Chamber and committees

I thank Mark Ruskell for his supplementary question. There has been engagement with the affected communities over the past few years. I visited communities in Bobbin Mill and heard about the effects of the tinker experiment directly from them.

The initiatives that we are taking, through the Gypsy Traveller action plan, for instance, are driving positive change in tackling inequality for communities across Scotland. In partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, we published our second joint action plan in September 2024, which set out concrete steps to improve outcomes for Gypsy Travellers. The voices of those communities and of key stakeholders helped to shape that plan. The plan acknowledges the improvements that have been made in many areas since the publication of the previous plan in 2019, but it recognises that more needs to be done.

Scotland’s public services, communities and economy all benefit from inward migration. The Scottish Government does not support the majority of the proposals in the UK Government’s immigration white paper and calls on the UK Government to reverse those deeply damaging measures. The decision to end international care worker recruitment and planned changes to the graduate visa and skilled worker visa are short-sighted and will prove damaging to sectors that necessarily rely on international talent.

Scotland’s working-age population is growing only because of migration. Scotland requires a tailored approach to migration to meet our distinct demographic and economic needs.

It is concerning that we have not heard anything from Scottish Labour on the plans, which are, frankly, designed by a Prime Minister simply to pander to Nigel Farage instead of considering any of Scotland’s demographic needs.

Scotland is a welcoming nation. One of the key principles that underpin our approach to migration is that we encourage people to come here, live here, raise their families here, contribute to the economy by working and make a positive contribution not only to our society but to our culture. Scotland will continue to actively welcome inward migration and recognise the benefits that it brings to our communities, public sector and economy.

Through our online platform, Scotland’s migration service, we will continue to attract talent to Scotland and address the barriers that are faced by migrants and employers when navigating the UK’s increasingly unsuitable immigration system.

I fully agree with the comments that were made by Scottish Care. The plan to end the international recruitment of care workers will be devastating for the care sector in Scotland.

I can confirm that the Scottish Government issued a comprehensive evidence-based proposal document to the Home Office during its development of the immigration white paper, but there has been no substantive engagement on any of the Scottish Government’s policy proposals, and the white paper completely fails to account for Scotland’s distinct demographic needs.

The ban on the international recruitment of care workers must not be implemented. Scotland is a welcoming nation, and one of the key principles that underpins our approach to migration is that we encourage and enable long-term settlement in Scotland, welcoming people from across the world to Scotland to work, raise families and make a positive contribution to society.

The welfare reforms set out in the United Kingdom Government’s “Pathways to Work” green paper make it clear that the UK Government has prioritised spending cuts over the welfare of sick and disabled people across the UK. The Scottish Government, however, is clear that the chancellor should not be looking to balance the books by targeting the benefits that sick and disabled people rely on. We strongly reject the welfare proposals, and we call on the UK Government to scrap them immediately.

I reaffirm that the Scottish Government aims to take a different approach to welfare, ensuring that everyone is treated with dignity, fairness and respect. As is set out in the new programme for government, we will offer enhanced support for disabled people to move into sustainable employment through specialist employability support from July 2025 onwards, and we have provided a £5 million uplift to support that.

We recognise the need for greater support for disabled people, including in employment. That is why we have committed an extra £2 million to our disability equality plan. We have also provided £5 million, through the equalities and human rights fund, to support people’s rights. Since 2018, we have invested £4.5 million through the workplace equality fund and a public social partnership to help employers tackle labour market barriers.

Learning from those initiatives is being shared to ensure that employers across Scotland can access tools and guidance to implement fair work and support disabled people to secure and sustain employment.

I thank Mr Balfour for his continued interest and for championing the issue, but I take issue with his view on the matter. We are investing £2.5 million in the disability equality plan, which is an increase of £2 million. That will drive meaningful change in the lives of disabled people.

Priorities have been informed by recent engagements with disabled people’s organisations, and we are working to align that investment with the areas that have been identified. We remain committed to listening to disabled people and ensuring that their voices shape the decisions and delivery of the funding.

That is a good question. There are two main strands to the work to increase accountability for human rights under the bill. The first involves establishing an approach that shares human rights leadership and responsibility among several bodies. We therefore propose expanding the powers and remits of a number of bodies, including the Scottish Human Rights Commission, the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland, the Scottish Public Services Ombudsman and other oversight bodies. Our hope is that that will strengthen their ability to provide accountability and support for human rights in Scotland.

The second strand of the work involves developing measures that will enable courts and tribunals to deliver effective and appropriate remedies when it is found that a duty bearer has failed in its duty under the bill regarding protected rights. Before the summer, we will publish a discussion paper that will set out in greater detail our approach to policy in the bill.

Thank you for that. I understand what you are getting at, and you have covered a lot of areas there.

To be very clear, the Scottish Government procures certain services from organisations, including in the third sector, and they are monitored. There is day-to-day funding governance through Inspiring Scotland, and third sector bodies are covered by the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator, so there is thorough scrutiny and governance.

At this time, there are certain groups of people, including transgender people, who are feeling particularly vulnerable. I have had questions from you about some of those organisations before. For instance, we fund a suicide helpline; the funding is there to provide a service that people need in order to be able to deal with mental health issues regarding their protected characteristics. We procure specific services in that regard, so it is not a question of funding any particular type of ideology.

I will bring in Cat McMeeken to give a little bit of further detail.

To give you a specific answer and make sure that we get it technically correct, I will pass that on to Cat McMeeken.