Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 2:30 pm on 20 June 2024.
Pam Gosal
Conservative
2:30,
20 June 2024
To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle poverty in black and minority ethnic households. (S6O-03611)
Kaukab Stewart
Scottish National Party
Despite Scotland receiving the most challenging settlement in the history of devolution in last year’s United Kingdom Government budget, the Scottish Government is doing all that it can to prioritise investment to tackle and reduce poverty here, including investment that will benefit black and minority ethnic households. That includes committing £6.3 billion for social security benefits and payments, investing nearly £600 million to support the delivery of affordable homes and providing more than £370 million to enable free bus travel for more than 2 million people. In addition, our anti-racist employment strategy seeks to reduce income inequality for racialised minorities by supporting employers to address barriers so that people from such minorities can enter, progress in and stay in employment.
Pam Gosal
Conservative
According to the Coalition for Racial Equality and Rights, underemployment disproportionately affects black and minority ethnic communities, with underemployment severely contributing to the growing proportion of families in in-work poverty. What is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that high-quality and secure work is made available for people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds?
Kaukab Stewart
Scottish National Party
I have already referred to the Government’s anti-racist employment strategy, which I believe is having an impact. It sets out the actions that the Scottish Government will take to reduce employment inequalities for racialised minorities. They include evaluation of the minority ethnic recruitment toolkit that we published in 2020, and the development of an anti-racist workplace training framework. The impact of those actions will be measured through the evidence plan for the fair work action plan, to ensure that they support our ambition of becoming a fair work nation.
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