the history of the planet. That’s why the Scottish Greens secured the expansion of free school meals to all P4 and P5 pupils in Scotland, and a commitment to include P6 and P7 before the next election.

“The SNP have dropped that commitment, despite claiming that tackling child poverty is their top priority. At the very same time though, they are throwing millions of pounds of tax breaks at big businesses and elite landowners. They had a choice and they made the wrong one.”

STUC general secretary Roz Foyer said it was a "complete betrayal".

A Scottish Government source said it remained committed to the roll-out when the financial circumstances improve.

The Programme for Government contains 14 Bills, including measures to decarbonise buildings and create new offences related to “misogynistic conduct”.

Elsewhere, Mr Swinney announced plans to free up 210,000 outpatient appointments, “thus eliminating unnecessary hospital attendances”, while delivering around 20,000 more orthopaedic, ophthalmology and general surgery procedures annually.

Outgoing Scottish Conservative leader Douglas Ross said the financial pressures faced by the Government were due to “SNP choices”. He said: “What we are getting now, because of this financial mismanagement, is a threadbare Programme for Government published today.”

Mr Ross added: “It’s a measure of SNP failure that – eight years after they vowed to eradicate it – John Swinney is now promising only to reduce the attainment gap. They have also shamefully let down children by ditching their pledge to roll out universal free school meals for Primary 6 and 7 pupils.

“It’s appalling that despite presiding over a drugs and alcohol deaths crisis, the SNP leader didn’t even mention this national emergency, let alone outline a plan to tackle it.

“The proposal to beef up the ministerial code – one of precious few concrete proposals from this clapped-out SNP Government – is welcome and overdue. But it’s also an admission by John Swinney that he shamefully mishandled the Michael Matheson scandal.”

Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar said: “At a time when our country needs change, the SNP has given us more of the same – the same sticking plaster approach, the same rehashed announcements and the same level of denial from the third First Minister in three years.

“Scotland needed a Programme for Government that recognised the scale of the challenges facing our country – stagnating growth, record long NHS waiting lists, falling education standards, rising levels of drug deaths, and a housing emergency. But instead we have an SNP Government with no vision, no strategy and no plan. It is getting clearer by the day that Scotland needs change.

“This is a government that has ran out of ideas and grown out of touch. This is a Programme for Government out of ideas to deal with the crisis Scots face. The SNP has lost its way, it is incompetent in government and it is mismanaging public money.”

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton accused the Government of playing “fast and loose with the Scottish people’s money”.

He said: “We need to fix our health service with fast access to GPs, dentists and mental health services. To deliver world-beating education and a green jobs revolution to get our economy growing again. Insulate homes so that the pensioners, who are having their winter fuel payments removed by the Labour Government, have a chance of staying warm this winter.

“That’s what the Liberal Democrats want to do - to fight for a fair deal for carers and the thousands of people with Long Covid who this Government has ignored for years. Support small business, protect local authority funding and stop sewage being dumped in our rivers.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “The Scottish Government continues to be committed to the universal expansion of free school meals in primary schools. We are already delivering this provision in primaries 1 to 5, with the next stage of the rollout being for Primary 6 and 7 pupils in receipt of the Scottish Child Payment.

“However, the current financial situation means that universality will now not be delivered by 2026. The Scottish Government will work with partners in local government to meet our joint ambition to fully deliver on this commitment.”