Once approved, the Child Poverty (Scotland) Bill will mean for the first time in its history, the Scottish Government will be responsible for meeting targets to reduce and ultimately end child poverty in the country.
The move will also see Scotland become the only part of the UK with statutory targets to reduce the number of children experiencing the effects of poverty by 2030.
A survey by the End Child Poverty coalition last year found that more than 200,000 children in Scotland are living in poverty.
The draft legislation sets an initial target of cutting the number of children in ‘relative poverty’ to less than 10 per cent by 2030, and in ‘absolute poverty’ to less than five per cent. As of December 2016, there were 22 per cent of children in ‘relative poverty’ and 21 per cent in ‘absolute poverty’.
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