Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 18 March 2021
If you will indulge me, Presiding Officer, I note that this will be my last exchange with Mary Fee, so I will quickly pay tribute to all the efforts that she has undertaken while in Parliament. On matters such as these in particular, she always addresses them constructively and on a non-partisan basis. I wish her well.
Mary Fee has picked up on an area that is of concern to me. She made the point that we have made progress and that, on the current trajectory, we will meet our target. However, I share her concern that Covid-19 has the potential to put things into reverse. Therefore, the work that we are undertaking through the no one left behind policy, the extension of fair start Scotland and the access to work stakeholder forum—which we have established despite access to work being a reserved responsibility—is important and very much designed to achieve the end that Mary Fee and I both want. That end is that we at least halve the disability employment gap and ensure fairness in our labour market.