Seòmar agus comataidhean

The importance of ensuring that we can do better in that area was flagged up in discussions with the Scottish Green Party. The development of the equality and human rights budget process will build on the 10 key emerging risks in the next equality and fairer Scotland budget statement. We want to ensure that, as far as possible, people’s lived experience can be integrated into the budget process. The budget process is not simple and it is not easy to take things forward in it, but we have made a commitment to consider what more we can do in that regard.

One theme of the recommendations from the equality budget advisory group is that we should improve knowledge and understanding in this area. Suffice it to say that we are working on that. We do not have all the answers, but we could come back to the committee with more detail on that if it would be helpful.

In answer to the previous question, I will write to the committee in relation to the gaps. We have published research to improve our understanding of the collection and use of equality data and data on socioeconomic disadvantage by Scottish public sector bodies, and that will help us to understand where the gaps are and how we can fill them.

I am happy to do that.

Thank you, convener, and good morning to the committee. I am delighted to take on my new portfolio and I welcome new and returning colleagues on the committee. I acknowledge the strong position on equality and human rights on which, thanks to the leadership of current and past ministers, we are able to build. I am sorry that, for understandable reasons, my colleague Christina McKelvie cannot be with us today.

I will take a moment to focus briefly on the on-going situation in Afghanistan. Scotland has a long history of welcoming people of all nationalities and faiths, including those seeking refuge and asylum. Work is under way to ensure that people have the support and services that they need on arrival and as they settle into communities. We are working with the Home Office, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, local authorities, the Scottish Refugee Council and other partners to provide people with the safety and security that they need to rebuild their lives.

Events in Afghanistan remind us how important it is that we support human rights around the world, and I look forward to welcoming the latest participants in the Scottish human rights defender fellowship, who will be arriving from Brazil and Columbia later this month.

Our experience during the past 18 months has also reminded us that equality, inclusion and human rights are our collective responsibility. Throughout the pandemic, inequality and human rights issues have been exacerbated, particularly for women, minority ethnic communities, disabled people and older people. We have taken significant steps to mitigate those impacts, with well over £1 billion committed to efforts to support communities and individuals at risk during the pandemic. We have seen admirable examples of people coming together to support their communities and develop new ways of working.

However, the situation has also exposed where we can do better, and we must continue to ensure that equality, inclusion and human rights are embedded throughout our work as we enter the next stage of renewal and recovery. We have invested an additional £5 million in front-line services tackling gendered violence, and we have started development of a new five-year plan to tackle social isolation and loneliness, with £1 million in funding for organisations this year.

Later this month, we will set out our immediate priorities to tackle racial inequality, building on our learning from the disproportionate impact of the pandemic on our minority ethnic communities. Furthermore, during this year, we will consult on a strategy to mainstream and embed equality, inclusion and human rights better across Government and wider society.

A human rights bill will be introduced in this parliamentary session. That will demonstrate global human rights leadership, placing Scotland at the forefront of human rights legislation and, most important, practice.

We will reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 with a bill introduced in this parliamentary year, and ensure that LGBT people are protected from the deeply damaging practice of conversion therapy.

We will review our equally safe strategy with COSLA to ensure that we are doing all that we can to tackle the pernicious issue of violence against women and girls. We will also implement our strategy with COSLA to end destitution for those at risk due to immigration restrictions, doing all that we can within devolved powers to protect communities and support people.

Later this year, we will set out progress on tackling hate crime, before working with stakeholders to develop a new hate crime strategy. That will include implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021.

That is just a brief outline of the work to come. I welcome the opportunity to give evidence and take your questions.

As I said in my initial answer, good progress has been made in delivering rural housing. I talked about the 4,800 affordable homes that have been delivered in that time. However, Liz Smith will be aware of some of the particular challenges in remote and rural Scotland, such as land availability, community capacity to bring forward proposals and ensuring that those proposals can get from pre-development to the development stage. Those are complex matters, which is why, in recognition that we need to do more, we have committed to developing a rural and remote housing plan that is dedicated to the needs of rural and remote Scotland.

That consultation will talk to communities the length and breadth of Scotland to make sure that we can get it right in every community, even for small-scale developments. That is, of course, backed up by the additional resources that we have made available.

I see the 10 per cent target as a minimum and, through the rural and remote housing plan, we will get a better sense and more evidence of what the housing need is. I want to take a more strategic approach to looking at housing needs in remote and rural Scotland. We have been relying on community organisations and community responses for proposals, and that can be sometimes quite difficult, because of the complexities. We want to assist communities to analyse and agree housing needs and priorities, and then work with them and local authorities and social landlords to work up plans to deal with those shortages.

I agree that the Scottish child payment has been acclaimed as a game changer in the fight against child poverty and is projected to lift thousands of children out of poverty. The member outlined how that is impacting positively on Glasgow families. However, that policy is being completely undermined by the UK Government’s regressive £20 cut to universal credit, which will be the biggest overnight cut to welfare in 70 years. Some 60,000 families across Scotland, including some 20,000 children could be pushed into poverty.

We have urged the UK Government to reverse its plans on numerous occasions, most recently in conjunction with the Welsh and Northern Irish Governments.

Violence against women and girls is one of the most devastating and fundamental violations of human rights and is totally unacceptable. Rather than establishing a commission to tackle it, we are committed to delivering against the equally safe strategy and continuing our collaborative work with a wide range of partners in the sector via the equally safe joint strategic board.

We have also tasked the independent working group on misogyny and criminal justice in Scotland with evaluating how the Scottish criminal justice system deals with misogyny, including by looking at whether there are gaps in the law.

The member is aware of all the work that is happening in this area. In my first answer, I described the current work around the equally safe strategy. I have also described the work of the working group on misogyny and criminal justice, and a review of the law is going on in this area as well. The Minister for Community Safety has also been looking at what further areas of the law require reform. I do not think that anybody can really accuse the Government of not taking action across all those areas.

It is not that we have an objection in principle to a commission; we just think that this work is being taken forward already through those other platforms. I hope that the member will engage constructively in those discussions.

The Scottish Government’s social enterprise strategy, which was launched in 2016, sets out a wide-ranging, ambitious and long-term programme to develop the potential of Scotland’s social enterprise sector. The latest social enterprise action plan was published on 24 March this year and covers the period from 2021 to 2024.

I think that I might have touched a raw nerve.

Every time a Tory MSP comes to the chamber and utters the words “child poverty”, I will remind them of what their Government is about to do this very month in cutting £20 a week from some of the most vulnerable families. They should get their own house in order before coming here and demanding that we do anything. It is an absolute disgrace and a total brass neck.