Free meals scheme passed by MSPs

Ministers said the school meals scheme was fully funded

Legislation allowing Scots councils to provide free meals for pupils in the first three years of primary school has been passed by MSPs.

However, opposition parties questioned whether councils could afford to implement the scheme.

At the same time, local authority umbrella group Cosla warned that spending decisions were up to councils.

Ministers, who want to bring in free meals in 2010, insisted the policy was already fully funded.

Children's Minister Adam Ingram told the Scottish Parliament that a free school meal pilot had been a resounding success.

We don't believe that this is the time to pay £30m of taxpayers' money on this policy Margaret Smith Lib Dem education spokesman

"It is our duty to look after all children, regardless of their background or income, and we know it is not just children from our poorer families that are nutritionally challenged," he said.

But Labour education spokeswoman Rhona Brankin accused ministers of dishonesty, by saying the scheme had been fully funded through the local government settlement, with £30m from 2010.

She said: "Let's be clear about the order. It will not deliver a single extra meal and it's incumbent on the SNP to say how these free school meals will be paid.

"There is a fundamental dishonesty in announcing a policy that is not adequately resourced."

Tory education spokeswoman Liz Smith questioned why the legislation did not require councils to provide free meals.

"Is the real truth not the fact that they know that this policy, just like class sizes, cannot be delivered," she said.

'Hard choices'

Lib Dem Margaret Smith said universal roll-out would benefit parents who could afford to pay.

"We don't believe that this is the time to pay £30m of taxpayers' money on this policy," she said.

Cosla said it would not support what appeared to be a return to ring-fenced funding by the back door, adding that budgetary pressures meant hard choices may have to be made.

Despite Labour's concerns, the party backed the legislation along with the SNP, voting down opposition from the Tories and Liberal Democrats.