2. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the Oxfam report, “Reward Work, Not Wealth”, and what action it is taking to tackle inequality. (S5T-00890)
I welcome the Oxfam report, “Reward Work, Not Wealth”, which makes a range of recommendations to Governments and international institutions.
We are committed to working to reduce inequality and protecting human rights within the limit and range of our powers. We have already set concrete, time-bound targets to reduce inequality through the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, and we will publish our first delivery plan by April 2018. In this year’s draft budget, we set out proposals for a progressive income tax policy, allocated £179 million in 2018-19 through the attainment Scotland fund and increased funding for the national health service.
Beyond that, we are taking a wide range of actions to tackle poverty and inequality, including almost doubling the provision of free childcare by 2020, delivering at least 50,000 affordable homes over this parliamentary session and enacting the fairer Scotland duty from April 2018 to ensure that public bodies take due account of poverty and disadvantage whenever key decisions are made.
The report highlights growing global disparity between the richest and poorest in society, with 82 per cent of all the world’s wealth created in the past year going to the top 1 per cent and nothing going to the bottom 50 per cent. Oxfam calls on Governments to create more equal societies, aiding ordinary workers and smaller businesses. Can the Scottish Government set out how, with the limited powers that it has, it is moving Scotland towards a more egalitarian and a fairer society? Does the cabinet secretary agree that Scotland could be seen as an example for other countries around the world to follow?
The important point about leading by example was reflected in the comments made by Dr Katherine Trebeck, Oxfam’s senior researcher, who is based in Glasgow, when she said that
“our ideas can be big and they can resonate ... beyond our borders”.
For this Government, tackling inequality is not some optional extra; it is part and parcel of everything that we do. In addition to the actions that I outlined in my original response on how we are implementing and taking forward our duties under the new Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, we are taking clear action to close the wealth gap that is associated with gender-segregated roles and we are working hard to support carers. We are also investing in affordable housing through our labour market strategy and in the work that we do across Government to support inclusive growth in our economy.
Will the cabinet secretary expand on the key finding of the Oxfam report, that women are in the worst work and that almost all the super-rich are men? In a year that saw billionaires’ fortunes grow by $762 billion, women provided $10 trillion to the economy in unpaid care throughout the world. Although we might not be able to solve that global problem ourselves, will the Scottish Government set out how it is leading the way in closing the wealth gap that is associated with gender-segregated roles and in ensuring that caring is valued?
The Government is taking a number of actions. We are big supporters of family friendly working Scotland, a partnership between Working Families, which is a leading United Kingdom work-life balance organisation, Parenting Across Scotland and the Fathers Network Scotland. The raison d’être of that work is to support and promote the development of family-friendly workplaces, which will have a big impact on women—although not exclusively on women, as it is important for fathers and parents, too.
Fair pay is also at the heart of our planned expansion of early years and childcare provision, and we will enable payment of the living wage to all childcare staff delivering the funded entitlement by 2020. We are enabling carers and unpaid carers to be better supported to look after their own health and wellbeing, and the carer positive scheme is about supporting employers to support their employees who have caring responsibilities.
As Oxfam highlighted this week, the wealth gap is widening, including in Scotland. Meanwhile, the Government has cut funding to lifeline public services. Is the cabinet secretary aware that Dr Katherine Trebeck of Oxfam said yesterday that
“the strain of yawning inequality is also being felt in Scotland”,
and that she was quoted as saying:
“This isn’t a faraway crisis ... It’s grimly apparent that the inequality crisis is out of control”?
When will the cabinet secretary take the necessary steps to address the crisis here in Scotland, including by asking the richest in our society to pay their fair share in order to shift the balance of economic wealth to the many rather than the few?
It is important to recognise that the report focuses on worldwide inequality and makes a number of recommendations to Governments and international institutions. The report itself, in my reading, did not make any specific mention of Scotland, but we welcome it nonetheless.
It is fair to reflect that the recommendations would cut across both devolved and reserved powers. It is also important to recognise that 60 per cent of Scotland’s spending power is still dependent on Westminster decisions. Nevertheless, we are absolutely determined to utilise all the powers and opportunities that are available to the Scottish Government to address poverty and inequality in this country.
That is not just the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do, and it is reflected in our inclusive growth aspirations, our labour market strategy, our fair work commitments and the work that we will take forward to end child poverty. Children are poor because of the lack of income in their family or their household, which means that we will have to use all the powers at our disposal to tackle the structural inequality that exists in Scotland. We also look forward to receiving advice from the new, independent Poverty and Inequality Commission.