Dear Alastair, 

Reclassification of school meal uptake statistics

Thank you for your letter requesting the removal of the accredited official statistics status of the Scottish Government’s statistics on school meal uptake in Scotland based on the School Health Living Survey. Your letter also outlined changes to the methodology used to produce the school meal uptake statistics. I appreciate your team’s proactive engagement with us on this matter.  

Based on the scale of the methodology changes, I agree to your request to cancel the accredited official statistics status, and I support your proposal to publish the new school meal uptake statistics as official statistics in development. It is good that you intend to seek feedback from users on the new methodology, and we look forward to seeing the positive impact of the methodology on the accuracy and reliability of the statistics. 

My Crime, Education and Justice team will continue to engage with your team as you refine the methodology. We will welcome a request to assess the statistics for reaccreditation when you consider that your development work is complete.  

Yours sincerely,  

Ed Humpherson
Director General for OSR 

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Related:

Alastair McAlpine to Ed Humpherson: Reclassification of school meal uptake statistics  (5 September 2025)