Achieving a Fairer Scotland

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 4 December 2019.

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Photo of Sarah Boyack Sarah Boyack Labour

This debate has been a great chance for us to look at what has been achieved and what more needs to be done to deliver a fairer Scotland. As Pauline McNeill said in her opening speech, which has been repeated by colleagues across the parties, we must not forget the reality of inequality and poverty in our own communities: 14,000 more children became homeless in the past year alone, so much more needs to be done.

We need to look at the detail in the report that was published yesterday. As several people have said, let us look at the checklist of what is being done, which is not yet enough. What has the Scottish Government learned from its gender pay ratios? How does it propose to ensure both flexibility and stability for workers? Why has the returners project, which was intended to bring experienced women back into the workforce after a career break and was due to launch in 2016, been delayed?

Given that the Government says that it has already met its target to reduce youth unemployment by 40 per cent by 2021, what will happen next? How will the Government ensure that that figure is not only maintained but reduced further? Without a UK Labour Government, we will not see the big increases in the Scottish budget that we urgently need—the £10 billion a year that would come to us. Finally, in terms of detailed questions, let us look at the commitment on the Young Scot transport card. It is now a smart card, but it does not give free transport for young people up to the age of 25. The targets need to be tough and they need to be pursued properly.

Last week, we debated violence against women, and I and others highlighted the fact that it is both a cause and a consequence of gender inequality. While we are still in the 16 days of action against violence against women, it is good to hear speakers from different parties talking about the centrality of eradicating inequality for women by tackling the quality of part-time and flexible jobs and making them available and attractive to everyone.

I ask colleagues to look at the work being done by Timewise to produce an updated flexible jobs index for Scotland in 2020. That will give us a new benchmark of the ratio of quality jobs open to flexible or part-time working and it will let us look at whether employers are building flexible working into the hire process. That is the opposite of the gig economy and insecure work—something tangible that will improve women’s lives.

As the cabinet secretary and others in the chamber have mentioned, far too many children in Scotland are living in poverty. Strikingly, the number who are living in families where one parent is in work is rising. That cannot be right. Steps such as committing to the rights contained in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child are positive and, as outlined by the UN special rapporteur, make a real difference for children living in poverty. However, what is key is to ensure that those measures are not just good rhetoric but are upheld, implemented and acceptable.

We cannot support the Tory amendment because it deletes the reference to the UN special rapporteur’s report. How can we ignore the austerity and the £3.7 billion of welfare cuts that are hitting families across Scotland?

Social security cuts, such as the despicable two-child cap, leave families and children to struggle. We welcome the introduction of the Scottish child payment but worry about the 58,000 six-year-olds who will lose out on the Scottish child payment when they turn seven. The payment for all children has not yet been introduced.

Inequality from birth is becoming more and more difficult to overcome. For example, the attainment gap in education between the wealthiest and poorest children is stagnant, with a gap between the two groups equivalent to three years’ worth of education. As many members have commented, we need a future workforce that is skilled in STEM to help us to tackle the climate emergency. However, the figures that were released today show an attainment gap in science of 98 points between the richest students and the poorest. Yesterday’s PISA results are deeply disappointing.

Our amendment calls for—and Scottish Labour believes in—a joined-up approach to tackling the climate emergency. The need for that approach was acknowledged by the cabinet secretary and it has to run across everything so that, by 2030, we have not just achieved our climate target, but dealt with the growing inequalities and insecurities that people face across Scotland through a lack of jobs and investment.

We need low-carbon community infrastructure now, to deliver on fuel poverty and deliver community benefits and warm homes for everyone. The transition to net zero by 2045 has to be guided by a just transition commission that is statutory, independent of Government and long term, so that the right voices are heard and no one is left behind.

The debate has enabled people to dig into the detail and look at the bigger principles. If the aims of the fairer Scotland action plan are commendable, its impact is critical. Pauline McNeill said that we have to ensure that we do not see an increase in poverty despite the progress that has been made. That must cut right across Government. We would not be doing our jobs as parliamentarians if we did not hold the Scottish Government to account. Although there has been progress, poverty in Scotland has increased. Scottish Labour would take a very different approach—a more ambitious one—from both the Scottish Government and the UK Government, to initiate not just a shift in wealth but a shift in power, in order to bring about long-term change for the many, not the few.

At decision time, we will support the Green amendment alongside ours, as both of them add to the Scottish Government’s motion. We are critical, but we are prepared to be constructive and to work together. Many members have commented that the UK Tory welfare policies are pushing people into poverty, and we will absolutely not support the Tory amendment today.