���˿���

I appreciate that. However, specifically on the employability scheme cuts, have you made any representations to the Deputy First Minister about the timescales, given that a human rights-based approach would require a reduction in funding to be time limited?

Yes, it is. Thank you.

I appreciate that and I thank the minister for her commitment to the EasyRead publications—or at least to come back to the committee to explain her approach to that.

One issue that comes up a lot is the interplay between the minister who has responsibility for equalities and the rest of the Government. You have outlined the way in which you do your business, which is commendable. However, I worry that other areas of Government are not doing the same thing. Last week, People First told us:

“For a long time people with a learning disability have been considered last, if we are considered at all.

That is true when it comes to budgeting decisions.

It is true for pretty much any decisions.

We are not seen as important, and our human rights are not protected as they are for other citizens.

We are not expected or supported to live our life like other citizens.”

I found that evidence and some of the other evidence from People First last week quite stark.

My colleague Rachael Hamilton also made a point about the Scottish Women’s Convention and women feeling that they have been overlooked in budgets.

What are the minister’s expectations of the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy and other cabinet secretaries and ministers in relation to involving disabled people and others? How should they consider such issues as they develop budget proposals?

Good morning to the minister and her officials. Thank you for joining us.

Some of my questions follow on from what we have heard so far. I want to touch on some of the issues that we heard last week from people with learning disabilities. One thing that they asked was for the data to be disaggregated for learning disabilities. When we collect data in the household survey, there is a question on disability, but that is not necessarily disaggregated, and we heard from learning disabled people that that is problematic. What are your intentions on data collection and the household survey, specifically in relation to learning disabled people?

In the same vein, I note what you said about a commitment to inclusive communication and your points about the human rights legislation, but those things are a bit further down the line. Are you prepared to ask the Government to publish an EasyRead version of the budget at this point?

I appreciate that, and thanks for those comments. In your portfolio, a lot of the difference that will be made to people’s lives with regard to equality and human rights will come from spending in other portfolios. Therefore, I have not been reassured by the Deputy First Minister, and I have not heard from you about specific processes that you have been through with other ministers to demonstrate that you have made clear representations to them about the impact that cuts to their budgets could have on equalities. Is there anything that you could do to make that clearer for them? I worry about some of those funding areas.

Health and social care is another example. Last week, the committee heard from People First representatives, who said that, because of cuts to their packages, people are having to choose whether to go shopping for essential food, get help with their bills or shower. Can you give a sense of the importance and urgency of making those representations and of the processes that you are putting in place to ensure that budget decisions in other portfolios take account of equalities and human rights?

I am not frightened to say so.

I appreciate that answer. I will—

I will move on to the issue of minimum core standards. We have heard concerns from the Scottish Women’s Budget Group not only in this committee but in other committees that cuts to employability could remove poverty-prevention measures and take targeted support away from disabled people, single parents and women. What conversations are you having with the Deputy First Minister on that?

My understanding from conversations with various people who work locally is that there is no referral system to another agency. The DWP, for example, can make a direct referral, but that direct referral option is not available in Social Security Scotland. It sounds like there is a more manual workaround in which someone will tell a client that they should speak to Social Security Scotland or Social Security Scotland will say to a client that they should speak to one agency or another, but there is no automation of the referral process or even any directly recognised referral process. Is that clearer?

I thank the minister for that, although it was possibly a statement as opposed to an intervention. I could have predicted—despite my forgetting that I could take an intervention—that that particular intervention was coming.

I was about to say that I understand that there have been some difficulties with roll-out. It was interesting that the minister mentioned that it had been the Scottish Government’s engagement with the DWP to get the data that had been the issue. Therein lies my concern. I believe that both our Governments should be engaging much better on matters of household finances, particularly at a time of cost of living pressures. I honestly think that we need to get to a position in which both Governments can work more closely on that.

I was also about to say that I am not terribly interested in some of the negotiations between the Governments. However, I am interested in the fact that the families of thousands of children were not able to access the payment from the date at which the Scottish Government and others considered that it would be necessary for them to do so. Regardless of whether the fault lies at the door of the DWP or of the Scottish Government, if those families had got it at that date, the past two years would have been significantly better for them.

I again put on record my frustration about the roll-out to over-sixes, but I will finish where I started: by saying that we welcome any extra funding through the Scottish child payment that affected families can get at this time, and that we will vote for the regulations.