Inequalities (Research)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 15 November 2016.

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Photo of John Mason John Mason Scottish National Party

3. To ask the Scottish Government what consideration it has given to research carried out by Heriot-Watt University regarding ways to reduce income and other inequalities. (S5T-00189)

Photo of Angela Constance Angela Constance Scottish National Party

The Scottish Government pays close attention to research on reducing inequalities and welcomes the Heriot-Watt University research, which supports the rationale behind one of the Scottish Government’s key priorities of extending the provision of free early learning and childcare. That includes increased provision for all three and four-year-olds to 600 hours per year and extended provision to include over a quarter of two-year-olds; and we are committed to nearly doubling free early learning and childcare entitlement to 1,140 hours per year by 2020. That will save families more than £3,000 per child per year. In addition, our fairer Scotland action plan outlines 50 concrete actions that we are taking to tackle inequality and create a fairer Scotland.

Photo of John Mason John Mason Scottish National Party

I am grateful that the minister talks about helping women into work through childcare and other ways. Can she confirm that the Government will also tackle the gender pay gap, which is mentioned in the report?

Photo of Angela Constance Angela Constance Scottish National Party

Yes, absolutely. Mr Mason rightly recognises the importance of childcare in alleviating pressure on family households’ costs of living, with entitlement free at the point of need, and its importance in freeing up women in particular to enter the labour market.

Mr Mason raised an important point about the gender pay gap. As well as identifying the investment in early learning and childcare, the research that he mentioned identifies the importance of policies that close the gender pay gap

. I am pleased to say that the evidence that was published by the Office for National Statistics a few weeks ago showed that the gender pay gap in Scotland is continuing to reduce, and we have outperformed the United Kingdom in that regard. However, the fact that we still have a gender pay gap means that we need to continue with our work on occupational segregation and work to encourage public and private sector employers to publish information on the gender pay gap. Of course, we also need to do the long-term work to encourage more women to pursue and remain in careers relating to science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

Photo of John Mason John Mason Scottish National Party

I think that we all believe that we should grow the economy but, up to now, the gap between those who have high incomes and those who have low incomes—the richest and the poorest—has been unacceptably large. Can the Government confirm that, as well as growing the economy, we are committed to reducing the gap between the richest and the poorest?

Photo of Angela Constance Angela Constance Scottish National Party

We know that inequality has a negative effect on economic growth. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, rising income inequality between 1990 and 2010 reduced the UK’s economic performance by 9 percentage points. That is why inclusive growth is central to the Government’s economic strategy and our approach to a fairer Scotland. We must ensure that we tackle inequality so that everyone can benefit from a more prosperous economy.

Obviously, that chimes with the research that has been published by Heriot-Watt University. As well as talking about investment in early learning and childcare and endeavours to close the gender pay gap, it talks about the importance of regionally balanced economic growth. That is reflected in both our economic strategy and our labour market strategy, and also in some of the work in the fairer Scotland action plan, which is pragmatic and contains 50 concrete actions that are about tackling poverty and inequality in all their forms.