School meals report branded 'meaningless' by MHK

A report on school meals on the Isle of Man that saw redactions on more than 80% of its pages has been branded "completely meaningless" by an MHK.

The document looks at areas such as the operating model and costs but saw large sections of the text, in some cases full pages, blacked out.

Joney Faragher MHK said the review had a "significant level of both political and public interest" but "no one can get any information" out of what has been released.

Education Minister Daphne Caine said while the report had not been produced "in a way that could made public", the details were "informing policy" on the issue.

Published in March, the 2023 School Meals Review, originally drafted for internal use by the Department of Education, Sport and Culture (Desc), confirmed £2,522,000 was spent on the service in the academic year 2022-2023.

But the publicly available version of the document has removed a list of 24 recommended improvements to the service, considerations of a new model and the details of potential alternatives, and a suggested five-year plan.

Information on more than 120 pages of the 147-page report can not be viewed.

In Tuesday's sitting of the House of Keys, Lawrie Hooper MHK said: "The fact the department has decided to redact everything related to the development and formulation of policy is somewhat absurd."

He asked how Tynwald members were expected to engage with the review all politicians could see was "pages upon pages of blacked out text".

Tim Glover MHK said the "excessive redactions" undermined public scrutiny and called for the minister to explain what steps were being taken "by the secret squirrel department" to improve transparency on the publication of official reports.

Caine told members the report had originally been produced to "inform department policy" and as such "prior to its publication it was treated as a Freedom of Information (FOI) request".

In line with FOI exemptions on formulation of policy, conduct of public business, personal information and commercial interests, aspects of the report has been removed, she said.

The minister told members school meals policy was "very much in development" and therefore it would be "inappropriate and a bit irresponsible to put that in the public domain" before the details had been confirmed.

However, she said key areas of focus for Desc would be a reduction in the use of ultra-processed food, using more local produce, reducing food waste and conducting parental and student surveys on meal choices, which had been outlined in the annual departmental plan.

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