A COSLA Spokesperson said:  “Tackling poverty, particularly child poverty, is one of the three shared priorities within the Scottish Government and COSLA's Verity House Agreement. Earlier this year, we published "From Targets to Action - Empowering Local Government to Tackle Child Poverty" setting out the work that local authorities have undertaken at a local level, to prevent, tackle and mitigate for the effects of poverty on children and families.

“We know that the cost of food can be a large expense for families and lack of access to sufficient nutrition has a significant impact on children’s health and education. We understand the concern and disappointment at the delay to roll out of universal free school meal provision to primary 6 and 7 children, and will continue to urge Scottish Government to progress this with urgency. Alongside this however, local authorities work with their communities to understand the needs of families, with many providing breakfast clubs, family meals and working with partners in the third sector to enable access to nutritious food.

We recognise that there is still much progress to be made towards our shared ambition to see an end to poverty, and while local authorities continue in their efforts to deliver this, we will continue to work with Scottish Government in an attempt to accelerate national efforts."