Chamber
Meeting of the Parliament 18 June 2026 [Draft]
18 Jun 2026 · S7 · Meeting of the Parliament
Item of business
Child Poverty
The Scottish Government will spend £159 million to mitigate UK Government policies this year through discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare fund. The benefit cap, for example, which the UK Government chose to keep in place, impacts on 9,000 children, and many more families are expected to be hit by it following the scrapping of the two-child limit. Much was made of that by the UK Labour Government, but it hit those families with the benefit cap instead. We will mitigate that and assist those 9,000 children.
More than 19,000 children are impacted by the bedroom tax, while the freeze to local housing allowance rates will impact on an estimated 26,000 children this year. The Scottish Government will continue to step in and support those children and families, but the best way that the issue can be tackled is at source and for the UK Government to change its position on the benefit cap and stop the freeze on the local housing allowance.
In the same item of business
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Katy Clark)
Lab
The next item of business is a statement by Shirley-Anne Somerville on the tackling child poverty delivery plan’s annual progress report 2025-26.As the cabin...
The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice and Housing (Shirley-Anne Somerville)
SNP
The Scottish Government has published the latest annual progress report on child poverty, which provides an update on progress towards Scotland’s ambitious c...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Katy Clark)
Lab
The cabinet secretary will now take questions on the issues raised in the statement. I intend to allow 20 minutes for questions. Members who wish to ask a qu...
Thomas Kerr (Glasgow) (Reform)
Reform
I thank the cabinet secretary for advance sight of her statement and for the published report, which I am sure will make for very interesting summer reading....
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
Unsurprisingly, I do not agree with Mr Kerr’s assessment of the problem or his suggested solution. We have a progressive tax system in Scotland, which we hav...
Mark Griffin (Central Scotland and Lothians West) (Lab)
Lab
Driving down child poverty is a key priority of the Government and of the Parliament as a whole, but reviewing the targets that the Government is failing to ...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
The Government does not intend to publish another child poverty delivery plan. I know that our current targets for 2030 are challenging and we are determined...
Heather Anderson (Dundee City West) (SNP)
SNP
I refer members to my entry in the register of interests and declare that I am a serving councillor on Dundee City Council.During the previous parliamentary ...
The Deputy Presiding Officer (Katy Clark)
Lab
Please ask a question.
Heather Anderson
SNP
How is the Government is going to develop whole family support as an approach to eradicating child poverty?
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
I had the pleasure of visiting the whole family support project in Dundee during the previous parliamentary session. It is making a real difference to famili...
Holly Bruce (Glasgow Southside) (Green)
Green
I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which states that I am a member of Glasgow City Council.The cabinet secretary has told us ...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
I am proud of the work that we have done on social security, and I recognise that it has had a direct impact on lifting 50,000 children out of poverty, as Ho...
Meghan Gallacher (Central Scotland and Lothians West) (Con)
Con
As the cabinet secretary mentioned in her statement, the Scottish Government has spent billions of pounds on tackling child poverty, but it remains stubbornl...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
One example of when cutting people’s benefits does not help involves the suggestion that we take away support from disabled people, which disabled people tel...
Morven-May MacCallum (Highlands and Islands) (LD)
LD
I declare that I am a councillor on Highland Council.In the Highlands and Islands, poverty goes far beyond the material. When a child grows up watching futur...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
Morven-May MacCallum raises an important point about ensuring that when the Government, councils and other bodies look at the challenge of poverty, our solut...
Bob Doris (Glasgow Kelvin and Maryhill) (SNP)
SNP
I acknowledge the Scottish Government’s ambitious targets to reduce child poverty and the progress that has been made. I have heard that there will be a revi...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
The targets have been an exceptionally important part of the Government’s work since the Child Poverty (Scotland) Act 2017 was passed. They have driven focus...
Jenni Minto (Argyll and Bute) (SNP)
SNP
I listened carefully to the cabinet secretary’s response to Morven-May MacCallum, because my question is in a similar area.InspirAlba works with those who ar...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
Aspects of Jenni Minto’s questions highlight the real need and requirement for all of us to ensure that our child poverty mission fits exceptionally well wit...
Joe Fagan (South Scotland) (Lab)
Lab
My entry in the register of members’ interests shows that I am a councillor in South Lanarkshire.According to the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, f...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
I do not recognise Mr Fagan’s description of the financial situation of local government at the moment. I recognise that we are all doing our best with the b...
Patricia Gibson (Cunninghame South) (SNP)
SNP
I very much welcome the extensive package of measures that the Scottish Government has put in place to tackle child poverty, as well as the allocation of £19...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
I saw important examples of that during my visit to Fife Gingerbread this morning, and there are many other examples. We know that fair work offers a sustain...
Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill (Edinburgh and Lothians East) (Green)
Green
I, too, refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests—I am a City of Edinburgh Council councillor.Families who are excluded from social sec...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
It is very important that we are exceptionally careful about any programme that is put in place for those who have no recourse to public funds. The last thin...
Jackie Dunbar (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP)
SNP
Thanks to the ambition of our Scottish National Party Government and the action that it has taken on child poverty, child poverty rates in Scotland are subst...
Shirley-Anne Somerville
SNP
The Scottish Government will spend £159 million to mitigate UK Government policies this year through discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare ...