First Minister's comments on child poverty in the Official Report: FOI release

Information requested

1. The First Minister referred to “lifting hundreds of thousands of children out of poverty”. How many hundreds of thousands does he believe have been lifted out of poverty? And if that number is less than two hundred thousand, please provide an explanation for why the First Minister has not corrected the Official Report to remove the reference to “hundreds”, and

2. any further advice which has superseded the September 2024 [“Explanation of Child Poverty Modelling”] advice. If no such further advice exists, please provide the Scottish Government’s explanation for the First Minister contravening the September 2024 advice.

Response

The answers to your questions are:

1. The First Minister wrote to the Presiding Officer on 27 February 2025 to ask that the Official Report be corrected in relation to the reference above. Details of the correction can be found on the Scottish Parliament website at: Corrections and changes to the Official Report | Scottish Parliament Website.

2. No further advice has been provided which supersedes the briefing for Ministers previously published in response to FoI request reference: FOI/202400432525. As noted above, the First Minister requested a correction of the Official Report on 27 February 2025. This is now reflected in the Official Report.

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