Publications

June 2024

The Poverty and Inequality Commission’s Annual Report covers the period from 1 April 2023 until 31 March 2024.  It looks back at the work the Commission has carried out in the last 12 months, how it aligns with the Commission’s strategic priorities, and how the Commission has spent its budget.

Download: Poverty and Inequality Commission – Annual Report 2023-24

4 June 2024

The Poverty and Inequality Commission has published its Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24. The report sets out the Commission’s view on progress in 2023-24 towards meeting Scotland’s statutory child poverty targets.

Download Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24 Executive Summary (pdf, 1.27MB)

Download the full Child Poverty Scrutiny Report 2023-24 (pdf, 3.12MB)

This year, the Commission focused its scrutiny by looking more closely at the Scottish Government’s ‘priority family types’. These are the six family types that are at higher risk of poverty. The Commission worked with eight organisations who work directly with people from priority family types to get families’ views on their awareness of Scottish Government policies designed to reduce poverty, how well they felt these policies were working, and what else they felt was needed.

The Commission’s report makes four recommendations for the Scottish Government:

• Recommendation 1: The Scottish Government should convene and lead a national cross-party and civil society agreement to develop a shared six year strategy to meet the 2030 child poverty targets. This cross-party approach should consider the choices that need to be made around tax and spending.
• Recommendation 2: The Scottish Government should reprioritise funding to ensure that the necessary resources are made available to deliver both its existing commitments and future actions to tackle child poverty. This will require the Scottish Government to reprioritise budgets across portfolios and consider the eligibility criteria for different services and support.
• Recommendation 3: The Scottish Government should act quickly on the recommendations set out in the Commission’s report How better tax policy can reduce poverty and inequality.
• Recommendation 4: The Scottish Government should clarify and further develop how the priority family types are used to inform policy development, implementation and monitoring in policy areas related to the three key drivers of poverty.

In preparing its own annual child poverty progress report, the Scottish Government must consult the Poverty and Inequality Commission on the progress that has been made towards meeting the child poverty targets and what more is needed. The Scottish Government’s Best Start, Bright Futures Tackling Child Poverty Progress Report 2023-24 can be found here.

The Poverty and Inequality Commission has published its Biodiversity report for 2021-2023. Under the Nature Conservation (Scotland) Act 2004, all public bodies in Scotland are under a statutory duty to further the conservation of biodiversity when carrying out their responsibilities. Public bodies are required to report every three years on the actions which they have taken to meet this biodiversity duty.

Download the Commission’s Biodiversity Report 2021-23

22 December 2023

In August 2021, the Commission established its first Experts by Experience Panel made up of 19 people from across Scotland with lived experience of poverty. The Panel was developed to embed participation in the work of the Commission and to ensure that those with lived experience of poverty were engaged in all aspects of the Commission’s work. The Panel ran for almost two years, until June 2023.

The Commission has produced a learning report that details the purpose, process and context of the Commission’s approach to establishing and working with the Panel. We hope that the learning will improve participation work within the Commission and also prove useful for others engaged in, or seeking to develop, participatory processes with experts by experience.

In the report, you will find details of:

• The Commission’s objectives in establishing the Panel.
• The context in which the Panel was established and embedded.
• The Commission’s approach to embedding the participation of the Panel in its work, including principles, design, methods and approach to learning.
• Details of the activities that the Panel took part in.
• The impact of the Panel on Panel members, the Commission and Scottish Government.
• Reflections on and key learning from the Commission’s work with the Panel.

Download the full report, including a summary here
(PDF, 48 Pages, 1.12 MB)

Download a summary of the report here
(PDF, 8 Pages, 595 KB)

Download the visual summary from the report here
(PDF, 3 Pages, 302 KB)

Case Studies of some key pieces of work the Panel contributed to can be found here: Case Studies – Experts by Experience Panel (2021 – 2023)

Supplementary Documents

Panel Terms of Reference

The Panel worked with the Commission to develop Terms of Reference. This outlined the purpose of the Panel, the details of membership, the roles of Panel members and the Commission, and ways of working.
Panel Terms of Reference_2021-23 (.docx, 45kb)

Panel Group Agreement

The Panel worked with the Commission to develop a Group Agreement. This outlined how Panel members, members of the Secretariat and Commissioners work together in a group context.
Panel Group Agreement_2021-23(.docx, 53kb)

Further Survey Results

At the links below, you will find a summary of responses from Panel members and Commissioners to the questions asked in a series of surveys that have, along with other evidence, informed this report.

• Results of survey with Panel members in Spring 2022
• Results of survey with Commissioners in Spring 2022
• Results of survey with Panel members in Spring 2023

December 2023

The Poverty and Inequality Commission recognises that taking an intersectional approach is critical in tackling poverty and inequality in Scotland. Many of those who are in deepest poverty will experience overlapping discrimination and intersecting inequalities, and by trying to understand and respond to their experiences and needs we are more likely to be able to design policies and actions that meet the needs of everyone who experiences poverty.

The Commission is committed to working towards taking an intersectional approach to developing its advice and scrutiny. This strategy sets out how we will go about doing this.

Download our Intersectionality Strategy