I am delighted to open this debate on building a fairer Scotland and the action plan that was published earlier this month. I am sure that the whole Parliament supports the central contention in today’s motion, which is that it genuinely takes all of us to build a fairer Scotland, so I look forward very much to debating with colleagues across the chamber how we can work together to achieve that.
With regard to where we are and what we have already delivered, there is much to be upbeat and optimistic about. For example, Scotland outperforms the United Kingdom on youth employment and women’s employment; more than 25,000 people have started modern apprenticeships in each of the past five years; we have, at 80.5 per cent, the second-highest proportion after the south-east—where the figure is 81.6 per cent—of employees being paid the living wage or more; and finally, the number of Scotland-based accredited living-wage employers is now 595.
Of course, there is still much more to do. Around one in six people in this country still lives in poverty. In-work poverty has been increasing and more than half—58 per cent—of the working-age adult population in poverty live in households in which someone is in work. I have to say that I am somewhat disappointed that the Conservative amendment overlooks that key aspect of poverty, which has been made worse by cuts to working welfare over the past six years.
That is why the “Fairer Scotland Action Plan” is so important. It features 50 concrete actions that the Government will take in this parliamentary session to alleviate poverty and tackle inequality. It also makes clear our ambition to have by 2030 a fair, smart and inclusive Scotland where everyone can feel at home, where poverty rates are among the lowest in Europe and where there is genuine equality of opportunity for everyone.
As we know, the Government cannot deliver that ambition on its own. Indeed, as the plan says,
“It takes all of us to build a fairer Scotland”,
which is why we place such emphasis on working closely with people and communities, with businesses and employers, with the third sector and with public bodies in order that we can learn from best practice and drive change. All of us in Parliament will need to play our part, too, so I will very much welcome the ideas, innovation and challenge that Parliament will no doubt offer during the course of this and other debates that we will have in the months and years ahead.
I am pleased that the plan has been warmly welcomed by stakeholders. Alastair Pringle, who is the director of the Equality and Human Rights Commission in Scotland, has called the plan
“a bold vision for a fairer Scotland”
and has made it clear that the EHRC will play its full part in making the plan’s ambition a reality.
Sarah Jackson, who is the chief executive of Working Families, has described it as
“a great step forward for fair work in Scotland”,
and Dr Sally Witcher OBE, who is the chief executive of Inclusion Scotland, has said:
“there is much to be welcomed in the Plan that could have a positive impact on”
disabled people’s
“lives.”
However, she added that
“The challenge now is to transform paper commitments into reality, in order to achieve the reduction in inequality and poverty all of us want to see.”
Although the action plan is important in itself, what counts is delivering on the actions themselves, which is why we have committed to publishing a progress report in 2019 to set out where we are doing well and where we could do better. That said, I recognise that the Labour amendment has asked for annual reporting, so I am, in reflecting the importance of the action plan, willing to accept that.
We know that delivering on our ambition will not be easy, but if we succeed we will all benefit because a fairer country is good for everyone. The international evidence is clear that income inequality undermines educational opportunity, restricts skills development and reduces social mobility. It also limits growth. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rising income inequality between 1990 and 2010 reduced UK economic growth by 9 percentage points.
We know that poverty has massive costs for all Governments. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation suggests that the cost of poverty to the UK public purse is £78 billion each year, which implies that the cost to Scotland is between £6 billion and £7 billion a year. There are many different ways to consider the cost of poverty; that estimate does not include some of the wider costs to society, but it is clear from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s research that we spend a significant amount of money making up for the damage that poverty does to people’s lives.
Although the UK Government might think that it is smart to cut £12 billion from its welfare budget, in the long run that decision is likely to backfire. There will be increasing costs resulting from higher levels of poverty and there will be weaker economic growth because of widening inequality. In contrast, we in Scotland have a specific ambition to reduce poverty and, through our inclusive growth policies, to share the proceeds of growth more widely. If we can do that, Scotland will have not only a stronger economy but a stronger society.
The “Fairer Scotland Action Plan” contains 50 actions that are ambitious, affordable and achievable. It is based on what we heard from 7,000 people who took part in 200 fairer Scotland conversations, from Dumfries to Stornoway. The action plan does not include actions that we would like to take but cannot because the power to do so is reserved, and it is not an exhaustive list of actions that covers everything that the Scottish Government is already doing.
I note that the Conservatives have suggested in their amendment that there is not enough about racial discrimination in the action plan. I reassure Adam Tomkins that this Government is absolutely determined to advance race equality in Scotland. Our race equality framework has been developed specifically to address the barriers that prevent people from minority ethnic communities from realising their potential, and I am pleased to say that implementing the framework is a key element of the action plan.
The “Fairer Scotland Action Plan” sets out the key actions that we will take in the current parliamentary session, but it also sets out our commitment to take long-term action to change our society and make it a fairer and more equal place to live in. As politicians, we know that it takes courage not just to go for the quick wins but to focus on the long term. Building a fairer Scotland will inevitably be a long-term effort, and all of us across the political parties will need to work together to achieve it.
I want to focus on one theme in the action plan: ending child poverty. Although that is absolutely a long-term challenge, it is one that we are committed to doing everything within our power to meeting. Our eyes are firmly on the ambition of eradicating child poverty.
For anyone—whether they have children or whether they are young or old—being in poverty means waking up every day facing insecurity, uncertainty and impossible decisions about money. It means facing marginalisation and even discrimination simply because of their financial situation, and it can have long-term impacts on their prospects and the places where they live. For children, poverty can have effects that last a lifetime. That is why it is so important to act now. The plan contains a range of actions to do just that, including increasing childcare provision, tackling the poverty premium, provision of the baby box of essential basic supplies and addressing the attainment gap.
The child poverty bill that I will introduce in the current parliamentary year will set out our ambition. We have already consulted on new 2030 targets to make significant reductions in child poverty, and we will provide more detail about our plans in the coming months.
I note that the Conservative amendment says that
“any poverty indicator must include some measurement of household costs”.
I absolutely agree, which is why our child poverty targets and our other poverty measurements take housing costs into account; they are one of the major costs that low-income households face. Our targets are, precisely because they do that, actually more ambitious than the 2020 targets that were scrapped by the UK Government.