Chamber and committees

The pandemic has demonstrated the true value of social care, despite the low pay that is endemic throughout the sector. Social care workers have been at the forefront of caring for and protecting our loved ones who have been most vulnerable to Covid-19. Will the Government show that it is serious about investing in social care by delivering an immediate uplift to £12 per hour for social care workers?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it plans to allocate additional funding in its forthcoming budget to provide pay increases for front-line public sector workers. (S6O-00345)

This question is probably for Beth Watts. Do you think that the rapid rehousing transition plans are well enough resourced?

It gives me great pleasure to speak in today’s debate. The devolution of welfare powers gives us the chance to shape the kind of society that we want to be, and to restore dignity and respect to the heart of the social security system.

However, we now know that the delay on the SNP’s part has only halted progress and has potentially affected benefit take-up in Scotland. Covid-19 has hit low-income families and the most vulnerable people disproportionately hard, and it has deepened poverty and dragged more families into financial insecurity. Today, half of families who are in poverty have a member who is a disabled person. Even before the pandemic, child poverty rates were high and were projected to rise further.

Over the next decade, Scotland must be bold and willing to use the full levers of power in order to transform, if we are to meet our target on child poverty and live up to our ambitions of being a nation that respects, protects and fulfils human rights, and one in which we can all achieve our potential.

We can start with the Scottish child payment, which has continued to be on the minds of members thanks to the efforts of my friend and colleague Pam Duncan-Glancy. Just over a quarter of children in Scotland live in poverty—260,000 children right now, in 2021. That should shame us all. We talk a lot, but Parliament needs to get seriously ambitious for Scotland’s children. Let us raise the Scottish child payment to £40 a week. Let us ensure that every kid in Scotland has a good quality of life without the people who love them having to worry about where the money is coming from.

Even with full roll-out, the Scottish Government is likely to miss its interim child poverty target by 6 per cent, thereby leaving an extra 50,000 children in poverty. From the end of furlough to the cruel cut to universal credit, thanks to the Tories and the Scottish Government’s delays in rolling out and increasing the Scottish child payment, Scottish families’ incomes have been squeezed when they are already having to deal with the economic shock of the pandemic. We can and must do better.

People who have lifelong conditions look at Parliament and ask how we are going to defend them. For example, people who have multiple sclerosis are looking for hope. The MS Society, Labour and many other organisations are all calling for removal of the 20m rule from the proposed adult disability payment assessment. The Scottish Government is replacing the personal independence payment with the ADP and has, for the new benefit, retained the PIP eligibility criteria, including the 20m rule, in its assessment criteria. In 2021, a Citizens Advice Scotland survey found that a majority of advisors working to help people with disabilities to navigate the social security system agreed that the distance should be extended to 50m.

Fatigue, both physical and mental, is one of the most debilitating symptoms of MS and other neurological conditions, and the rule does not consider the severity of the fatigue that many people experience after walking 20m. I would therefore be grateful if the Government could respond to the concerns that have been raised by people who have MS. Is the Government prepared to change the eligibility criteria? Those who claim the disability payment deserve dignity and respect.

The social security system that is shaped in Parliament must ensure that no one is held back by poverty and inequality. Scottish Labour would use the powers that we have in Scotland to make sure that people have the support that they need in order to participate fully in society. The social security system that Labour would build would secure the wellbeing and human rights of everyone, and it would seek to guarantee a minimum income standard that no one would fall below. Having a strong and adequate automated SSS would lead to a higher level of uptake. Scottish Labour would build a social security system based on the principles of adequacy, respect and simplicity.

Those are the principles that will guide me as we come together to shape our social security system for Scotland and ensure that it works for all.

What percentage of BME families with children are claiming the new Scottish child payment?

I can see that Satwat Rehman is shaking her head.

On a point of order.

I had connection issues as well. I would have voted yes.

According to the annual population survey, which was published last week, underemployment has increased in 22 local authority areas, and as many as 219,100 people are underemployed across Scotland. The city of Edinburgh faces one of the largest increases across the year.

Underutilisation in our labour market will stop Scotland’s economic recovery. Underemployment normally rises in recessions, because part-time work is second best for people who want full-time work during such times. How many full-time work opportunities is the Government creating from its national transition training fund?

Presiding Officer,

“Police Scotland should halt its Sri Lanka training program until the Sri Lankan government and police demonstrate a willingness to reform”.

That is a direct quote from Yasmine Ahmed, the UK director of Human Rights Watch.

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle the reported increase in underemployment. (S6O-00243)

I support the amendment in Alex Rowley’s name.

There can be no doubt that Scotland has a proud record to look back on. Since 2005, successive Scottish Governments have, through a specific international development fund, built a development programme to support and empower partner countries, including Malawi, Rwanda, Zambia and Pakistan. We have seen that programme contribute to progress made in tackling rising inflation, investing in local health services, improving food security and increasing access to financial services and schemes to support young people back into school, such as the Pakistan Scottish scholarship scheme for school children.

However, there can be no doubt that more can be done, particularly in the fight against Covid-19. It is clear that, although cases of Covid-19 are declining in Scotland and much of the west, we still have tens of millions of people without a first dose of the vaccine, which poses a threat to us all from possible new mutations and strains of the virus. As we recover, as a country of evident wealth, technology and manufacturing, we should be at the forefront in assisting the many citizens across the world who are still waiting for that first shot of the vaccine.

This is a time when we can show our country’s values and tell the world who we really are, and we did—or, at least, the UK Government did, by making a huge cut to international development at a time of international crisis. Conservative Party members should hang their heads in shame.

The research group Airfinity stated that there are now a “staggering” number of stockpiled “use now” jabs, which will be of no use to anyone by December. In its research, the group also predicted that, by the end of September this year, 7 billion vaccine doses would have been available around the world, with that number rising to 12 billion by December. Although it is good news that more supply is available, if our Government will not take the actions that are needed to prevent a new global outbreak, we are heading for a vaccine waste disaster.

The crucial issue now is how and where the vaccines will be distributed. If there is no plan, and if no agreement is drawn up urgently, many lives in the poorest nations on the planet will be lost needlessly. It is unthinkable that more than 100 million vaccine doses will have to be thrown away from the stockpiles of rich countries while the populations of the world’s poorest countries will pay, in lives lost, for our vaccine waste.

In Scotland and the UK, we need to up our game. In government, Scottish Labour would, of course, maintain the international development programme, including an increase in the climate justice fund, and improve its effectiveness. That includes strengthening safeguarding standards and improving transparency. Defeating Covid-19 requires international co-operation, and Scottish Labour is committed to the global effort to guarantee that everyone has equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines and treatments. We will not be safe until we are all protected.

Scotland can play a role in a range of international issues, including human rights, migration, refugees, global public health and climate change, as well as help to inform public and policy debate. Scottish Labour would support the establishment of a Scottish council for global affairs, which would be much more effective than the current system. By drawing on Scotland’s academic centres of excellence, as well as civic society and businesses, that body would serve as an independent repository of expertise on international affairs, and help to enhance knowledge of international affairs within Scotland.

I end my contribution by reflecting on the values that we hold with regard to human rights. I am deeply concerned by the Scottish Government’s poor stance on Police Scotland’s provision of training to the police forces of countries such as Sri Lanka, where those forces have engaged in human rights abuses and repression. In recent months, the Sri Lankan police have allegedly been responsible for torture and extrajudicial killings and have been implicated in a large pattern of such abuses over many years, despite receiving Police Scotland training on an almost continuous basis since 2013.