Chamber and committees

Funding under the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund is for specific project work and not for core funding organisations. Organisations do not need to disclose details of any trade union recognition agreements in their funding application.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling pay inequality. Applicants applying to the Promoting Equality and Cohesion Fund (PECF) were asked whether or not the organisation is an Accredited Living Wage Employer, and if the organisation pays all staff employed using Scottish Government funding the Living Wage or above. Although organisations do not need to be accredited to pay the Living Wage nor need to pay all their staff at least the Living Wage, the Scottish Government has received assurances from organisations in receipt of PECF that staff salaries paid from this funding stream are paid at least the Living Wage.

It is for NHS Boards as employers to manage individual staffing issues locally, but the Scottish Government has been clear in its communication with Boards that staff should suffer no detriment where they were unable to get to work during the recent red weather warning.

Absolute child poverty has been broadly stable in the last five years, in Scotland as well as in the UK. Absolute child poverty in Scotland has been roughly 5 percentage points lower (22%) than in the UK (27%) for the last decade.

However, there is no room for complacency when it comes to tackling child poverty. That is why the Scottish Government brought forward the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, establishing us as the only part of the UK with ambitious statutory child poverty targets, including an absolute poverty target.

Our landmark publication Every Child, Every Chance: the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan is the next crucial step to delivering on our ambition to end child poverty. It sets out our proposals for increasing family incomes and reducing household costs to meet the targets and is backed by a further £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund.

The persistent poverty figures were released as experimental statistics, and the data is still under development. The small differences in pensioner poverty between countries and over time may not reflect actual differences.

The Scottish Government is committed to ensuring a thriving third age for all older people. That is why the Fairer Scotland Action Plan committed to bringing forward a financial health check service with an older people strand: in order to maximise incomes in retirement and boost uptake of Pension Credit and Council Tax Reduction Scheme. We also offer a range of schemes under the Home Energy Efficiency Programmes for Scotland (HEEPS) to support people, including pensioners, who have difficulty in keeping their homes warm. This is on top of our ongoing commitment to free prescriptions and free personal care.

Before housing costs, relative child poverty rates are now similar in Scotland and UK (both 19%), whereas after housing costs, Scotland (24%) continues to maintain a 6 percentage point lower child poverty rate than the UK (30%).

However, there is no room for complacency when it comes to tackling child poverty. That is why the Scottish Government brought forward the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017, establishing us as the only part of the UK with ambitious statutory child poverty targets. Housing is a significant – and unavoidable – household cost, which is why our child poverty targets take that into account.

Our landmark publication Every Child, Every Chance: the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan is the next crucial step to delivering on our ambition to end child poverty. It sets out our proposals for increasing family incomes and reducing household costs to meet the targets and is backed by a further £50 million Tackling Child Poverty Fund.

The Scottish Government is committed to tackling poverty amongst households where someone has a disability. That’s why Every Child, Every Chance: the Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan focuses on priority families who are at higher risk of poverty, including those with a disabled adult or child. The final chapter of the Plan sets out an assessment of how each substantive action benefits these families and which of the main drivers it tackles.

For example, the Plan sets out our intention to announce our next steps on action to reduce by more than half the disability employment gap at the Congress on Disability Employment and the Workplace on 30th April.

In 2017-18, the Equality Representative Development Programme has enabled 18 reps to develop their leadership skills in the workplace and to progress to the accredited TUC-led Equality Representative course.

Other than those supported through the Equality Representative Development Programme the Scottish Government do not hold information on the number of trade union reps or the training programmes which those reps have undertaken.

Public bodies cannot make the payment of the real Living Wage or signing the Scottish Business Pledge a condition of contract award. However, all public bodies, including Directorates of the Scottish Government, are required to have regard to the Statutory Guidance on Addressing Fair Work Practices, including the Living Wage, in Procurement in all relevant contracts. In doing so, consideration must be given to whether it is relevant to seek a commitment from suppliers to adopt Fair Work practices, which can include paying the real Living Wage and elements of the Scottish Business Pledge.

A recent trawl has shown that the real Living Wage is paid to workers engaged in the delivery of 94% of Scottish Government contracts and although pleasing, we will strive towards 100%.

15% of suppliers contracted by the Scottish Government have signed the Scottish Business Pledge. On 9 March 2018 Scottish Ministers wrote to Scottish Government suppliers who were not yet Pledge businesses to encourage them to commit to the Scottish Business Pledge.

We do not hold the details sought in relation to local authority contracts.

The Scottish Government’s Statutory Guidance on Addressing Fair Work Practices, including the Living Wage in Procurement (2015), requires public bodies to consider how they can address Fair Work as part of procurement exercises.

We expect all public bodies to promote Fair Work in all procurement processes, and suppliers delivering public contracts, to adopt appropriate and demonstrable Fair Work practices, such as ensuring workers have access to trade union representation.

Furthermore, we expect public bodies to monitor whether Fair Work practices are continuing to be applied throughout the duration of the contract.