---

Child Poverty in Scotland

If the hon. Gentleman bears with me, I shall come to that issue shortly. There is a risk that children from the poorest homes will miss out when it comes to teams, choirs and bands because of the higher cost of fuel. They might therefore miss out on an important part of growing up. I was delighted that the Committee urged"““the UK Government, the Scottish Executive and local authorities to consider ways in which the high costs of transport in rural areas can be alleviated.””" It is urgently necessary that that recommendation be taken on board. Those of us who represent Scotland’s remote communities tabled amendments to the previous two Finance Bills, on Report, for a lower rate of fuel duty in remote communities. We will table similar amendments this year. The Government would not accept our amendments to the previous two Bills, and the Conservative party sat on its hands, but the situation is now critical. I hope that, this year, both the Government and the Conservative party will take the Committee’s recommendations on board and support amendments that would allow fuel duty to be charged at a reduced rate in remote communities. I have been focusing on powers reserved to the UK Government, but I now want to draw the House’s attention to two disastrous SNP policies that will increase poverty in many parts of the highlands and islands. First, the SNP reversed the plans of the previous Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition at Holyrood for a 40 per cent. ferry fare discount for passengers who live on many of our islands and peninsulas. That is a complete scandal, as those discounts were targeted at passengers, not cars, and would have helped the poorest islanders with their travel costs.