PFI school kitchens attacked

Scores of schools are still being built or refurbished without proper kitchens, despite government pledges to give pupils freshly prepared meals, union leaders have claimed.

A survey by researchers at Cardiff University, commissioned by the Unison union, of hundreds of building and refurbishment schemes under the Private Finance Initiative found that one in six were not equipped to cook fresh food from scratch.

A spokesman for the Department for Education and Skills said providing proper kitchen facilities was a "priority" and that some groups of schools shared catering facilities.