Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement 2022-2023

Impacts on different groups of people

This section looks at which parts of the Scottish Budget are particularly important for people with the characteristics set out in the introduction.

It responds to the inequalities discussed in the Equality and Fairer Scotland Budget Statement templates, and so it only includes a selection of key budget responses.

Socio-economic disadvantage

• Social security assistance and welfare payments will reach over £4 billion – this includes £197 million for the Scottish Child Payment, which will be doubled to £20 per week and extended to under 16s.
• £23.6 million for Fair Start Scotland, to fund employment support for people in the most deprived areas.
• Up to £200 million to support educational recovery from the pandemic and accelerate progress in tackling the poverty related attainment gap.
• £304 million for bus services, which are particularly important to people on lower incomes.
• Over £2 million for activities linked to our national plan on ending the need for food banks.
• £831 million for affordable housing and £10 million for our Ending Homelessness Together Action Plan.
• An additional £250 million for drug treatment and support over the next five years, including £100 million in residential rehabilitation. Problematic drug use and drug deaths are more common in the most deprived communities.
• £11.5 million on the International Development Fund, whose projects aim to reduce poverty in our partner countries.
• Continued progressive use of income tax powers, aiming to protect taxpayers on low incomes and raise revenue to fund high-quality public services for all.

Children & young people

• Budget for the expansion of funded early learning and childcare, plus £3 million for the early phases of a school age childcare system and £10 million towards holiday childcare for low income families.
• £24 million for measures to help with the cost of the school day, over £40 million to continue expanding free lunches to all primary pupils, and over £21 million for free lunches during the school holidays.
• £45 million in employment support for young people who face long-term scarring effects from the pandemic.
• £10 million of the Tackling Child Poverty Fund to support families in the six priority groups most likely to be in child poverty.
• Up to £40 million for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and at least £15 million for community mental health services for children and young people.
• £110 million for free bus travel for young people under the age of 22.

Older people

• Over £1.6 billion for social care and integration, including laying the groundwork for the establishment of a National Care Service.
• £11 million capital investment to help registered social landlords provide housing adaptations for their older (and disabled) tenants.
• Free bus travel for people aged 60 or over.
• Funding to promote flexible working, which will support workers over 50 who may take on more caring responsibilities.
• Funding for Historic Environment Scotland to develop digital delivery methods which allow visitors to access historic sites in new ways.
• £10 million to tackle social isolation and loneliness across all age groups in this parliamentary session.

Disability

• Over £2 billion for the delivery of more complex disability assistance payments.
• Funding to implement A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan.
• Free bus travel for disabled people.
• Extra support for unpaid carers, with a total of £357 million on Carer's Allowance and our Carer's Allowance Supplement.
• Expected total spend on mental health in excess of £1.2 billion.
• £53.3 million to deliver life-changing financial awards to those in receipt of Independent Living Fund Scotland support.

Gender reassignment

• Spend on Scotland's Census 2022, which will for the first time include a voluntary question on trans status or history for those over 16 and provide the first official estimate of the trans population in Scotland.
• Funding to implement a national strategic framework for improving gender identity services.
• Implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 and development of a new hate crime strategy.
• Over £298,000 for respectme, Scotland's anti-bullying service.
• Funding for the hate crime charter to ensure transport is free from hate crime, bullying and harassment.
• A range of investment in work to advance equality for trans people, including supporting a new working group for non-binary people.

Pregnancy & maternity

• Funding for Scottish Prison Service and other agencies who will continue to transform the female custodial estate to address the specific needs of women, including pregnant women.
• Expansion of funded early learning and childcare.
• Investment from the Tackling Child Poverty Fund to support lone parents and those with a child under one, as two of our priority family groups.
• Funding to improve perinatal and infant mental health, including up to £8 million to improve statutory services and up to £3 million to develop integrated infant mental health services.

Race

• £980,000 of Migration Strategy Funding to help safeguard EU citizens' rights and to support work on wider migration policy issues.
• Implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 and development of a new hate crime strategy.
• Funding for a public inquiry to ensure that the circumstances surrounding the death of Sheku Bayoh are examined in a public and transparent manner.
• Funding for a new ethnicity pay gap strategy and for a hate crime charter to ensure transport is free from hate crime, bullying and harassment.
• Funding to address housing inequality for people of minority ethnicities, including the £20 million Gypsy/Traveller Accommodation Fund (2021-26), £10 million on the Ending Homelessness Together Fund and £122,575 for the Scottish Refugee Council's Ending Homelessness for New Scots Project.
• Ongoing funding for work with the Scottish Refugee Council around proactive or on-demand translation of election information materials.

Religion & belief

• Funding for new data collection on the diversity of candidates at the May 2022 local government elections, including data on religion and belief.
• Fair work funding will support people of different religions and beliefs, including through using the Workplace Equality Fund to support projects that tackle workplace barriers.
• Implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 and development of a new hate crime strategy, plus funding for a range of measures to prevent crime, including religiously aggravated crime.
• Funding for the hate crime charter to ensure transport is free from hate crime, bullying and harassment.

Sex

• Lone parents and low income mothers will experience a positive impact from tackling child poverty spend, including the increased spend on the Scottish Child Payment and Child Bridging Payments.
• Spend on fair work, which includes funding to continue the support for Women Returners, to support the promotion of fair work principles including the Real Living Wage, living hours and work place equalities, and to support and promote flexible working practices.
• A new £500,000 International Development Women and Girls Empowerment Fund.
• Subsidised bus services, which are particularly important for women, a new Community Bus Fund and £150 million on active travel will support projects addressing women's safety concerns around cycling.
• £100 million over the next three years for frontline violence against women and girls services and prevention work, including £19 million for the Delivering Equally Safe Fund each year.
• £1.7 million for suicide prevention, which particularly affects men.

Sexual orientation

• Spend on Scotland's Census 2022, which will for the first time include a voluntary question on sexual orientation for those over 16 and help address evidence gaps.
• Funding for respectme, Scotland's anti-bullying service, which aims to give children and young people practical skills and confidence to deal with all types of bullying behaviour.
• Investment in self-harm services is likely to positively benefit this group, who experience higher rates of self-harm.
• Implementation of the Hate Crime and Public Order (Scotland) Act 2021 and development of a new hate crime strategy.
• Funding for the hate crime charter to ensure that people of different sexual orientations feel comfortable and safe using public transport.
• Funding for new data collection on the diversity of candidates at the May 2022 local government elections, including data on sexual orientation.