Talking-up Scotland

The United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities report on the extent to which the UK complies with its convention was published yesterday. Unsurprisingly, given what we already know of Tory government, it condemns them thoroughly. The only positive comments are reserved entirely for the actions of the Scottish Government:

• Repeatedly calling for the UK Government’s Personal Independent Payment regulations to be repealed and for a review of the Employment and Support Allowance conditionality and sanction regimes
• Engaging with disabled people and the organisations representing them when devising policies and legislation which impact upon their lives – specifically in building the new social security system and in compiling our national plan to implement the Convention’s principles
• Adoption of the Accessible Travel Framework and the work underway to make transport systems in Scotland more open and accessible 
• Following the passing of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 the Scottish Government will publish its first National Plan for British Sign Language in October

We can now add to this the recent Scottish Government allocation of £2.5 million to 13 projects across Scotland designed to ‘improve employment support’ by ‘linking with health and social care, justice and housing services.’

Scottish Government continues to show that it takes its responsibilities to care for its people seriously unlike its callous self-centred Tory neighbours

With regard to the UK Government, the UN has called for these actions:

• The UK Government’s Personal Independent Payment regulations should be repealed and there should be a review of the Employment and Support Allowance conditionality and sanction regimes
• The UK Government must do more to engage with disabled people and the organisations representing them when devising policies and legislation which impact upon their lives

Evidence that these actions are desperately needed in England can be found in reports like this from the Guardian in May this year:

Pushing people to the brink of suicide: the reality of benefit assessments

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/may/04/benefits-assessments-damaging-lives-hardworking-britain

and this from the Huffington Post in July:

Almost 600 Suicides Could Be Related to DWP Work Assessments, Claims New Research

http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/11/16/dwp-suicides-assessments-research_n_8577038.html

Don’t read them if you’re feeling at all down. Remind me why so many Scots voted Tory at the last election?

https://news.gov.scot/news/praise-for-scottish-government-actions