Chamber and committees

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would have voted yes.

I am pleased to come to the chamber today to debate this LCM. As I recently noted to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I have a responsibility to ensure that legislation impacting on the devolved social security system is fully compatible with our principles and ethos. I am also mindful of the practical implications of any legislative changes and how they might impact on the safe and secure transition of benefits. I have scrutinised the bill and the ramifications carefully, and have engaged with the UK Government. I now recommend consent in a number of areas.

On entry, search and seizure, the provisions will allow the Department for Work and Pensions to apply to a sheriff for a warrant to enter premises and to search for and seize items when investigating serious cases of fraud. Currently, the DWP requires the police to undertake that action on its behalf. I am content that nothing in those provisions runs contrary to the ethos and principles underpinning our devolved social security system.

Regarding the provisions on data gathering, the UK Government has broadly mirrored the approach that was pioneered in our devolved social security system, and because of that, and because the provisions in the bill contain similar safeguards and exemptions in respect of third sector organisations, I am content to recommend consent.

On eligibility verification measures, the provisions in the bill will allow the DWP to require organisations such as banks and financial institutions to provide data to establish an individual’s entitlement to benefits and to identify incorrect payments. It will be of reassurance to the Parliament today, I hope, to know that the UK Government has confirmed in writing that there is no intention to include devolved benefits within the scope of that measure, now or in the future.

On changes to administrative penalties, there is no equivalent to administrative penalties within the devolved system, so I am therefore content to recommend consent.

Overpayment recovery is an important aspect of the bill. Although the provisions on that were referred to in the memorandum accompanying the motion, the Scottish Government did not take a position on consent. That was to allow for due consideration of the impact of those provisions on Scottish clients and for on-going discussions with the UK Government.

I fully recognise the duty of Governments to ensure that overpayments are recovered, wherever it is reasonable to do so, but that cannot be at the expense of our values and ethos. As I confirmed to the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, I have concluded that it would not be appropriate to recommend consent for the overpayment recovery provisions. Those provisions allow for the direct recovery from bank accounts with no need for a court order and for the potential suspension of driving licences. No such provisions exist within the devolved system, and I do not consider them compatible with the ethos of fairness, dignity and respect. I have confirmed that position in writing to UK ministers, who have confirmed that they will seek to amend the bill such that devolved benefits are removed from the scope of those provisions.

The Scottish Government did not see the full provisions of the bill until it was introduced on 22 January 2025, which meant that normal timeframes for lodging this legislative consent memorandum could not be met. As a result, and due to the on-going engagement that is still required to understand where the bill and its numerous amendments will impact on Scotland, I confirm that there will be a requirement to lodge a supplementary LCM for the bill in due course. I will, at that time, be happy to provide a fuller update on the overpayment recovery provisions as part of that supplementary LCM.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that clauses 72, 73, 74, 75, 77 to 81, 83 to 87 and 98, and schedules 3-4 of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error And Recovery) Bill 2025, introduced in the House of Commons on 22 January 2025, so far as these matters fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, should be considered by the UK Parliament.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not connect. I would have voted no.

I thank the committee for its deliberations when we initially discussed the matter some weeks ago, and I thank the members who have taken part in the debate.

Several members have pointed out that the bill is about the prevention and deterrence of fraud and error, and that is a very important part of any social security system. Maggie Chapman is quite right to point out that only a very, very small minority of people abuse the social security system, and we must always appreciate and understand that context.

However, it is important that, for those who abuse, or even think about abusing, the system that we hold most dear, we take a zero-tolerance approach to fraud, as long as we ensure that, in taking that approach, the system has dignity, fairness and respect at its heart. We can do both—we can have a system with dignity, fairness and respect, but we must also ensure that we tackle fraud and error as we do so.

I appreciate the remarks that members have made about specific technical aspects of the powers under the bill. It is important to point out how those will be used—or indeed, for some of them, not used—in Scotland and I appreciate the UK Government’s continued discussions in that regard. Those discussions have been difficult and complex, given the fact that the Scottish Government did not see the full provisions before the bill was introduced. That makes it challenging for this Government and this Parliament to be able to discuss and debate the issues, in particular where they are of such a technical nature.

Collette Stevenson, the convener of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee, pointed out that the Government will require to lodge a supplementary LCM for the bill. In response to the other points that she made, I say that we expect amendments relating to overpayment recovery to be made at the report stage in the House of Lords, but we do not have a public date for that yet. I will ensure that the committee is kept up to date with any information that we have, and I thank members for their time this evening.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app would not connect. I would have voted no.

I thank Pam Duncan-Glancy for that comment. She points—probably not for the first time today—to a discussion that is exceptionally important, which is about intersectionality. We no longer can or should be talking only about “women”; we need to recognise the additional challenges and barriers that some women face—whether they are disabled women, black or minority ethnic women, or other women—in accessing public services. She raises a very important situation, and I agree that it is unacceptable.

In the next phase of the plan, timely access to gynaecology services will be a priority. We have allocated more than £8.8 million to health boards to target long waiting times for gynaecology, and we expect that to deliver significant improvements in the coming year. In addition, work is under way to target cervical cancer and identify steps that we can take to eliminate it in our lifetimes.

We have invested more than £53 million since 2018 to fund access to free period products across a range of settings. With the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021, Scotland became the first country in the world to enshrine access to free period products in law.

We continue to target all forms of violence against women and girls, through our world-leading equally safe strategy and by strengthening the laws that enable us to respond robustly to perpetrators and to protect women and girls. The Scottish Parliament passed the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which created a specific offence of domestic abuse that covers both physical and psychological abuse and makes it easier to prosecute coercive and controlling behaviour. Today, the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Domestic Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill, which is currently at stage 3, proposes to create a statutory framework for Scotland’s first national, multi-agency domestic homicide and suicide review model.

We have taken action to create a trauma-informed process for people who have experienced sexual violence, including the Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences) (Scotland) Act 2021. That act provides a statutory basis for health boards to provide person-centred, trauma-informed forensic medical services for people who have experienced rape or sexual assault. Since 2017, we have invested more than £17 million to enable sexual assault response co-ordination services to be provided in every health board area.

We have also increased public sector pay in Scotland, despite significant constraints on our budget. Increasing women’s pay helps to reduce child poverty, which is one of the Scottish Government’s four priorities. In 2025-26, we are investing £155 million to enable an increase in the pay of adult and children’s social care workers in commissioned services to the new real living wage rate of £12.60 per hour. That overwhelmingly benefits women, who make up the majority of that workforce.

Scotland also has the most generous childcare offer in the United Kingdom. Parents of all three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds can access up to 30 hours of funded childcare each week in school term time. Supporting families by providing quality, affordable and accessible childcare supports women in work and keeps families out of poverty.

We have to look in general at ensuring that there is sufficient, good-quality provision that is available flexibly in a way that aligns with what parents need. That is very important, whether for eligible two-year-olds, younger children or children who are at school.

I was pleased to attend an extra time session in Renfrew to learn about the work that is happening with children at school. Flexibility and ensuring that childcare works for parents, particularly women, is exceptionally important—for women and for children. Reducing child poverty is the Government’s top priority, as I have said, and it is inextricably linked with women’s poverty. We have to tackle the inequality that women experience to fulfil our mission.

During this financial year, we expect to invest £517 million to deliver three benefits to support unpaid carers, the majority of whom are women. Those are the carers support payment—which replaces carers allowance—the carers allowance supplement and the young carers grant, which are both unique to Scotland.

This summer, we will begin to develop an equality strategy for women and girls in partnership with the advisory council. The strategy will identify the gender equality goals that we will prioritise. One of the key messages from the advisory council has been that we need to be better at understanding and reflecting women’s different needs and experiences in our policies, for example—as has already been discussed by Pam Duncan-Glancy—disabled women, older women and minority ethnic women. Making sure that we hear from a diverse range of women as we develop the strategy will help us to achieve that.

The strategy will be co-designed with the advisory council and the empowering women panel, which the minister and I have had the pleasure of meeting and working with this year. They are a diverse group of women and girls of different ages and backgrounds whose lived experience informs and enriches the council’s work. We will publish our equality strategy for women and girls in 2026.

The member has raised an exceptionally important point. As I look around the chamber, I see that it is mostly women who are here, as is often the case when we discuss such issues. I do not have a problem with that; the more the merrier. However, the Parliament needs to think about the contribution that men make to the debate. We need to consider how we bring up our young boys into young men and the societal norms they live with—particularly those things that today’s younger generations think are acceptable—because that is a large part of the problem that women and girls continue to face. He raised an important point, and I will take it away and reflect on it.

This afternoon, members have highlighted and will highlight areas of concern and areas where they wish the Government to go further and, I hope, some areas where the Government has taken action that they support. It is important that we have this discussion at this time, as the National Advisory Council for Women and Girls wished us to do, so that we can take steps forward to the strategy with a shared understanding of the matters that we raise in the chamber today on behalf of our constituents and stakeholders.

I also hope to ensure that we move forward to our next annual statement, which will once again provide a comprehensive picture of what the Government has done and what it still has to do. Future statements will be informed by the work that will start with our gender strategy and what will come from it.

I am very proud of the progress that we have made in Scotland but, as I said, there is more to do. I hope that members will agree that gender equality is a goal that we must all continue to strive for.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the publication of the first Annual Statement on Gender Policy Coherence.

Will the member take an intervention?

Today, the Scottish Government published its first annual statement following recommendations from the National Advisory Council on Women and Girls. The statement describes the actions that the Government has taken to improve the lives of women and girls and towards gender equality.

There remains much to do to tackle the challenges, barriers and dangers that women and girls still face, but the Scottish Government is committed to accelerating equality. At the end of this afternoon’s debate, my hope is that members will recognise the range of positive measures that we have taken towards gender equality in Scotland, many of which would not have been possible without the cross-party support of members across the Parliament.

The United Nations sustainable development goals tell us that

“Gender equality is not only a fundamental human right, but a necessary foundation for a peaceful, prosperous and sustainable world.”

Reflecting that, equality for women and girls is a priority for the Scottish Government and is at the heart of our vision for a fair and prosperous Scotland.

The National Advisory Council on Women and Girls was established in 2018 to advise Government and others on what more we need to do to achieve gender equality. It made recommendations to the Scottish Government, which we accepted and are implementing. Latterly, it has focused on accountability and has been scrutinising how we are delivering on its recommendations.

The publication of today’s annual statement is a recommendation of the council that is intended to support greater accountability. I extend my thanks to the council and to the empowering women’s panel for their work to scrutinise our progress.

I am pleased to discuss the range of important work that this Government is taking forward, but it remains clear that there is much more to do, and we are determined to deliver for women and girls and to address inequality wherever it arises.

In 2021, we published our first women’s health plan, and we are currently working on the next phase, which we intend to publish later this year. Our first plan led to the appointment of Scotland’s first women’s health champion, a new women’s health platform on NHS Inform, the development of new endometriosis care pathways, greater choice and access to contraceptives for women at community pharmacies, and the creation of specialist menopause services in every mainland health board.