Chamber and committees

Jatin or Danny, is there anything that either of you would like to add?

Thank you, convener.

We invited a variety of witnesses to today’s meeting, representing different minority ethnic groups. Would you say that the policy development distinguishes between different minority ethnic groups? I will give an example. What works for a Sikh woman is likely to be different from what works for a Gypsy Traveller woman. I am curious about whether that distinction is being made enough. Do you think that a one-size-fits-all approach to creating policies should be taken?

Danny Boyle, you talked about the Sikh Sanjog funding disappearing. I was notified about that last week—it is very disappointing. What a Sikh woman needs is very different from what a Muslim woman, a Gypsy Traveller woman, a Chinese woman or a Jewish woman needs. They are all different. That is what I see, given my background and the fact that I represent many women here. How do you feel about that, Danny? Should policy development distinguish between different ethnic minorities?

You talked about facing racism every hour, Pervin. I have spoken to people about that and I come from an Asian background. Racism is there and people sometimes ignore it. We are parliamentarians and this is a committee. The Scottish Government will be listening as well. What more can we do to stop racism? How can we build trust with the criminal justice system and the Scottish Government so that people, whether they are refugees, asylum seekers or born here, can come and speak to us about it? It is not acceptable in the 21st century.

It is similar, but it is a slightly different subject.

Pinar Aksu, I saw the protests that you mentioned on television. I was not there, but it was terrifying to watch some of the words that came out of people’s mouths. That is happening in Scotland. I was born here, and I would think it disgusting if that happened to me or to anybody else around me. My question is on hate crime. Recent hate crime statistics reveal that racism is the most commonly reported hate crime, but there is a lack of data collection on race, particularly in criminal justice. Why do you think that is, and what effect, if any, do you think that that has on the ability to tackle racist hate crime?

I have a question about what you just said. You and Jatin Haria talked about how there is not enough implementation, and you have just spoken about how mentoring is one of the actions that could be taken. Is that being done by the Government or by third sector organisations, or are you asking for mentoring for those females so that they can get jobs and be understood and flexible?

Good morning. I welcome languages week.

There are no versions of the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement in other languages, so many communities and individuals will be unable to see for themselves whether the Scottish Government is delivering on priority areas. Have you done any community outreach work, initiatives or engagement with communities in languages other than English?

I would welcome your looking at that because, obviously, Scotland is so diverse, with many people from different countries. Not everybody can speak the English language, and it is important that the Scottish Parliament sets an example of being accessible to all, including those who do not speak English or understand how budget setting is done.

Thank you for that response, minister. Obviously, the committee listens to the evidence that comes before us, and that evidence was given to us last year. You know that I am a big supporter of women, just as many people in the Parliament are, so I probed Angela O’Hagan just last week on that issue, which was brought up last year, and she made it very clear. If you get a chance to listen to her response, you will hear that it was very articulate and quite detailed. I hope that the minister welcomes that and will speak to Angela O’Hagan and Susan McKellar to see what the issues are.

Even though I said at the beginning of this session that I welcome the work that you are doing, if those people are voicing concerns in committee and if we are the people’s Parliament, as you said, we really need to listen to them and consider why they think that women have not been listened to.

I welcome the work involving women that the Scottish Government is doing and that the minister has mentioned. However, we cannot ignore the issues that we have heard in evidence in this committee. In the pre-budget scrutiny last year, we learned from Susan McKellar that women’s organisations had asked to be involved in the budget process in more depth but were told “No” because of time constraints around the budget. We then learned from Professor Angela O’Hagan in the budget scrutiny session just last week that women were not heard in the budget-setting process. After hearing that evidence in the committee, from last year and this year, I am extremely worried. Is the Scottish Government ignoring women?

I have one more question, which is on a different topic.

I was contacted by a black, Asian and minority ethnic women’s organisation—I will not mention the name. As you know, a lot of work is being done and there are a lot of issues around domestic violence, which you talked about earlier. The group contacted me to say that funding has been cut and that not all organisations get fair funding. Some of those organisations deliver in areas that the Government cannot reach. I have seen that myself in going out to those communities.

Is there anything that you can highlight in that regard? I will have a meeting with that organisation and come back to you, but is there any issue that you are aware of? Last week, funding from the Government for some BAME communities was suddenly cut and that organisation now has funding issues.