Official Report 464KB pdf
I welcome everyone back. Our next agenda item is consideration of the “Brussels Bulletin”, which members have in their papers. I invite comments or questions on the “Brussels Bulletin”.
This is a comment more than a question. There are quite frightening statistics in the section on poverty and social exclusion, under the heading, “Health, Sport and Social Affairs”, which says that
“122.6 million people ... in the EU were at risk of poverty or social exclusion.”
Unfortunately, it does not go on to say what steps are being taken to alleviate that.
Is that something that you want to investigate?
I suppose that it is a general question. I would be interested in what all the institutions in the European Union are proposing to do about those fairly frightening figures.
I think that there is some work in the Europe 2020 strategy on that, so maybe we can look at it another time.
I made a comment at the previous meeting about the use of colour. Are we just using up the stationery that we have, or has no one bothered to note my comment about trying to save the planet by not using colour in the “Brussels Bulletin”?
I think that this is the format that the Parliament uses. It is to ensure that our publications are interesting, eye-catching and easy to read.
So it is okay to use the planet’s resources and extra money. We are not impressing anybody. Surely this is just an internal paper.
We can do it in black and white next time.
I would appreciate that.
I return to the issue of poverty, which Rod Campbell raised. Some of the figures are pretty frightening. According to the European Union’s own statistics, in 2010, 80 million people were, in the EU’s terminology, at risk of living in poverty and social exclusion; it is now 122 million.
According to a European Union document that I am looking at here, the target is to reduce the figure by 20 million over the next six years. That hardly seems ambitious, given the extent of the problem. I am not absolutely certain what our role might be, but I am interested in seeing what the committee can do to get a handle on the issue. I know that the European Union has strategies and initiatives to try to tackle it, but I would like to go into the issue in a bit more depth to see what is going on, what those initiatives are and how we can perhaps influence them a bit more than we have done to date.
The “Brussels Bulletin” says:
“In the UK, 24.8% of the population is at risk of poverty”
or social exclusion. Many of those people will be in poverty, never mind being “at risk of poverty”. At some future stage, perhaps the committee could do a broader paper on poverty issues and how they impact on communities, not just in Scotland but throughout the European Union. I would be very interested to do a wee bit more work on that.
The issue is embedded in the Europe 2020 strategy. It is something that we ordinarily look at in the committee anyway, but it is certainly an area that we can focus in on. I do not know whether there are briefings or anything else out there that would inform us.
I believe that the Poverty Alliance has done some work on the issue, so maybe we should get hold of its briefing and see whether it is an area that the committee can focus on.
We know that the prevalence of food banks has expanded ridiculously in the UK. I do not know what the position is in relation to food banks elsewhere in the European Union—I do not know whether other countries are experiencing the same problem. That is obviously connected to poverty. I would be very interested to get a European perspective on the matter.
We can check what the Poverty Alliance has got on the subject, and we can take it from there.
I agree with the points that Willie Coffey has made.
I will pick up on a couple of points in the “Employment, Skills and Education” section of the bulletin, starting with the mention of “work-related stress” and its links with the economic downturn. I would be interested to get a link to the report that is mentioned in the bulletin.
As regards the public sector in this country, an issue arises when thousands or even hundreds of thousands of jobs are lost, yet the same level of work continues, putting more pressure on those who are left. By and large, although there have been very few compulsory redundancies in the public sector, the people who leave, including those who leave on a voluntary redundancy basis, are not being replaced.
I know that the Scottish Government has been supporting a mental health first aid programme. I have asked whether there are any mental health first aid programmes in the Parliament and elsewhere, and there do not seem to be many. If I can, I would like to have a further look at that.
On the online platform that is mentioned in the paragraph on adult education, the Trades Union Congress was involved in a number of European pilot projects in that area. What involvement is there in Scotland in the programme that is described in the bulletin and online platforms? Could we get some research done on adult education programmes that we are involved in? I am sure that many of our colleges are involved.
I think that we could look into some of that. We could ascertain whether the Education and Culture Committee has done any work in that area, and we should specifically raise some of those issues with that committee.
As you know, there is a debate in the Parliament this afternoon on better workplace and employment practices. Trade unions have worked for many years on alleviating in-work stress, whether that is to do with the actual experience in the workplace or the experience of changes to jobs and so on. A good bit of work has probably been done on the issue, and it is probably worth looking at the report that is mentioned in the bulletin, which was from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions.
I have a general comment on the “EU budget” section of the report and the UK Government’s additional payment. I am assuming that, in the next edition of the “Brussels Bulletin”, we will at least get a European take on where we are with that now. For instance, when is a rebate not a rebate?
When it is an abatement, I think.
Are members happy with the “Brussels Bulletin”?
Members indicated agreement.
Are members happy to ensure that other committees get sight of it, and to raise some of the specific issues that Alex Rowley has suggested with the Education and Culture Committee?
Members indicated agreement.
We now move on to agenda item 4, which we have agreed to take in private.
10:39 Meeting continued in private until 10:52.Previous
Draft Budget Scrutiny 2015-16