Rejected petition Continue funding Free School Meals throughout the school holidays in Wales

It is shocking that Mark Drakeford can appear on ITV on 17 July 2023 and claim that it's Westminster's fault that Wales cannot afford £15m to continue funding Free School Meals over school holidays when over double that figure is being wasted on the unnecessary and unwanted 20mph scheme
Wales has the WORST child poverty levels in the UK. In 2015 Welsh Labour pledged to eradicate child poverty in Wales by 2020. In 2015 31% of children in Wales lived in poverty. In 2020 it was 32%. It is now 34%

More details

According to the Welsh Government's own report, it will cost roughly £32.5m to implement the 20mph scheme and cost the Welsh economy £4.5 BILLION

£122m is unaccounted for BCUHB but the Senedd dropped the investigation into why and no further action will be taken. That money would pay for FSM through the school holidays for the next 8 YEARS. They claim 20mph will save the NHS £200m a year yet the most common reason for childhood hospitalisations is NOT RTAs, it's TOOTH DECAY.

Mark Drakeford blames Westminster for not giving Wales enough money and yet in March the UK treasury took back 150m from Wales because it hadn't spent the money in time despite Wales having the:
worst child poverty in the UK
highest unemployment figures in the UK
poorest mental health in the UK
longest NHS waiting lists in the UK

The problem is not a lack of money, it's poor money management and misplaced priorities from those in charge.

Scrap the 20mph
Find the £122m
PRIORITISE TACKLING CHILD POVERTY IN WALES

Why was this petition rejected?

There’s already a petition about this issue. We cannot accept a new petition when we already have one about a very similar issue, or if the Petitions Committee has considered one in the last year.

Another petition calling for this is already collecting signatures: Reinstate free school meal payments (means tested) for all school holidays

You are more likely to get action on this issue if you sign and share a single petition
https://petitions.senedd.wales/petitions/245496

We only reject petitions that don’t meet the petition standards

Rejected petitions are published in the language in which they were submitted

Date submitted 22 July 2023
Get petition data (JSON format)

About petition data

The data shows the number of people who have signed the petition by country as well as in the constituency of each Member of the Senedd. This data is available for all petitions on the site. It is not a list of people who have signed the petition. The only name that is shared on the site is that of the petition creator.