Chamber and committees

The equalities commission in Victoria has a specific role in the Victoria legislation to mediate, intervene and investigate. Could that work in Scotland? If so, who could play that role?

Thank you. I apologise for skipping ahead to the international stuff. I realised that I stopped the conversation on Pam Gosal’s question—I apologise for that.

My question has almost been answered by what has been said. In its submission, the Equality and Human Rights Commission talks about a

“harms-based approach, which disregards benign intent”.

Given what we have heard about the rapporteur’s definition of harm and the three prongs, we could make an assumption, but how would you define “benign intent”?

I thank the witnesses for the information that they have provided, which has been really helpful. Both of the sessions this morning have been excellent.

My questions are on the same issue that we have been discussing. We heard earlier that affirmative practice is about non-judgmental practice, very much in the circumstances that you have just described around therapy settings. Are the current training and support for therapists adequate to ensure that people can provide that non-judgmental approach? If the training is adequate, that is great. If not, what intervention is needed to help us to move in that direction, given the importance that you have ascribed to the memorandum of understanding and training practices?

That was really helpful—thank you.

You have talked about the need for investigative powers. We have heard in various submissions about the approach in Australia. In particular, Victoria has legislation on the issue and has given the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission powers to investigate, monitor, intervene and so on. Could that approach work in Scotland? Is there a body with which we could lay such powers? Where should the powers lie?

Thank you. That is helpful. Convener, would you mind if I just followed on with the international question? I know that it is a bit further down the list, but it relates to the point about Victoria.

Thank you for coming along. What is the panel’s assessment of trends in child poverty in Scotland, the likelihood that we will meet the targets, and whether you think there is any way other than by using social security to meet the targets?

Thank you for allowing me to come back in, convener.

The answers were really helpful. I have two brief follow-up questions. First, would doubling the child payment as soon as possible—as in, now—and again next year have an impact on meeting the targets? Secondly, on the point about social housing, are we currently targeting such housing at the right families in Scotland?

Thank you, minister, for drawing the matter to our attention. I see no reason why we should not support the LCM. In fact, I think that if we do not, we will deny payments to some individuals. I agree that a legislative consent motion is the right thing at this time.

We are constantly hearing about additional changes to benefits; this morning we heard from a number of poverty organisations strong evidence that we need to be doing things around eligibility for disability benefits and carers benefits sooner rather than later. We hear consistently that the system is almost at capacity in terms of safe and secure delivery of the benefits that we are already delivering. Is now the time to look at capacity in the system, and to consider what additional resources might be needed?

Thank you, convener, for giving me another one, because I know that I have asked a number already.

I want to put on record that I think that the £20 uplift to universal credit was necessary, because we had the lowest level of social security in decades. To take that away will leave families completely destitute: they will be unable to buy food and so on. Everyone has made the point about how serious that is and the decision must be reversed. I also think that not extending it to legacy benefits was discrimination. Chris Birt’s point about disabled people still going hungry is absolutely key, and the uplift should have been applied to those benefits.

I am getting quite frustrated with both Governments giving the answer that to start doing work on certain things would be logistically difficult or impossible because of IT systems—we hear that quite a bit. There is an urgent need to act to put money in people’s pockets now, given everything that we have heard. As a result of the universal credit cut, something like 4,000 children in Scotland might no longer qualify for the Scottish child payment. Can you think of any mechanism that we could use so that those 4,000 children retain their eligibility and can continue to access the Scottish child payment?

In the same vein, is there anything else that we can do with the social security powers in Scotland to improve the incomes of families across Scotland?