Chamber and committees

It is a pleasure to open the debate on behalf of Scottish Labour. I welcome the chance to highlight the report to Parliament and to highlight the important role that improved parental employability has to play in our fight against child poverty.

Tackling poverty, and in particular child poverty, is a mission that is broadly shared across the Parliament. Indeed, in many instances we have worked across the chamber to act in that area, not least by setting ambitious targets for the reduction of child poverty by 2030 and on the introduction of the Scottish child payment, which Labour had long called for and backed. It is no secret—we have already heard it said—that our actions need to go further and faster if we are to tackle child poverty and meet those ambitious 2030 targets. We need to recognise that there are concerns that we might fall short of those targets and of the interim targets that the Government has set.

Supporting parental employment as a mechanism to tackle poverty, which the report highlights, is just one of the areas in which we can go further and faster. I became a member of the Parliament’s Social Justice and Social Security Committee halfway through the inquiry.

If the cabinet secretary would let me make just a little progress, I will come back to her.

I joined the Social Justice and Social Security Committee as it was progressing through its inquiry, and I was not able to go on the committee visits, but I heard evidence from representatives of a number of leading organisations, who spoke about the work that needs to be done to support people back into work, in order to develop a strong economy. A lot of concern was raised about budgetary decisions that have been made, and we have to consider the promised £53 million in funding for employability schemes and the complete scrapping of the parental transition fund. That was seriously concerning, and it was raised by a number of the organisations that gave evidence during the inquiry.

We should also look to the research by One Parent Families Scotland, which has put on record the difficulties that families have experience in not being able to afford essentials.

IPPR spoke about

“a massive chasm between the overall number of people being reached by current employability programmes and those who are supported into work.”—[Official Report, Social Justice and Social Security Committee, 15 June 2023; c 25.]

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has highlighted that one in 10 Scots is in persistent low pay. As we know, women are particularly impacted by that, as they are more likely to be single parents.

Good morning. In the opening remarks and through the conversation, we have spoken about PrEP, which it is important for us to consider further. The Scottish Government has been developing an online PrEP clinic, which would allow people to order the medication without having to go through specialists, as we heard. I ask the witnesses to provide an update on the progress of that.

Thank you for that very comprehensive overview for the committee. Members might not always have been fully aware of the issues.

I do not know whether anyone else wants to add anything, but I was wondering, Dr Howe, whether you have a view on rurality and, say, the Highland area and the impact of this approach with regard to getting the service out more widely in a geographically challenging area.

Does anyone else want to comment on either of those issues?

That was really helpful, and you have, I think, raised an important point about capacity more broadly, and about building the capacity that will underpin these services.

In relation to harder-to-reach groups, Dr Howe mentioned people who feel inhibited to access PrEP for many reasons. I know that the Terrence Higgins Trust has looked in some detail at the transgender community, intravenous drug users, heterosexual men who have sex with men, and black and minority ethnic populations. How do we encourage greater access for those groups?

Good morning. In the first evidence session, I was particularly interested to hear about PrEP and to hear people’s views on the progress of the online clinic proposals. There are wider views about how that online service could enhance the reach of PrEP. We will go on to talk about people who still feel excluded from PrEP or who face stigma.

Who wants to come in first, with an overview?

That is useful for us to hear, following the earlier conversation. It is something for the committee to consider.

Does anyone else want to comment?

Thank you. That is helpful to our consideration.

The bill would also clarify the actions that a tribunal and ministers can take in a process appeal. The committee is keen to understand the advantages and disadvantages of having different procedures for challenging process decisions and other decisions. Does Richard Gass or Diane Connock have a view on that?