Social Justice and Social Security Committee [Draft]

Meeting date: Thursday, January 25, 2024

Official Report 652KB pdf

Subordinate Legislation

Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023 (SSI 2023/371)

Our next item is the consideration of a Scottish statutory instrument: the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2023, which is subject to the negative procedure. Its purpose is to amend the Welfare Foods (Best Start Foods) (Scotland) Regulations 2019. The main changes are the removal of the income thresholds for qualifying benefits; a further alignment of the eligibility criteria with the best start grant and Scottish child payment; and some technical changes to how payments are made. Do members have any comments on the instrument?

Of course, I am not going to not support the instrument, but best start foods is sometimes seen as a poor relation when it comes to investment in supporting children and families across Scotland, so it is important to put on the record that, since their inception, the best start grant, which is given in cash, and the best start foods scheme, which gives voucher support—in effect, pre-paid cash support to children and families—have benefited more than 400,000 people with £105 million, £17.3 million of which has benefited people in Glasgow, including my constituents.

If the instrument passes, an additional 20,000 children and families will benefit. I know that it makes a real difference. The committee would be wise sometimes to hear directly from the lived experience of people who receive such grants, in order to see the focused difference that they make on the ground. I just put that on the record.

In addition, the regulations have value for women who are pregnant in removing the income threshold on qualifying benefits. Every four weeks, they will receive £19.80—or £36.90 during their child’s first year. That is the most generous and supportive series of grants anywhere in the United Kingdom. In the round, the five grants will see children in Scotland receive an additional £10,000 by their sixth birthday. At the heart of it, the best start foods scheme makes a laser-like focused difference to some of the poorest and most vulnerable children in Scotland.

Sometimes, the passing of such instruments goes completely unnoticed. This instrument extends the entitlement to an additional 20,000 children and is a £6 million investment. It is important to put such things on the record, because they involve public money for public benefit, and this will really deliver.

I very much welcome your comments, Bob, which will be on the record.

Are members content to note the instrument?

Members indicated agreement.