Hansard

Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. If it gives you any comfort in relation to getting our names right, you will not make that mistake after the next Scottish Parliament elections, because neither Lochhead nor Leonard will be here. [Laughter.]

I welcome the opportunity to debate the motion to provide legislative consent to provisions in the UK Government’s Employment Rights Bill. The Scottish Government is supportive of the overall ambitions of the bill. We have engaged fully and constructively with our counterparts on key measures, and we welcome the majority of the proposals, including those on which we have been listened to and in relation to which improvements have been made.

The bill puts on a statutory footing some of the progress that we have already made in Scotland, which, I would argue, vindicates our trailblazing fair work agenda. Notably, the Scottish Government was the first Government in the UK to become a real living wage employer. That was back in 2015. It was also the first Government in the UK to include criteria, including the real living wage, to address fair work as part of public procurement exercises, and—through fair work first—it was the first to include fair work criteria in public sector grants and contracts. More recently, we strengthened our approach by attaching fair work conditions to public sector grants.

There remains more to do, but, through fair work, we have made a real difference for employees in every sector of Scotland’s economy. Evidence shows that treating workers fairly and putting them at the heart of business is good for business. Scotland has the highest proportion of employees earning at least the real living wage, and the median gender pay gap for full-time employees is narrower in Scotland than it is in the UK as a whole—that has been the case since 2003. In addition, the fact that the disability employment gap has reduced over the past nine years shows that we are making good progress to meet the ambition of at least halving it by 2038.

Building on the progress that we have achieved through political will and action, the gains that the bill will undoubtedly make in relation to workers’ rights should be protected, not just for the duration of a Labour Government but beyond. We cannot rely on the good work of the current or future UK Governments in protecting the rights of workers in Scotland in the long term. That is why the Scottish Government remains firmly convinced that the best way to protect Scottish workers is through the full devolution of employment powers. I continue to welcome the Scottish Trades Union Congress’s on-going support for that position.

In the meantime, we have used the opportunity to work with UK ministers and officials to protect devolved powers and to seek to strengthen the bill’s provisions for all workers. Throughout the process, Scottish Government ministers and officials have continued to press for Scottish interests. As a result, the bill now confers some limited powers on the Scottish ministers. For that reason, the consent of the Scottish Parliament is required, first, for the provisions that relate to the protection of workers who are involved in public sector outsourcing, to address the issue of two-tier workforces; and, secondly, for those that relate to the establishment of a social care negotiating body for Scotland.

The Scottish Government has long advocated using the power of public procurement to drive fair work standards where that is possible and appropriate. The bill, as amended, includes the power to avoid a situation in which there is a workforce consisting of ex-public sector employees and private sector employees with each group on different terms and conditions, which would be a two-tier workforce. Scottish and United Kingdom ministers may specify in regulations the terms that a public body should ensure if it is awarding a contract that outsources the delivery of its functions or functions that were previously delivered by a public body. The bill also requires Scottish and UK ministers to publish a code of practice for public bodies in relation to relevant outsourcing contracts and to lay that code before their respective Parliaments.

The bill, at introduction, included provisions relating to the social care sector in England to establish a negotiating body, through regulations, to consider pay, terms and conditions for the sector. The outcome of those negotiations, once accepted by the Secretary of State, was to be enacted through regulations delivering fair pay agreements for those workers in scope.

The Scottish Government recognised the opportunity to underpin much of the work that has already been undertaken in Scotland on sectoral bargaining and secured agreement from the UK Government to have that part of the bill apply to Scotland. That will provide the Scottish Government with the option to regulate for negotiated fair pay agreements for the sector, as an alternative to a voluntary process. We also secured the broader application of those bill provisions to children’s social care services as well as adult social care services.

I look forward to continuing to work closely with the UK Government to build on our fair work principles and to help to maximise the positive impact of the bill across Scotland.

I draw Parliament’s attention to clause 47 and schedule 7, which were included in the supplementary legislative consent memorandum. On further consideration, our view is that they do not affect the competence of Scottish ministers and have therefore been removed from the motion.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that the relevant provisions in the Employment Rights Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 10 October 2024, and subsequently amended, relating to the protection of workers in relation to relevant outsourcing contracts (amended clause 30), and the establishment of the Social Care Negotiating Body for Scotland (amended clauses 36 to 46 and 48 to 52, alongside related amended clauses 153 and 155), so far as these matters alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, should be considered by the UK Parliament.