Chamber and committees

It is great to talk about what all those Labour MPs will do. When we have a manifesto—no party has put out a manifesto yet—our Labour candidates will be campaigning to end child poverty. That is absolutely a given. I hope that we can all agree that we need political change and a change in Government at Westminster. That change is a choice between the Tories and Labour.

I do not expect Clare Haughey and her colleagues to say nice things about Labour in the chamber; however, if we are interested in what Labour is saying, as well as Angela Rayner, I will mention Gordon Brown. In an interview, he talked about the fact that it is a terrible policy and that it needs to be looked at as part of the reform. Just last week, Cherie Blair, the human rights lawyer who is part of a campaign, also made some good points. If we want to quote the Blairs, maybe it is Cherie Blair whom we should look at.

We need to think about the wider system change that is required, including what we, in this chamber, need to do. Let us pay attention to the End Child Poverty coalition, which includes more than 80 groups in Scotland. The most recent scorecard is a bit of a wake-up call. That is very much about what more we can do on the Scottish child payment.

We also have to be mindful that we heard from the Scottish Government, in Parliament last week, that the climate targets for 2030 are being scrapped. I hope that we do not get to a situation where the child poverty targets for 2030 become unachievable and also have to be scrapped. I hope that, when we hear from the cabinet secretary, she will give us some reassurance on that.

I believe that the majority of members come here to tackle the issues and to end child poverty, but we cannot be complacent. During the time that members have left in the Parliament, we must focus on those issues. Let us try to work together on that.

I agree with a lot of what the cabinet secretary has just said. Does she recognise that charities in Scotland are warning that the legally binding child poverty targets are at risk and are calling on the First Minister to make good on the commitment that he made when he ran for SNP leadership to increase the Scottish child payment to £30 a week straight away and to get on to a path of £40 a week by the end of this parliamentary session?

As we have heard, there has been a lot of agreement tonight. There is a lot of unity about and a lot of resentment felt for the policy, so it is right that we have had an opportunity to debate it. Clare Haughey was concerned about the lack of numbers in the chamber, but it is good that we have had an extended debate, because people are so passionate and the majority of us in the chamber believe that the policy is wrong.

We must channel that anger and be careful that we do not become complacent. No Government or political party is doing enough, and the two-child benefit cap is far from being the only injustice that we need to tackle. I hope that debates such as this evening’s will help us to think about other areas in which we need to go further and faster.

Scottish Labour has been clear, not just tonight but in recent times, that the two-child benefit cap and the rape clause need to go. We have been opposed to the policy from the very beginning.

I will in just a second. Other members have made the point very well that we need extensive review and reform not only of universal credit but of the whole social security system. When Angela Rayner was campaigning in Glasgow and Rutherglen last summer, she was very clear that the clause is abhorrent and that the Labour Party is committed to an ambitious child poverty strategy.

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it reportedly delayed the approval of the budget for Skills Development Scotland, which, according to the National Union of Students Scotland and the National Society of Apprentices, led to unnecessary distress and disruption for thousands of apprentices. (S6O-03319)

I am astonished to hear that denial from the minister, who must be saying that the Scottish Training Federation is wrong and has imagined the impact on 1,000 employers and thousands of apprentices. The delay happened and was not a one-off, because it happened last year, too. What will the minister do to guarantee to everyone in Scotland that there will be no delay next year?

Hi, everyone; it is nice to see you again. I am an MSP for the Central Scotland region and a member of the committee. I live in Blantyre in South Lanarkshire.

Thank you again, everyone, for your brilliant ideas, and to the 23 members of the climate change people’s panel. I have scribbled down lots of notes, but I will stick to some of the questions that I had planned. One was to come back to the issue of finance and financial support. The panel has called on the Scottish Government to increase financial support to enable people to take action that will help the Government and Scotland to meet our really important climate targets. That includes free bus travel, which has been talked about already.

I am interested to hear what evidence the people’s panel heard about the need for more financial support to help individual people. Karen Shakespeare talked about how a lot of the measures that are discussed are not affordable for everyone, which I think that we all recognise. I am interested to hear more about the evidence and what kind of financial support you think would be useful.

Thank you, Kevin. You make some really important points.

Buses have been mentioned, and one of your recommendations is free bus travel. To make bus travel free for everyone would require a lot of investment and there would be a cost to the public purse. Did you hear evidence on how such a policy would work? Might it achieve savings elsewhere or in the longer term? Did you hear any evidence about how it could be funded—what would work and what would not?

So, we need to build on that best practice and mainstream that work.

I see that David Harrold also has his hand up.