Chamber and committees

I want to clarify that I think that the Scottish Government is talking a lot about child poverty; my point was more about the paternity leave aspect, and I apologise if I did not explain that properly. I think that we could do more. I remember visiting Aviva, which is based in, I think, Bishopbriggs. I visited with Rona Mackay, who was the MSP for the area at the time. Aviva has a great paternity leave policy of up to a year, so some businesses can obviously provide better paternity leave, despite the Government’s policy. I wonder whether we can do more on that, but I also take the minister’s point that it is not just on the Government but is for all of us to take that forward.

On public service reform, you have addressed most of the issues, cabinet secretary, but I want to go over this point again. Public service reform gives us a really good opportunity, but I share other members’ concerns, which Carol Mochan put well, that cuts or job losses—or whatever words we want to use—could disproportionately impact women and therefore children, and the Government has a target to eradicate child poverty. I know that you have touched on that and, to an extent, I am asking you to repeat yourself, but what safeguards is the Government putting in place ahead of the reform agenda to ensure that that will not be the case and to alleviate members’ fears and concerns?

I have a supplementary question on the point that Collette Stevenson made, and which the convener backed up, about council tax debt. Last week, we heard strong evidence about the impact of that, including how it

is a burden that mainly falls on women. The convener has already said that it would be good if that could be included in discussions about reform.

However, I also want to know—from the cabinet secretary or the minister—whether there have been any early talks about that and whether the Government has thoughts on that. A lot of the time, we talk about the issues around public service reform, but everybody knows that there are also opportunities. Is the Government talking about it as an opportunity to change the way that things are done in order to benefit people—mainly women—who have council tax debt?

Assuming that council tax remains as it is—which is a whole other debate that we will not get into just now—has the Government decided where responsibility for council tax will sit? Will it be with the regional authorities, or will it be a bit more local, or would it even go to the Scottish Government? Am I too early in asking that question?

I was going to come back in on childcare, but Holly Bruce and Meghan Gallagher have given that a good go. I have a couple of other questions that are not necessarily linked.

Minister, during the round-table meetings that we held before this evidence session, the committee heard about paternity leave and the impact that it has in other countries by lessening the burden on women. In the UK as a whole, we have a really bad paternity leave offer. It is a reserved matter, but, first, are you or any of your colleagues discussing that with UK Government colleagues in relation to tackling women’s and children’s poverty? Aside from conversations with the UK Government, is the Scottish Government doing anything on that now? In the 2016-21 session, I and others did a bit of work on the issue, and, although we did not have powers in that area, the Scottish Government was making a lot of the right noises. However, recently, we do not seem to be saying a lot about it, and I am not sure why. Does the Government talk about it, and, if so, what are those discussions and are there any plans afoot?

Thanks.

The number of people who wanted to come in means that I have missed the boat slightly, because I wanted to ask about something that Charis Chittick raised in her contribution. It was on the amount of public debt that single mothers experience. Those stats were quite striking and merit coming back to, particularly those relating to council tax, because constituents often come to us, as MSPs, about that.

As well as the debt being enforced, having council tax debt can often make it difficult for someone to move house. I do not know whether that is the same in every council area. They might have a larger family, but they are blocked from accessing a bigger house because they have council tax debt.

Charis, my question is for you, since you raised the issue. What can the Scottish Government do, through its budget, to support women who are in that position, and what can local authorities do?

I am the MSP for Coatbridge and Chryston.

Kate Nevens, who is attending the committee today, might want to come in on this area. What engagement have you had with the Gypsy Traveller community in the early days in your role? Does the Government have any plans to work further with that community to improve its situation?

You will be aware of the round-table session that we had last week, in which a powerful case was put forward by one of the participants that this committee, and the Parliament and the Government as a whole, should be doing more to support that community. Do you have any early thoughts on that? I appreciate that you are not long into your role.

Welcome to the committee. I want to speak about the Children (Scotland) Act 2020, which you have touched on a bit, and to ask whether the Government remains committed to implementing that act in full.

I also want to ask about the possibility of introducing further reforms to tackle parenting disputes. That is in the context of some of the work that Shared Parenting Scotland has done, which has found that quite a lot of evidence suggests that one parent—it tends to be fathers—does not have the same amount of contact. How can that be balanced out in domestic abuse cases? Does the Children (Scotland) Act 2020 provide enough protection when it comes to domestic abuse?

I am sorry—I asked a lot of questions at once, but I keep cutting in and out online.

Thanks, minister, for that full and heartening response.

I will put on the record a reflection on something that I experienced recently. Probably a few months ago, I visited a mosque with my colleague Neil Gray. The mosque sits on the border of our constituencies, so it serves both populations. I have visited it regularly over the 10 years during which I have been an MSP; I have always made a Facebook post about those visits and there has never been any issue. After the most recent visit, however, my post went viral and received really derogatory comments from people across the UK—it felt organised. I felt that I had to take a stand against that, so I made a counter-post calling those comments out, which, I am pleased to say, did equally well, with people coming on Facebook and being supportive.

Please answer this question briefly, because there is another area that I want to come on to: do you think that some of the stuff that we are seeing online is co-ordinated? When I clicked on the profiles of some of the people who were commenting on my post, I found that they were from all over the UK and, to be honest with you, there was no need for them to be thinking about a mosque in Coatbridge. Have you also found such co-ordination and are you working with other agencies to tackle it?