Incorporating HC 168-i to x, session 2006-07

Child poverty in Scotland has reduced significantly since 1997 due to unprecedented levels of investment and a political determination to reduce poverty, but the Scottish Affairs Committee expresses some concern that such progress maybe slowing. The objective of halving child poverty by 2010 will require extra resources and commitment. Poverty can be endemic from generation to generation, but reducing child poverty can break such a cycle of deprivation. Child poverty reduction can occur through improving the incomes of parents, but an integrated strategy between the Scottish Executive and local authorities could bring about greater improvements, though problems still remain with inconsistencies and complexies within the welfare system. The Committee believes the key to the reduction of child poverty lies in tackling low pay, job retention and career advancement. Also access to affordable childcare could improve the opportunities for parents to undertake training. Child Tax Credits have also been a key factor in reducing child proverty, but greater awareness of individual entitlements could be improved. Also the tax and benefits system must be flexible enough to respond to the changing needs of individuals in moving out of poverty trap.

Thisÿ1-hourÿfree course explored the issues faced by people living in poverty in Scotland, from the perspective of the people themselves.

Politics in Scotland is an authoritative introduction to the contemporary political landscape in Scotland and an essential text for undergraduate and postgraduate students of Scottish Politics. Written by leading experts in the field, it is coherently organised to provide a clear and comprehensive overview of a range of themes in contemporary Scottish Politics. Key topics include: • Government and electoral behaviour. • Representation and political parties in Scotland. • Public policy and Scotland’s relationship with the rest of the world. • Scottish politics both in the run up to and after the 2014 referendum. • The Future of Scottish government and politics. This textbook will be essential reading for students of Scottish politics, British Politics, devolution, government and policy.

A new analysis of mind/body unity, based on the philosophy of Spinoza.

Scotland faces its biggest choice since the 1707 union that made the United Kingdom - should Scotland be an independent country? The Yes and No campaigns are well under way but with the vote looming closer the information available to the public is still limited. What will happen after the referendum? What are the international implications? What about the UK's nuclear deterrant, currently housed in Scotland? What happens if the vote is 'No'? Is it even clear what independence will mean? What about the oil? What will the currency be? What will happen to the Old Age Pension pot if the UK splits? Scotland's Choices, now fully revised for the critical last few months before the referendum, does just that. Written by one former civil servant, one academic and one think-tanker - one a resident Scot, one a Scot living in England and one an Englishman - the authors clearly explain the issues you may not have considered and detail how each of the options would be put into place after the referendum.

An account of poor relief in Guernsey from the Reformation to the twenty-first century, incorporating a detailed case-study of the St Peter Port workhouse and an outline of the development of Guernsey's modern social security system.

Volume 2 of this two-volume companion study into the administration, experience, impact and representation of summary justice in Scotland explores the role of police courts in moulding cultural ideas, social behaviours and urban environments in the nineteenth century. Whereas Volume 1, subtitled Magistrates, Media and the Masses, analysed the establishment, development and practice of police courts, Volume 2, subtitled Boundaries, Behaviours and Bodies, examines, through themed case studies, how these civic and judicial institutions shaped conceptual, spatial, temporal and commercial boundaries by regulating every-day activities, pastimes and cultures. As with Volume 1, Boundaries, Behaviours and Bodies is attentive to the relationship between magistrates, the police, the media and the wider community, but here the main focus of analysis is on the role and impact of the police courts, through their practice, on cultural ideas, social behaviours and environments in the nineteenth-century city. By intertwining social, cultural, institutional and criminological analyses, this volume examines police courts’ external impact through the matters they treated, considering how concepts such as childhood and juvenile behaviour, violence and its victims, poverty, migration, health and disease, and the regulation of leisure and trade, were assessed and ultimately affected by judicial practice.