Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 25 March 2026 [Draft]
25 Mar 2026 · S6 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Portfolio Question Time
Tackling Child Poverty Delivery Plan 2026 to 2031
The tackling child poverty delivery plan, which was published earlier this month, commits to concrete action for the year ahead. That includes helping parents to increase their earnings, with £55 million in funding for a new package of skills support and help with transport and childcare. There will also be further action to tackle the cost of living, including investing £9 million to mitigate the effect of the United Kingdom Government’s local housing allowance freeze and putting more money in the pockets of families by increasing our Scottish child payment to £40 in 2027-28 for children under the age of one. It is estimated that the actions that are in the plan will keep 100,000 children out of relative poverty next year.
In the same item of business
1. Foysol Choudhury (Lothian) (Ind)
Ind
To ask the Scottish Government, in light of reports that it is not currently on track to meet its target to reduce child poverty to less than 10 per cent by ...
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice (Shirley-Anne Somerville)
SNP
The tackling child poverty delivery plan, which was published earlier this month, commits to concrete action for the year ahead. That includes helping parent...
Foysol Choudhury
Ind
As this is the last time that I will speak in the Parliament, I thank all my colleagues for all the help and support that they have given me in the past five...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
Between the work that is outlined in the tackling child poverty delivery plan and the work that my colleague Ms McAllan has been doing on the housing emergen...
Emma Harper (South Scotland) (SNP)
SNP
I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to tackling child poverty and its investment through the whole family support third sector delivery fund. Will...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
It is important that we learn from the good practice that is happening across Scotland. Emma Harper rightly pointed to some examples in her area of how impor...