Equality and Human Rights Budget Advisory Group minutes: December 2023

Attendees and apologies

Chair

• Angela O'Hagan (AOH)

Attendees

• Joanna Anderson (JA)
• Joanne Briggs (JB)
• Emma Congreve (EC)
• Ali Hosie (AH)
• Tom Lamplugh (TL)
• Carmen Martinez (CM)
• Rob Priestley (RP)
• Fiona Robertson (FR)
• Simon Wakefield (SW)

Observers

• Jacqueline Farmer (JF)
• Julia McCombie (JM)
• Erin Prior (EP)

Apologies

• Nick Bland
• Jamie MacDougall

Secretariat

• Niamh Cannon (NCa)/Naomi Clark (NC)

Items and actions

Welcome

Angela O’Hagan (AOH) welcomed the group and outlined the agenda. AOH updated the group on the Cabinet meeting she attended on the 5 December ahead of pre-budget scrutiny and advised she would share the presentation slides.

Concluding SHRC (AH) conversation from last month on the Open Budget Work

The group picked up the conversation following Ali Hosie’s (AH) presentation from the last meeting. AH spoke about the principles of a budget process and how this can be aligned with the purpose or what is trying to be achieved. AH highlighted that it is important to work backwards from questions such as: what values is a budget trying to serve? What is the goal? Further explaining that the principles and transparency of a budget also help us scrutinise budgets.

The conversation moved to linking AH’s points to the meeting AOH had with Cabinet. AOH stated that a point she made in this meeting on the budget process was that there was an absence of good analysis and evidence, and that budget priorities need to be better highlighted, e.g. child poverty and social care. Reinforcing the points AH  made on the importance of principles and transparency of a budget.

AOH asked Carmen Martinez (CM) if she had any comments on the Four Nations Seminar with the UK Women’s Budget Group that took place the previous day. CM shared the following points with the Group:

• The seminars are a chance for SWBG to share information with other organisations on what is happening in current affairs.
• In this webinar, the impact of the UK budget was the main focus - especially the caps to NI contributions and inflation.
• One of the challenges was the current state of the economy in the UK. We have seen a rise in taxes, however people are not seeing the benefits. The general public can’t see the connection between higher taxes and improving the current state of the economy.
• CM highlighted the dire situation in Northern Ireland that was discussed at the webinar as they have received less funding than in previous years. This is having a real impact on women Northern Ireland. It has the highest number of universal credit and childcare claimants.

AH noted that publication of the Open Budget Report will be in May and that there will be new recommendations alongside this.

Update on 24/25 EFSBS and OECD Gender Budget pilots

Simon Wakefield (SW) gave updates on the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement (EFSBS). He shared the following points with the group:

• Scottish Government colleagues are in the process of writing the document.
• Taking into consideration on how to be more transparent on how evidence is used in the budget process, Scottish Government are taking a case study approach and using a framework of six key questions that were developed by EHRBAG in 2019. Each of the eight case studies answers these questions and this informs a large part of the publication.
• The Ministerial Workshop was new part of the process this year
•  Stakeholders said Annex D of last year’s publication was very detailed, and efforts have been made to streamline this aspect.

SW then went on to give updates on the work Scottish Government are doing with OECD. He covered the following points:

• Scherie Nicol from OECD has been talking to colleagues in SG from different areas to start the work she will be doing on gender budgeting for SG. The aim is to make incremental improvements to the existing process around gender budgeting. SN will be drawing comparisons from her work with other countries to help do so.
• In the new year, Scottish Government will be looking at capacity building and carrying out one or two pilots with OECD.
• SW stated that thoughts from EHRBAG will be welcome on the work with OECD once the budget is through and the work is underway - there is an opportunity for good collaboration here.

Following SW’s summary, AOH noted the importance of making people aware of the EFSBS publication and how they can use it.

AOH asked if more information could be shared on the Ministerial Workshop. SW explained Cabinet Secretaries presented evidence of how the EFSBS had been considered in budget decisions and discussed the issues they had faced. JM added that almost a full Cabinet attended the workshop, and it was an excellent opportunity for Ministers to come together and discuss Equalities and Human Rights Budgeting.

Erin Prior (EP) spoke on Your Scotland Your Finance publication (YSYF) which pulls year-round budget info into one live document. Scottish Government are looking to make improvements to this document such as simplifying language to make it more accessible.

2023 EHRBAG successes and challenges

AOH started the discussion by listing just a few of the EHRBAG highlights this year such as:

• Meetings with the Cabinet, the Minister of Equalities, Migration and Refugees attending EHRBAG and the Deputy First Minister
• The publication of Scottish Government’s response to the EHRBAG recommendations
• The increased alignment with the PfG, Budget process and EFSBS this year, and in addition the continued improvements being made to the EFSBS process
• The ongoing work Scottish Government is undertaking with OECD on gender budgeting

Naomi Clark (NC) highlighted that the EHRBAG work plan for 2024 has been drafted and will include the EHRBAG action plan. This will be shared with members in the New Year.

Julia McCombie (JM) gave thanks on behalf of Scottish Government to the Group and Chair for their valued advice, patience and engagement.