Chamber and committees

Thank you, members. I invite the members of our panel to introduce themselves, briefly. We will go from left to right, as I see it.

Thank you. Once again, you are very welcome.

I know that you are supported by other members of your group in the public gallery; we welcome them, too. I recognise their input in enabling us to be in this position today.

I understand that John is going to make an opening statement and that each of you is then going to read out a question—or questions—that you would like the committee to put to the Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees in our session later this morning.

John, I invite you to begin your statement.

Thank you—that was very helpful.

To reassure you, Afam, I should say that your question will be asked by my colleague Fulton MacGregor, who is on his way to the Parliament as we speak. He will be coming in a little way through the meeting, before the minister starts—he is just running late.

We have a few minutes left. Would the witnesses like to comment further? From the committee’s point of view, we are particularly interested in whether the Parliament can do anything more to support citizens such as yourselves to be able to talk confidently about budget provisions. Is there anything further that can be done in that respect? If you do not have an answer just now, that is okay, but please do feed back to us on that.

While you think about that, I will ask my other question. How could more people get involved in this work? How could we enable that to happen? Afam, you indicated that you would like to say something.

Thank you—that was a very helpful and valuable insight. You are correct that the Parliament is built on the principles of transparency and accountability. I know that MSPs walk past the meeting rooms, so your point about having the door open, so that they can walk in and listen directly, is a powerful one, and thank you for making it.

I see that Fulton MacGregor has joined us. Fulton, I will give you just a couple of minutes to find your feet. You will be asking Justine’s question. Would you like any further information from Justine about why the panel picked it? That is what the other committee members have been asking, but you do not have to, as we are coming to the end of this session.

That will be great. Thank you very much.

We move on to questions from Maggie Chapman.

Under agenda item 3, we will continue our pre-budget scrutiny. I welcome to the meeting Emma Roddick, Minister for Equalities, Migration and Refugees; Rob Priestley, head of the mainstreaming and strategy unit in the directorate of equality, inclusion and human rights at the Scottish Government; and Fi Robertson, head of the Scottish budget team in the directorate of budget and public spending in the Scottish Government.

I refer members to paper 3.

As you will be aware, minister, the committee has been engaging with a citizens panel from the whole family equality project as part of our participatory approach to pre-budget scrutiny. In our previous evidence session, representatives from the panel, who are now seated in the gallery behind you, gave us some questions that they would like us to ask you. We will go straight into asking those questions now. I make it clear that we will ask the questions on behalf of the whole panel, but committee members will say who introduced each question in our previous session.

We have agreed who will ask each question on behalf of a panel member, and the minister will then respond. I am sure that it will go very well. I put on the record that the questions that we will ask on behalf of the members of the panel are verbatim as we think it is very important that their voices are put front and centre in this pre-budget scrutiny session.

In the light of that, I will kick off with a question that comes not from me, but from Erika, who asks:

“The panel think it’s important that Scottish Government ministers work together to find ways to close the poverty gap without people having to rely on charities and social security payments. Keeping the Promise is one way that children and families can be supported, but it must be delivered by a diverse workforce. Can the minister explain how she is working with the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise to ensure that the Promise considers, reflects and supports the cultural and ethnic diversity of all of Scotland’s children?”

We move to Fulton MacGregor.

I have some questions. In previous years, and this year, stakeholders have told the committee about a lack of connection between policy and budget documents and have voiced concerns about the lack of meaningful detail in the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement. The Scottish Government’s response to recommendations from the equality and human rights budget advisory group includes a commitment to better align the programme for government and the budget process.

In that context, minister, can you explain how the committee’s previous concerns about a lack of clarity between documents will be addressed in the coming budget round and how the equalities assessment process will influence that? That concern comes not only from the committee but from the citizens panel, whose members we spoke to earlier, because that lack of connection has been raised at community level. The average citizen does not always see the connection between the decisions that are made and the direct impact that those have on their lives and communities. How will you address that?

I want to get a wee bit of further reassurance about the Scottish Government’s commitment to implementing the equality and human rights budget advisory group’s recommendations—in the interest of inclusivity, I do not use just initials, so that we all know what it is.

Will the minister explain the funding implications of implementing the recommendations? Are they significant or process-driven changes that can be met within existing budgets?

I have a wee follow-up question, which you might not be able to answer today. Retrospective analysis came up in our discussions with the citizens panel. Citizens asked what work is done, after budgets are set and policy is followed, to analyse the impact and see whether the money reached the right people. I am fully prepared for the fact that you might not have answers today, but it would be good to hear what work the Government does on impact analysis.