Social Justice and Social Security Committee 18 December 2025
We are determined to meet our target in 2030. I recognise that the interim target was not met. It has been more challenging for the Scottish Government to meet its targets when the headwind from the UK Government has been pushing children into poverty, rather than lifting them out of it. As I said in my opening remarks, the two-child limit has now been lifted by the UK Government, which will make a difference to the number of children who are living in poverty and that is important to recognise. I am very pleased that the UK Government has moved on that.
With reference to the targets, before the strategy was published, I had a round-table discussion in London with UK anti-poverty stakeholders to exchange ideas. One of the things that came through clearly for me was their real desire for the UK Government’s strategy to have targets, which they felt was very important. Although the strategy includes monitoring and evaluation, it is not the same level of accountability as there would be if there were targets. When I met the Scotland Office minister in the late afternoon before the strategy was published, at a time when we did not have the strategy to discuss—I had the meeting, but not the strategy—I said to her that we would be keen to work with the UK Government, as we have been all along, on the monitoring and evaluation and on the implementation of it. I hope that we can pick up those discussions with her early in the new year.