Committee
Welfare Reform Committee 13 May 2014
13 May 2014 · S4 · Welfare Reform Committee
Item of business
Food Banks (Scotland Week 2014 Visits)
I believe that we were going to talk about that in an informal session, because SPICe is not at the table just now to give us evidence. My own thoughts are that the evidence from Germany shows that, on the face of it, welfare change had a lot to do with the increase in food bank use, and Linda Fabiani alluded to anecdotal evidence about the effect of welfare changes in Canada that accompanied the recession. Perhaps we should discuss this in private session, but it might be worth carrying out a literature review, because it could be important for our own report on food banks, particularly the relationship between the rise in food banks, the recession and welfare changes. There seem to be parallels here. The American situation might be slightly different, but the Canadian and German examples certainly seem to have useful information that we could share.
In the same item of business
The Convener
Lab
We move to agenda item 3. As members will recall, Linda Fabiani was going to North America, so we gave her a mission—which she chose to accept before the rec...
Linda Fabiani
SNP
I was out in North America in April during Scotland week, so I took the opportunity to visit the New York City human resources administration/department of s...
The Convener
Lab
That sounds very interesting, Linda. I have an observation, rather than a question. With regard to your final comments, I was reading an article a little whi...
Linda Fabiani
SNP
You are absolutely right, convener. Please excuse my personalising the issues, but I discussed the matter seriously with some of my Canadian relatives, who, ...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
You made it clear that the biggest recent rise in the use of food banks in Canada happened as a result of the recession. It is rather unfair to ask you this—...
Linda Fabiani
SNP
I have talked about what I heard directly from the officers of the Ontario Association of Food Banks; I cannot speak from the basis of research that has been...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
It is very interesting to consider the interaction between the state and voluntary programmes, as well as the danger of what you have called food bank creep ...
Alex Johnstone
Con
I have been interested in what Linda Fabiani has had to say about the Canadian experience in particular, and the suggestion that the recession might have cau...
The Convener
Lab
We have a helpful briefing on food banks from the Scottish Parliament information centre. If SPICe continues to monitor the situation, we will welcome any ev...
Ken Macintosh
Lab
I believe that we were going to talk about that in an informal session, because SPICe is not at the table just now to give us evidence. My own thoughts are t...
The Convener
Lab
We can take that up when we look at our report on food banks and at information that can assist us.