The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
The Official Report search offers lots of different ways to find the information you’re looking for. The search is used as a professional tool by researchers and third-party organisations. It is also used by members of the public who may have less parliamentary awareness. This means it needs to provide the ability to run complex searches, and the ability to browse reports or perform a simple keyword search.
The web version of the Official Report has three different views:
Depending on the kind of search you want to do, one of these views will be the best option. The default view is to show the report for each meeting of Parliament or a committee. For a simple keyword search, the results will be shown by item of business.
When you choose to search by a particular MSP, the results returned will show each spoken contribution in Parliament or a committee, ordered by date with the most recent contributions first. This will usually return a lot of results, but you can refine your search by keyword, date and/or by meeting (committee or Chamber business).
We’ve chosen to display the entirety of each MSP’s contribution in the search results. This is intended to reduce the number of times that users need to click into an actual report to get the information that they’re looking for, but in some cases it can lead to very short contributions (“Yes.”) or very long ones (Ministerial statements, for example.) We’ll keep this under review and get feedback from users on whether this approach best meets their needs.
There are two types of keyword search:
If you select an MSP’s name from the dropdown menu, and add a phrase in quotation marks to the keyword field, then the search will return only examples of when the MSP said those exact words. You can further refine this search by adding a date range or selecting a particular committee or Meeting of the Parliament.
It’s also possible to run basic Boolean searches. For example:
There are two ways of searching by date.
You can either use the Start date and End date options to run a search across a particular date range. For example, you may know that a particular subject was discussed at some point in the last few weeks and choose a date range to reflect that.
Alternatively, you can use one of the pre-defined date ranges under “Select a time period”. These are:
If you search by an individual session, the list of MSPs and committees will automatically update to show only the MSPs and committees which were current during that session. For example, if you select Session 1 you will be show a list of MSPs and committees from Session 1.
If you add a custom date range which crosses more than one session of Parliament, the lists of MSPs and committees will update to show the information that was current at that time.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 235 contributions
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
The answer is probably no. A lot of new work is under way, which we referred to in answer to earlier questions, to support this agenda in schools and, in particular, on the transition of young people from school to young adulthood. It is now recognised that we have to do a lot more.
It is exciting that new policies and plans will be developed in the coming months and years to address some of the issues. No doubt, there is a lot more we could do in schools to promote equalities and to support disabled people to be prepared for employment.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
The answer to your question is yes and no. We are aware that we are making progress in some areas, but, as the committee has highlighted and your witnesses have raised, there are data gaps. As part of our fair work action plan, we are looking at improving that in the coming years.
The biggest issue that I have come across when discussing the issue with officials over the past few months is the disaggregation of statistics to look at, for example, the breakdown of neurodivergence characteristics within disabilities. Members quite often raise issues in the Parliament about people with autism, for instance, and employment, and it is quite difficult to disaggregate the statistics. No doubt, part of that will be about how the information is collected by the labour force surveys and other surveys. We are committed to looking at that and improving the data. It has been identified as an issue.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
It is quite a big question. I will try to keep my answer brief.
The overall target of halving the disability employment gap by 2038 was set in 2016, and we have set interim targets as part of that. We want to achieve an increase in disabled employment to 50 per cent by 2023 and to 60 per cent by 2030. Currently, 49.6 per cent of disabled people are employed, if we look at the 2021 figures. That suggests that we are doing well in the aim to get to the interim target of 50 per cent by 2023. We estimate that we have to improve disability employment by 1.1 percentage points each year and, at the moment, we are achieving 1.2 per cent a year. We are achieving our targets and we have those interim targets in place.
Why we are making progress, but what the remaining challenges are is a huge question. I note, briefly, that we have measures in place to work with employers to ensure, through the workplace equality fund and other means, that we support people to adapt and make it easier to employ disabled people. Hopefully, that is making a difference. There are various partnerships with the Government, disabled people’s organisations and employers working together to break down some of the barriers, and we fund such initiatives, as well. Finally, the employability programmes, particularly fair start Scotland, clearly have a big emphasis on helping disabled people back into work. I think that you said that the committee has visited some organisations, as well.
Hopefully, we are contributing to progress but, to be frank, we do not have all the answers. We do not know exactly why we are making progress, because we do not know what is working best and what is not working. We know that it is all helping, but it is quite difficult to give a precise answer.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
Going forward, a lot of the work will be focused on disaggregating the headline statistics to understand the impact on people with different disabilities, which we talked about earlier. The statistics show that there has been a steady increase in the number of people with disabilities who are in employment; it is an increase from 251,000 people in 2014 to 407,000 at the end of December 2021. Once the new statistics come out for the subsequent year, we might see an impact from Covid on the number of disabled people in employment. We will see whether we can identify any trends in the data and what the relationship with Covid is. We only have figures until the end of 2021, which begins to take Covid into account, but as more data about the labour market becomes available, we can really see whether there are any trends.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
Good morning, committee. Thank you for inviting me along today and for the opportunity to discuss the disability employment gap, the progress that is being made and the challenges that remain, which I am pleased to see the committee is investigating.
The latest statistics show that we are making progress. The disability employment gap has reduced by 6.2 percentage points to 31.2 per cent, compared with 37.4 per cent back in 2016. That reduction has been due to a larger rise in the employment rate of disabled people relative to the increase in the employment rate of non-disabled people. It means that we are currently on track to achieve our ambition to halve the gap to 18.7 per cent by 2038. However, I think that we are all aware that significant challenges remain, including creating a culture of change in workplaces where disabled people can, we hope, be welcomed for the benefits that they bring.
As you will no doubt know, the employment gap between disabled people and their non-disabled peers is not a new thing, and it certainly exists throughout the United Kingdom and Europe to a greater or lesser extent. It is clear that no Government has found a very simple answer to the issue, but we know that taking an approach that meets the needs of each disabled person is key. That is why our devolved employability programmes use a person-centred approach to reduce or attempt to eliminate the barriers for disabled people. However, we need to do more to support people with learning disabilities, for example. Similarly, young disabled people need support to raise and meet their own aspirations through education and beyond.
Information is still emerging on the long-term impacts of the pandemic on the disability employment gap. It has added to the structural issues, but we are doing our best to mitigate that. For example, in relation to mental health, we have established a platform with information and guidance for employers, which I think we discussed the last time that I was before the committee.
Our commitment to at least halve the disability employment gap is an integral element of the Scottish Government’s fair work agenda. We published a refreshed fair work action plan late last year, setting out how we will continue our progress towards making Scotland a leading fair work nation and, as part of that, halving the disability employment gap. We will continue to work with people with lived experience to refine and develop our employability programmes, and we will work with employers to support them to make the cultural change that we want to see in all of Scotland’s workplaces.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
I am saying that it is difficult to pick one particular factor that has led to the progress that we are making, because various things are happening. It is a complex area, as we have discussed before. There are many people with different types of disabilities, and there is a lot of crossover between long-term sickness and disabilities. The statistics are going in the right direction, with more people who have disabilities getting into work and the gap closing. We are making progress. However, we are doing lots of different things to address the issue, so it is difficult to say which factor is having the biggest impact.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
We evaluate fair start Scotland, which helps a lot of people with disabilities, and we evaluate the “no one left behind” strategy, which is delivered at local employment partnership level in each local authority. Those schemes are evaluated, but the issue is not just about schemes; it is about culture. It is about the fact, for instance, that we have labour shortages at the moment in Scotland. Employers are now being a lot more open minded about adapting and perhaps about encouraging people with disabilities to come into their workplaces. It is not just about funded schemes. They help the people whom we are targeting through the employability schemes, but there are lots of other factors involved. The culture is changing in Scotland. Many more employers are engaging and opening their minds to taking on disabled employees, but that is quite difficult to measure.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
Yes, I will bring in Susan Ferguson in a second. As for the big picture, as I said in my opening remarks, some of the evidence about the impact of Covid on people with disabilities is still emerging. Our view at the moment is that there is no evidence that there has been a disproportionate impact of Covid on disabled people. There are various bits of evidence that show that there has been an impact, but we cannot say that it has been disproportionate; there is no overall evidence that the impact is greater on disabled people than it is on any other parts of the population, such as people with long-term sicknesses.
09:45Scotland has an older population than the rest of the UK and, therefore, the percentage of disabled people in the working population is slightly higher. Those factors all influence where you are coming from with your question. I will bring in Susan Ferguson to speak about the impact of Covid, mental health issues and so on.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
It is worth noting that all businesses are subject to fair work criteria, but that is proportionate. We know that it is more challenging for a small business than it is for a big business to get through some of the hoops, so there is a proportionate approach. The enterprise companies and others who apply the criteria will take that into account.
Just now, we are trying to raise awareness among all employers—small, medium and large—in Scotland, and to break down some of the cultural barriers. We know—I am sure that the committee has come across this—that many employers think, “This will be costly.” A small business owner might think, “I can’t afford to adapt my workplace to take on a disabled employee.” There is a lot of awareness raising going on. Some of the projects that we fund are about raising awareness and working with all kinds of employers. There is a lot of work to be done.
Economy and Fair Work Committee
Meeting date: 8 February 2023
Richard Lochhead
Thank you for raising that issue with me—I will certainly investigate it. I cannot pretend that I have had such feedback so far; other ministers might have had such feedback in dealing with organisations within their own portfolios.
However, I am sure that the member is aware, as are others, of the volatile economic environment and the pressure on public finances that the Government has been experiencing over the past few months. The draft budget is before Parliament just now. It has not been as easy as we would have liked it to be to give many organisations across Scotland, in many sectors, the assurances that they want, because of the financial situation that the Scottish Government faces in relation to the budget. We all know the reasons behind that. We will do our best to give people as much notice as we can, so I am happy to investigate the organisations that the member has—