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I can bring in Nick Bland—actually, Matthew Elsby would be better on that issue.

It goes without saying that it is essential to have good quality, robust data. There are always calls for more of it. I hear calls for intersectional data, as well, to inform good policy making.

The EFSBS uses information gathered from different portfolios to support ministerial decisions as part of the budget process. This year, the document included, in the distributional analysis, new analysis of the impact of some areas of public service spending. Chapter 1 of the EFSBS sets out how the budget process integrated evidence on equality and fairness, through the ministerial workshops and better integration with the programme for government.

As Matthew Elsby said, the budget does not determine every single decision for the Government. Cabinet secretaries will consider the evidence available when they make their many decisions outside the budget process as well. For example, data was used in the setting of tax and social security policy, as demonstrated in the distributional analysis document. In that tax example, we know that there are different outcomes for men and women, and we can break those categories down into, for instance, women who are in an ethnic minority and those who are disabled. That gives an indication of the layers upon layers of data that we need.

Another thing, which I mentioned in a previous committee meeting, is that I am mindful of making sure that we have the robust data sets that we need and that we have enough data, because sometimes we drill down so much that we are talking about very small numbers. The numbers tell a story but not a complete story, which is why I keep saying that the process must be qualitative as well as quantitative. If you triangulate the data with the voice of lived experience, you get a clearer picture on which to make decisions. Making decisions purely based on numbers would further exacerbate situations for those who are already marginalised, and we want to be absolutely sure that that does not happen.

The Scottish Government is continually in the process of improving equality and intersectional data collection. We encourage its analysis, publication and, when sample size allows, robust disaggregation.

Forty-five actions are set out in the equality evidence strategy, which is overseen by the EDIP project board that you referred to. Those actions, which are the key mechanism to advance the equality evidence base, cover improvements to all main equality variables: 33 cover data on race, 30 cover data on disability and long-term conditions and 16 cover intersectionality. As the equality evidence strategy moves into its final year, the key task across the Scottish Government will be to work across all the analytical areas, as well as with external stakeholders, to set out a new strategy to prioritise and fill remaining gaps in equality and intersectional data.

I expect that that will include expanding disaggregation of quantitative data sets, where that is possible with the sample sizes; utilising qualitative data and lived experience to allow for insight into differentiated experiences, which may not always come through in the quantitative data; and drawing on the mix of evidence to identify the relevant research questions from an intersectional point of view.

In addition to those improvements, which we are working towards, we expect policy areas to take a proportionate approach to the existing evidence base in order to ensure that they have enough information to enable ministers to take equality-informed budget decisions.

I know my organisations but, with the best will in the world, I could not say that unless I had the list in front of me, which I could then cross-check. It could be the case, but it might not be so—I cannot give a definitive answer. I can say that it is not necessarily the size of the organisation but the service that it provides that is the important thing. Obviously, the Government wants to deliver services: it is about the organisation that is best placed to deliver that service, and its size is not the most significant factor.

We know that families from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds are one of the six priority family types that are identified in our tackling child poverty delivery plan as being at the greatest risk of poverty. We recognise that the intersection with other protected characteristics, including disability, increases the risk of living in poverty. Since 2018, the Scottish Government has strengthened the evidence base on poverty, building on a series of focus reports, including on minority ethnic families, that outline the challenges and barriers faced as well as policy approaches that might be taken that are successful in addressing those challenges.

Remember that tackling poverty and inequality is a priority for all ministerial portfolios, so those actions should be driven across the Government to deliver on that progress. That includes our more focused work, such as on the take-up of devolved social security benefits and benefits for seldom-heard groups, and our anti-racist employment strategy, which is focused on addressing structural barriers to enable more people from racialised minorities to access, sustain and progress in employment. Understanding how we can address unacceptable levels of poverty for Black and ethnic minority families is a shared endeavour that we will continue to drive forward, and the member knows that I will do that.

Yes, absolutely. Please write to me with any supplementary questions that you have.

I will bring in Nick Bland.

I believe that the overall budget for delivering the equally safe strategy has increased. I was at the launch of that, with SAY Women. Indeed, that was an excellent visit. That organisation provides support to women and girls between the ages of 16 and 24 who are dealing with sexual abuse and violence. I think that there was an uplift in equally safe funding of £2.4 million, approximately.

You raise a very important point, and I acknowledge your long-standing interest in that area. I suppose that you are referring to advocacy groups in particular, as a lot of organisations provide that as a service. We have taken the approach that we place both equality and human rights at the heart of everything that we do—which relates to fairness, equality, dignity, respect, autonomy, empowerment and participation. Out of the 48 organisations that are being funded, 43 might be categorised as equality advocacy groups.

Nick Bland has some further detail on that.

I am pleased to be invited back to give evidence to the committee. I look forward to providing you with updates on what I am doing to ensure that equality, inclusion and human rights are embedded in the budget and across wider Scottish Government processes.

On competence raising, there is a welcome alignment this week for the committee to fall on. Currently, more than 1,000 Scottish Government officials are participating in equality, inclusion and human rights development academy week, which is a new initiative that forms a key part in further building civil servants’ competence and capability in how to embed equality, inclusion and human rights in everything that we do in Government. I was delighted to contribute to the sessions and, in a recorded interview, I set out the importance of mainstreaming and my personal commitment to demonstrating visible leadership in that area as the Minister for Equalities.

The Government is equally focused on building competence and capability across the public sector. In recent weeks, I have met the Scottish councils’ equality network, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, more than 100 public sector equality duty bearers and 14 equality groups at our equality outcome-setting events, at which I have communicated my expectations and provided active leadership.

This year’s budget focuses on building a positive future and improving the lives of everyone in Scotland. It does so through our resolute focus on the First Minister’s four priorities: eradicating child poverty, growing the economy, tackling the climate emergency and ensuring high-quality public services. This year’s changes to the equality and fairer Scotland budget statement—the EFSBS—focused on improving how evidence feeds into the budget decision-making process and how decisions can be communicated more clearly. Key improvements were an earlier ministerial workshop, publication of gender budgeting pilots and the creation of a more streamlined document. Many of the key decisions highlighted in the EFSBS show positive impacts across many protected groups, such as the increase in the availability of affordable housing that will benefit groups who are more likely to experience poverty or housing insecurity.

I am well aware of the committee’s interest in the Scottish Government’s progress against the recommendations of the equalities and human rights budget advisory group—EHRBAG. That is why, along with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government, I wrote to the committee last week to update members on that.

On accountability, I will continue to champion the three principles of human rights budgeting. I note that, in the Scottish Parliament information centre’s recent blog on pre-budget scrutiny, colleagues recognised the personal accountability that I take in my ministerial role. Although I am not directly responsible for budget decision making, I take my role in mainstreaming equality and human rights very seriously. I will continue to do that so that I can hold myself and colleagues accountable.

I am already looking ahead to how we can continue to improve our processes next year. With that in mind, I will build on the collaborative partnership that was developed last year with the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to improve equality and human rights in the budget process. In addition, when I last spoke to the committee, in November, I outlined my plans to carry out one-to-one engagements with my ministerial colleagues. To date, I have held nine meetings, with more happening in the coming weeks. I have been clear that, as ministers, we have a shared obligation to tackle inequality and to progress human rights. I have put across to my colleagues the importance of ensuring that equality impact assessments are carried out from the outset of policy development. I have asked them to highlight to their officials the importance that they place on high-quality and frank impact assessments as key tools to inform decision making. The remit to fully assess the impacts of our proposed policies includes spending cuts, which is critical.

I hope that the committee recognises the Government’s commitment to continuing improvement in equality and human rights budgeting and the actions that we are taking to achieve that. I absolutely acknowledge that there is more to be done. We will continue to listen and will use the feedback from this committee and other stakeholders.

I will be meeting the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands very shortly. There are many people to talk to, and I have got through nine ministers so far. My offer is that I am quite happy to raise anything that comes up today at that meeting, which is yet to come.

I suppose that you are talking about targeted funding to address the sort of geographical issues with regard to rurality and inequality that you highlighted. I understand the issues that are faced by marginalised communities in remote, island and rural settings, and we are absolutely committed to supporting them. Something that the First Minister has encouraged is that, when we make visits as ministers, we do so on a cross-portfolio basis. Therefore, on our summer tours of constituencies, I made a special effort to visit rural and island communities and look at housing provision, and I was able to speak to not only our delivery partners but residents, including potential residents, and communities and see the challenges at first hand. I would not have known all that just by sitting in Holyrood. We are getting out and about and speaking to real people, and that is informing me and allowing me to be in a position to challenge and support my colleagues.

We need to ensure that the services that we offer are tailored specifically to the challenges that people face. Like everything else, rural impacts should be taken into account in all Scottish Government portfolios; in other words, any good policy should already be thinking about its impact across Scotland, including rural areas. Moreover, we have island communities impact assessments, which must be carried out in relation to any policy, strategy or service whose effect on an island community is likely to be significantly different from its effect on, say, another community. Those assessments must also consider the impacts on different groups on an island, too. I would say that, through such an approach, we are actually drilling down to what sometimes can be quite small numbers, which brings me back to what I was saying earlier about our challenges with regard to data sets.

We are in the process of introducing a new systemic approach, which is called the rural assessment toolkit, to aid that further and enable a greater focus to be applied to the unique needs of rural communities and businesses. That toolkit will support civil servants to understand the unique characteristics, challenges and opportunities of rural areas and weave those through all the stages of policy development so that, again, policy is being influenced early—thereby creating more robust policy that is more reflective of needs.