Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:53 pm on 26 January 2021.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:53, 26 January 2021

Llywydd, it's plainly nonsensical to suggest that our approach to free school meals is the least generous in the United Kingdom. We were the very first Government in the United Kingdom to guarantee free school meals during school holidays. We've seen the way in which the UK Government was dragged kicking and screaming to the same position as a result of campaigns, campaigns citing the actions that the Welsh Government had taken back in the autumn. I've had an opportunity to discuss directly with the children's commissioner the reports that she herself has provided on, for example, the costs of the school day, including free school meals. Our income maximisation action plan draws very heavily on the recommendations of the commissioner. It's why we have doubled and doubled again the number of times during a young person's school career that a child can draw down what used to be called the school uniform grant and which now, of course, is able to be used for a far wider range of purposes. Those are the practical actions that we can take, and, when this Government says that we will do something, we will make sure that it is practical, deliverable and affordable, and those are obligations that I think fall on any party that seeks to be part of Government. I look forward to his party being able to explain not simply how they're going to provide free school meals for any child in any family on universal credit, but alongside everything else that his party claims to be able to deliver. Then people will know that they are being made a responsible offer, not an offer simply designed to attract a headline.