7. To ask the First Minister how many children the measures in the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill will lift out of poverty by May 2021. (S5F-00948)

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill will require ministers to meet four targets by 2030: fewer than 10 per cent of children living in relative poverty; fewer than 5 per cent of children in absolute poverty; fewer than 5 per cent of children in combined low-income and material deprivation; and fewer than 5 per cent of children in persistent poverty.

The bill will make Scotland the only part of the UK with statutory targets to reduce and, ultimately, to eradicate child poverty. However—this is an important point—it is not targets themselves that will reduce child poverty but the policy and the action that we take. That is why the bill also requires the Government to have a child poverty delivery plan with specific measures to lift children out of poverty. The first plan will be published next year and will then be updated every five years.

I agree with the First Minister that we need action, and not just targets. In government, Labour lifted 120,000 children in Scotland out of poverty by lifting incomes and not just setting targets. We are ready to make the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill a success, which is why we back the calls from the Child Poverty Action Group and civic Scotland to top up child benefit for families in Scotland, which would take thousands of kids out of poverty. If the Scottish Government has any hope of making the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill a success, it must give the bill some teeth and start using the powers of this Parliament.

Will the Government support the calls from the Child Poverty Action Group and civic Scotland to top up child benefit, and will it do that by ensuring that the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill can deliver that increase now?

The First Minister:

We will always seek to have close dialogue with the Child Poverty Action Group. The Child Poverty Action Group, with other organisations, asked us to extend provision of free school meals. That is something that this Government did and which Labour—I seem to remember—voted against in Parliament.

We have also produced plans to use the additional powers that will come to this Parliament to introduce a best start grant, through which we will target resources at low-income families. We will give an enhanced grant to parents when a child is born—every child, not just the first child—and further payments when the child goes to nursery and, again, when they go to school.

We have already set out clear plans for how we are going to increase the incomes of families with children who most need support.

We will continue to talk to the Child Poverty Action Group and other organisations, and to interests across the chamber, about what further action we can take to tackle child poverty. I hope that it is an area on which we can all agree. I agree with Mark Griffin that although targets are important—which is why it is important that there are targets in the bill—it is the policies that we will introduce that will make the biggest difference.

The Presiding Officer:

That concludes First Minister’s Question Time.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. A few minutes ago, the First Minister accused a member of the Parliament of deliberately misleading Parliament. You know as well as every other member what that phrase actually means. Can you advise us whether the First Minister will be given an opportunity at some point to withdraw her remarks?

The Presiding Officer:

Thank you, Mr Rumbles. I heard the remark and considered it at the time. I ask all members to treat each other respectfully and to be careful about their language. In this case, there was no use of Unparliamentary Language.