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P1-3 pupils in Scotland to get free school meals P1-3 pupils in Scotland to get free school meals
(about 1 hour later)
Scottish P1-P3 pupils will get free school meals from January 2015, First Minister Alex Salmond has announced.Scottish P1-P3 pupils will get free school meals from January 2015, First Minister Alex Salmond has announced.
The move, which matches a plan being introduced in England, came as MSPs debated Scotland's future, ahead of this year's independence referendum. He said the move, affecting 165,000 youngsters, would boost health and was worth £330 a year for each child to families.
The Scottish government has promised a big childcare increase, in the event of a "Yes" vote. The move matches a plan being introduced in England, in September this year.
Opposition parties said SNP ministers had the devolved powers to bring in the expansion now. Opposition parties accused the Scottish government of playing catch-up, and taking credit for Westminster policies.
From September, pupils in the first three years of school in England will have the offer of a free cooked lunch. The first minister also told the Scottish Parliament that free childcare would be expanded to every two-year-old from a workless household in Scotland by August, affecting about 8,400 youngsters.
Scottish ministers have now followed suit, partly by using extra money going to Scotland, through the Barnett Formula, as a consequence of the English plan. And Mr Salmond said a further extension of the policy to reach 15,400 two-year-olds by August 2015 would see Scotland delivering 80 million hours of childcare to pre-school children, which he said was the greatest amount in the UK.
The free meals announcement came after UK ministers announced plans to offer pupils in the first three years of primary school in England a free cooked lunch.
Scottish ministers followed suit, partly by using extra money going to Scotland, through the Barnett Formula, as a consequence of the English plan.
Mr Salmond said the Scottish government announcements would bring improvements, but fell short of the childcare revolution which Scotland needed.
Ahead of the independence referendum on 18 September, the Scottish government said all three and four-year-olds, and vulnerable two-year-olds, would get 1,140 hours of childcare a year by the end of the first parliament, in the event of a "Yes" vote.
But opposition parties said SNP ministers had the devolved powers to realise their childcare plans now.
Mr Salmond told MSPs: "We need to create a tax welfare and childcare system that doesn't plunge children into poverty, as the UK government is doing, that puts us on a par with the best childcare systems in the world.
"That is why the future of Scotland's children is the future of Scotland, and why Scotland's future is an independent one."