Justification of 2-child cap statement made by the Finance Secretary: FOI release

Information request and response under the Freedom of Information (Scotland) Act 2002.


Information requested

In the budget statement delivered in the Scottish Parliament on 4th December 2024, Shona Robison said this:

“This government is ending the 2-child cap and in doing so we will lift over 15,000 Scottish children out of poverty.”

Please provide the calculations and sources justifying the 15,000 figure mentioned above.

Response

The estimate of 15,000 children, as referenced by the Scottish Government communications during the budget statement on 4th December 2024, has come from the Child Poverty Action Group. As noted in Scottish Government communications (e.g. the News Release issued on 5th December: Scrapping the two-child limit - gov.scot), it is the Child Poverty Action Group (CPAG) which estimates that mitigating the two-child limit in Scotland could lift around 15,000 children out of poverty.

Please find below some further links to the published information from CPAG available on their website:

https://cpag.org.uk/sites/default/files/2024-12/Cost_of_a_Child_Scotland_2024.pdf

Priorities for the 2024-25 Programme for Government | CPAG

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at https://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

Contact

Please quote the FOI reference
Central Correspondence Unit
Email: contactus@gov.scot
Phone: 0300 244 4000

The Scottish Government
St Andrew's House
Regent Road
Edinburgh
EH1 3DG

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