Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 20 April 2022
The result of the division is: For 65, Against 51, Abstentions 1.
Motion, as amended, agreed to,
That the Parliament recognises the increasing pressures facing households during the current cost of living crisis; welcomes the significant actions taken by the Scottish Government to mitigate those pressures within the scope of devolved powers and budgets, and that these include doubling the Scottish Child Payment to £20 per week, with a further increase later in 2022, uprating eight Scottish benefits by 6%, mitigating where possible the impact of the UK Government’s so-called bedroom tax and benefit cap, substantially increasing free childcare, introducing free bus travel for under-22s, committing to a Fair Fares review, including the pricing of public transport and the availability of concessions and discounts, a £1.8 billion programme of heating and home energy efficiency in the current parliamentary session, an extension of eligibility for Warmer Homes Scotland, the expansion of Home Energy Scotland advice services, and increased grants for area-based schemes; recognises that, after these actions, considerable challenges to cost-of-living pressures remain, resulting from a combination of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, Brexit and the UK Government’s failures to tackle spiralling energy costs, its removal of the £20 Universal Credit top-up, its failure to uprate benefits and pensions in line with current inflation, and its introduction of increased taxes on working people; calls on the UK Government to use its powers to reverse the National Insurance increase, increase benefits, increase all bands of the minimum wage to at least the real living wage, and tackle energy prices and increase UK-wide energy efficiency schemes, and further calls on the UK Government to put in place a windfall tax on excess profits made by large companies, including fossil fuel producers, to provide immediate financial help for families impacted by the cost of living crisis, or to transfer the powers to do so to the Scottish Parliament so that it can fully address the cost of living crisis and meet the needs of the people of Scotland.