Portfolio Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at 12:51 pm on 23 January 2025.
Rona Mackay
Scottish National Party
12:51,
23 January 2025
To ask the Scottish Government what assessment it has made of any impact of the current cost of living crisis on the prevalence of food insecurity and reliance on food banks. (S6O-04249)
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Scottish National Party
The Scottish Government tracks food insecurity through the Scottish health survey. In 2023, results showed that 14 per cent of adults reported experiencing food insecurity, which is an increase from 9 per cent in 2021, and it is the highest level since the time series began in 2017. Younger adults were more likely to experience food insecurity than older adults, and adults who experience food insecurity have below-average life satisfaction and much lower levels of mental wellbeing.
Rona Mackay
Scottish National Party
Social security support, such as the Scottish child payment and best start foods, has helped Scottish households to secure, proportionately, the lowest food bank usage in the United Kingdom, but it is clear that efforts must be redoubled to remove the need for food banks entirely. How will the Cabinet secretary’s commitment to a cash-first approach contribute to tackling food insecurity in Scotland?
Shirley-Anne Somerville
Scottish National Party
Scotland is the first nation to publish a plan that works toward ending the need for food banks, and we are taking forward nine actions over three years to improve the response to crisis using a cash-first approach. That is backed up by investment of up to £1.8 million in the cash-first programme, which supports eight public sector and third sector partnerships to strengthen urgent access to cash in a crisis and reduce the need for food parcels. The Trussell Trust and the Independent Food Aid Network agree that that approach is right. We are determined to see what more we can do to ensure that we take a cash-first approach, because it is making a real difference to people by delivering a much more dignified response to an emergency.
Liam McArthur
Liberal Democrat
That concludes portfolio questions on social justice. There will be a brief pause before we move to the next item of business, to allow those on the front benches to change places.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
