Memorandum submitted by the Equalities
Coordinating Group
POVERTY IN
SCOTLAND INQUIRY:
RELEVANCE OF
INEQUALITIES
I am writing on behalf of the Equalities Co-ordinating
Group (ECG) to welcome the Scottish Affairs Committee's inquiry
into poverty in Scotland. The ECG, which includes the three equality
Commissions in Scotland and the newer strands of sexual orientation,
religion and faith and age[115]
meets regularly once a month to discuss equality issues in Scotland
with a focus on enhancing legislation and good practice, often
meeting and working with Ministers and MSPs and MPs in order to
move the equalities agenda in Scotland forward. The Group:
— acts as a forum for information
and communications exchange;
— examines approaches towards
equality and in Scotland and promoting anti-discrimination in
a devolved Scotland; and
— appraises devolved policy and
legislation for its impact on equality.
The ECG welcomes the Committee's decision to
inquire into poverty in Scotland and, in particular, to examine
contributing factors to poverty and the impact of Government policy
on poverty. We believe there are clear links between inequalities
and poverty, which can be demonstrated across a number of indicators
as a result of age, disability, ethnicity and gender (and potentially
the other two strands of religion and sexual orientation), and
as a consequence we believe policies that seek to provide routes
out of poverty must also tackle discrimination and promote equality.
In this letter we therefore seek to highlight four issues: the
disproportionate impact of poverty on equalities groups; the data
problems that may mask unassessed poverty; the potential of closer
matching between reserved and devolved poverty initiatives on
equalities groups, and potential areas for enhancing current anti
poverty policy and delivery with regard to equalities groups.
Key indicators in regard to equality and poverty
in Scotland include:
— Scottish households with one
or more disabled persons are twice as likely to live in poverty
than those with no disabled people.
— According to the 2001 census,
people in Scotland describing themselves as belonging to the "Other
South Asian; African and Black Scottish or Other Black" ethnic
groups have higher than average proportions of their population
living in the most deprived areas of Scotland. In 2004-05, 25%
of all individuals living in households headed by an adult from
a minority ethnic group were living in relative low income households,
compared to 16% of those living in households headed by an adult
from a white ethnic group.
— 93% of all lone parent households
(with dependent children) in the 10% most deprived areas are female
lone parent households compared with 88% in the 10% least deprived
areas.
— 19% of pensioners and 280,000
children currently live in poverty.
However, as the Scottish Executive High Level
Summary of Equality Statistics acknowledges,[116]
it is not possible to break down all social and welfare trends
by all equality dimensions—for example, there is at present
little data to show whether there are links between religion or
sexual orientation and poverty in Scotland. In the case of religion
the Summary of Equality Statistics shows that people from some
religious groups including Muslims, Buddhists and Sikhs are more
likely to be unemployed than people from other religious groups
in Scotland and more likely to be economically inactive, and therefore
potentially more likely to be in poverty, but the data does not
go far enough to establish links. There appears to have been little
research into poverty and sexual orientation, with the exception
of a survey carried out by the Glasgow Women's Library in 1999
on poverty and exclusion of lesbians and gay men.
There are also limitations on how far some data
can be broken down, as it often contains small numbers, particularly
in the case of smaller ethnic groups and to some extent disability.
The ECG therefore has a concern that although poverty has a disproportionate
impact on minority groups in Scotland, this impact often goes
unacknowledged and unaddressed because the data to inform evidence-based
policymaking is lacking.
There is a further aspect regarding effective
anti-poverty planning and equalities in Scotland that arises out
of the practical impact of the devolution settlement. There have
recently been a number of welcome initiatives to reduce poverty
in Scotland including, on a reserved basis, incentives to work—such
as benefits and tax changes and the Access to Work Scheme—and
in skills, training, employability policies and issues—which
are all devolved matters. We feel however that some of these different
sets of policies on a reserved and devolved basis do not always
connect sufficiently, and that greater alignment and synergy may
be necessary to maximise impact and effectiveness in reducing
poverty in order to avoid a "devolution gap" between
reserved and devolved policy.
In addition to the devolved Closing the Opportunity
Gap and the Smart Successful Scotland Strategy initiatives, the
Committee may also wish to explore what else is required to identify
the underlying causes of exclusion and to measure the impact of
policies on disadvantaged groups. The refreshed Smart Successful
Scotland strategy already includes the important challenge to
overcome disadvantaged groups' under representation and reduced
economic activity in the labour market. Other recent initiatives
such as Workforce Plus and the NEET strategy are also likely to
have significant positive impacts on reducing poverty and reaching
disadvantaged groups. Nonetheless even more value could be achieved
by ensuring that such initiatives are equality impact assessed
more effectively, particularly in the development of their targets
and outcomes. The recent Scottish Executive Working Group Report
on Disability and the Scottish Parliament Disability Inquiry are
two examples of recent initiatives which have positively included
proposals for reducing poverty by disabled people.
As indicated above since routes into poverty
are influenced by inequalities as a result of age, disability,
ethnicity and gender (and potentially the other two strands of
religion and sexual orientation), then policies that seek to provide
routes out of poverty must also tackle discrimination and promote
equality. New data collection systems also need to be developed
and implemented to provide accurate measures of trends in poverty
and inequality.
Key is the need for the undertaking of equality
impact assessments and the mainstreaming of equalities into approaches
to poverty—one such opportunity being the recent proposal
to establish a central poverty unit within the Scottish Executive.
Without the mainstreaming of equalities into anti-poverty approaches
there is a danger that they could simply reinforce existing inequalities.
The ECG therefore hope that during the inquiry the Committee will
consider the links between inequalities and poverty and the need
for policy measures to tackle poverty which take account of and
seek to address the role played by inequalities.
If you would like further information about
these issues from the ECG during the course of your inquiry then
please do not hesitate to contact me as above, or Harriet Hall
at the Commission for Racial Equality Scotland.
Adam Gaines,
ECG Convener
27 March 2007
115 The ECG comprises: Disability Rights Commission
(Convener for 2006/7); Commission for Racial Equality; Equal Opportunities
Commission; Equality Network (sexual orientation); Age Concern
Scotland and the Scottish Inter Faith Council. In addition the
Group includes participating observers from the Scotland Office;
Equality Unit of the Scottish Executive; Equal Opportunities Committee
of the Scottish Parliament; Convention of Scottish Local Authorities
(CoSLA). Back
116
Scottish Executive, High Level Summary of Equality Statistics:
Key Trends for Scotland 2006, November 2006. Back
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