Legal Move To End Free Care Meals Row

Thousands of pensioners are to have their right to free food-preparation enshrined in law to force reluctant councils to pay for the service, under plans being proposed by ministers. Pensioners have been denied free help by many local authorities who claim that existing guidance from the Scottish Executive is ambiguous.

But a series of recent legal rulings have seen several councils forced to pay multi-million-pound payouts to pensioners. And yesterday the Executive said it was looking at bringing in legislation to force councils to fulfil their duty.

Lewis Macdonald, the deputy health minister, appeared before Holyrood’s health committee yesterday to outline his response to an Executive-commissioned report which highlighted the confusion. He admitted local authorities were still interpreting the guidance in different ways and resolved to cure this by holding discussions with the convention of local authorities in Scotland, COSLA.

With the group’s agreement, he suggested introducing new guidelines as secondary regulation. He said: “The act is very clear that the assistance of preparation with food should not be charged for, but that has proven to be open to some interpretation. It may simply cut to the chase if we provide a regulatory framework. Clearly, at that point all local authorities will be expected to comply.”

A recent survey found almost half of councils were refusing to prepare food and many continue to do so. However, following legal challenges, councils have been forced to reimburse pensioners they have wrongly charged for the service. So far Edinburgh has paid back £2 million and the total for Scotland could exceed £20 million.

COSLA welcomed the call for food-preparation regulations. But Nanette Milne, the Tory health spokeswoman, accused Mr Macdonald of fudging the issue. She demanded that pensioners who had been charged for food preparation be paid back immediately.

She said: “Those who are among the most vulnerable in our society, and to whom we owe the most, have been badly let down. All those wrongly charged must be repaid immediately. It is shameful that this policy has not been fully implemented. If it takes more Executive money to get it done, then so be it.”