Hansard

We will, of course, continue to work with people right across early learning and childcare, but I will take no lessons from the Tories, who want us to follow the UK Government’s approach, which is restricted to children with parents who are working. The UK Government is also determined not to pay the living wage, never mind the £12 per hour to which we are committed. Therefore, I will take no lessons from the Scottish Tories on how we should have a system of childcare in this country.

We will, of course, continue to work with stakeholders to make sure that we do what we can to deal with any of their concerns and that we build the best possible childcare system in Scotland.

We recognise that the cost of living is still far too high for many families, who are already struggling with the increasingly unaffordable cost of food, housing, bills and everyday essentials, as well as Brexit and the UK Government’s economic mismanagement. That is why, both last year and this year, we have allocated almost £3 billion to support policies that tackle poverty and protect people as far as possible during the on-going cost of living crisis. Beyond investment in our Scottish child payment, the support includes the continued provision of free bus travel for more than 2 million people, including all young people under the age of 22; the tripling of our fuel insecurity fund to £30 million this year; and the continued provision of one of the most generous free school meal offers anywhere in the UK, which saves parents £400 per eligible child per year.

We will continue to do everything we can within the scope of our powers and limited budget to tackle poverty and support those in greatest need, and we will strengthen support where we can. In 2023-24, we will invest £5.3 billion in Scottish Government benefits, which will support more than 1.2 million people, and we will extend the support that we provide to carers by introducing the carers support payment.

This year, we will invest £752 million through our affordable housing supply programme, and we will continue work on the housing bill, which will create powers for the introduction of long-term rent controls, create new tenants’ rights and introduce new duties aimed at the prevention of homelessness.

We will introduce a landmark human rights bill and invite the Scottish Parliament to bring back the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (Incorporation) (Scotland) Bill for reconsideration stage in order to deliver legislation that protects and enhances a fuller range of human rights within the limits of devolved competence.

We will, of course, ensure that we consult with the intention of introducing to Parliament a bill on the ending of conversion practices in Scotland.

By the end of 2023, we will publish the fair fares review on the cost and availability of bus, rail and ferry services, and, beginning in October, we will introduce a pilot involving the removal of ScotRail peak-time fares in a move that will make rail travel more affordable and accessible during that pilot.

This year’s programme for government builds on the foundations that we already have in Scotland. It strengthens our approach to tackling poverty and inequality, and it provides equitable access to health and social care services and to treatment. We will continue to be frank about the need to make difficult decisions to ensure that we free up resources to target support, and we will always continue to stand up for the people of Scotland against the current UK Government and any incoming Labour Government with pale-imitation Tory policies that hit the poorest hardest at their time of need. That is not what the people of Scotland need at this time or at any other. As a Government, we will use the powers that we have to address the root causes of poverty, but it is only with the full economic and fiscal powers of an independent nation that we can eradicate inequality and poverty in Scotland.

I move,

That the Parliament notes the actions set out in the Programme for Government 2023-24 to build stronger communities, improve social justice, reduce inequalities, including in health and social care, and tackle child poverty; welcomes the investment of £5.3 billion in Scottish Government benefits in 2023-24, supporting over 1.2 million people, including £405 million for the Scottish Child Payment, which is currently helping to improve the lives of over 316,000 children; further welcomes the continued use of the Scottish Government’s fixed budget and limited powers to tackle inequality and poverty and protect people, as far as possible, from the harm inflicted by UK Government cuts and austerity, as well as the ongoing cost of living crisis; notes the continued action to tackle child poverty in key areas including parental employability, early learning and childcare, mental health, transport, and affordable housing; welcomes that 90,000 fewer children will live in relative and absolute poverty in 2023 as a result of Scottish Government policies; notes that reprehensible UK Government welfare policies, including the two-child limit and benefit cap, inflict hardship on families on the lowest incomes, with the two-child limit affecting 80,000 children in Scotland and removing £341.3 million from families in Scotland since 2017, and commends successful pay deals with NHS staff and unions that have ensured there have been no strikes in Scotland, thereby protecting patients and helping the workforce to deal with the ongoing cost of living crisis, and ensuring that people can access the social care support that they need, while recognising the valuable contribution of Scotland’s social care workforce.