Government risks breaching law on child poverty targets, charity warns

The Scottish Government is at risk of breaching its own law on meeting child poverty targets, a charity has warned.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation (JRF) said the Government’s latest tackling child poverty delivery plan is open to legal challenge as it fails to set out how its targets will be met.

The Child Poverty (Scotland) Act passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2017 set legal targets to reduce relative child poverty to less than 10% by 2030/31.

JRF said the latest figure for 2022-25 was 21%, which it said came despite “positive steps” such as the introduction of the Scottish child payment.

The charity on Monday published a briefing which it says is underpinned by legal advice from a KC, and suggests that if the delivery plan was challenged in court through a judicial review, the action could be successful.

The charity has joined with Save the Children (Scotland), Poverty Alliance, the Child Poverty Action Group in Scotland, One Parent Families Scotland, Trussell, and Aberlour to call on the Scottish Government to rewrite the delivery plan and set out clearly how it will meet the targets.

Chris Birt, associate director for Scotland at JRF, said: “The legally-binding targets were set so Scotland could be transformed into a place where child poverty is a lot rarer than it is today.

“That would be a Scotland where those children and their families who need support are more likely to get it, and where every child in our society has the chance to explore their potential.

“John Swinney has said eradicating child poverty is a ‘defining mission’ of his new Government. To achieve that, his Government needs to significantly raise its ambition for transforming children’s lives.

“The most important thing now is for the Scottish Government to bring forward a bolder delivery plan. This analysis highlights that it is crucial to recognise that the Child Poverty Act is more than a statement of intent, it is a legal obligation.

“People in Scotland are demanding better, and our children deserve better. We hope this analysis can spur the Scottish Government into bringing forward a more radical plan that will strive to meet those poverty reduction targets with every sinew.”

The Scottish Government published its latest tackling child poverty delivery plan in March.

However, JRF believes it falls short of the legal standards required, as it said it fails – even on the Government’s own assessment – to commit to measures to meet the targets.

The JRF briefing states: “We take the view that the Act obliges the Scottish Government to set out a plan that contains a range of measures that will meet the 2030/31 targets, and that this should include a quantitative assessment of how they will do so.

“We also take the view that the delivery plan fails to meet this standard.”

The charity said its legal advice indicates ministers may also have breached the Act on the grounds of the scope of the plan as it only covers one year rather than five years.

Peter Kelly, chief executive of the Poverty Alliance, said: “The legal advice published today tells us what we already know: the current tackling child poverty delivery plan simply is not enough to meet Scotland’s child poverty targets.”

Social Justice and Housing Secretary Shirley-Anne Somerville said: “Our child poverty delivery plan is entirely focused on tackling the scourge of child poverty within the powers we have.

“It meets the requirements of the Act that this Government introduced as part of our long-standing commitment to tackle child poverty.

“As the only Government in the UK to have ambitious, legally binding child poverty targets, it sets out a robust framework and clear action to drive continued progress in reducing child poverty.

“This includes remaining steadfast in our support of our social security measures, like the Scottish child payment, which is only available in Scotland, despite sustained attacks on their merit, and which we will increase to £40 per week during 2027-28 for parents of children under one.

“Our approach means Scottish Government policies are helping to keep around an estimated 100,000 children out of relative poverty this year alone, and we’re going further by investing £40 million to help parents boost their earnings through skills opportunities and transport support, expanding year-round childcare to all children from nine-months to the end of primary school, delivering a national breakfast club programme backed by £100 million over three years, and taking other measures to support people through cost of living such as a basic food and bus price cap.

“We welcome partners working with us to deliver on our shared and bold ambition to eradicate child poverty.”