FM pledges £16m for nurseries slowing down business, say SNP

FIRST Minister Humza Yousaf has hailed Scotland’s “great progress” towards gender equality, as he said cash for childcare would help tackle some of the “barriers” women can still face.

Yousaf pledged the government would provide £16 million of cash for nurseries, so that childcare workers can be paid at least £12 an hour from April.

The First Minister spoke out about the impact a lack of affordable childcare can have on women’s careers, as he said the Scottish Government was “prioritising additional investment of £16m in Scotland’s childcare workforce”.

Announcing the funding during a visit to a Glasgow nursery on International Women’s Day, Yousaf said he was “proud” the majority of members of his cabinet are female, and that he had appointed the first woman of colour to the Scottish Government, with Kaukab Stewart serving as Culture, Europe and International Development Minister.

He said: “We have made great progress to prioritise and accelerate gender equality across our country.

“We rightly no longer question what women can accomplish but we should and help combat tax fraud, we recently began a process to perform additional verification of the VAT status of all sellers, in the UK and abroad, that sell on our UK store.

“While we tried to make this process as smooth as possible, it did not meet the high standards that we hold ourselves to and we apologise to sellers who experienced issues with verification.

“We are taking this situation extremely seriously, committing additional resources to improve always question whether we are doing enough to remove barriers that too many women in our society continue to face.”

Yousaf added: “Evidence shows that a lack of affordable and accessible childcare for many women with children will result in too many women leaving the workforce, working part-time or taking up work in inflexible employment which pays less and doesn’t make best use of their skills.

“That is why my government is prioritising additional investment of £16m in Scotland’s childcare workforce.”

Children’s Minister Natalie Don joined the First Minister and speed up the process. We’ve already verified the majority of sellers, and we are working to verify the remaining sellers as quickly and smoothly as possible.

“We encourage Government to continue to improve the public information available to determine if a seller is UK-based for VAT purposes.”

A spokesperson for HMRC said: “We do not freeze online seller accounts in cases like these. To calculate their correct VAT on yesterday’s visit to TASK Childcare in Glasgow, with the minister saying that she was “proud” the Scottish Government is “delivering on a key pledge to ensure £12 per hour for those working in the private, voluntary and independent childcare sector to deliver funded early learning and childcare”.

Don stressed the need to “do more to tackle poverty and support gender equality”, adding that “high-quality, accessible and affordable childcare is a critical part of the national infrastructure we need to drive greater equality in Scotland’s workforce and tackle the gender pay gap”. liability, online marketplaces need to check if a business is based overseas as well as the location of goods sold on their platform; HMRC does not carry out these checks.

“Rules that require online marketplaces to take reasonable steps to determine if they are liable for VAT have been in place since January 2021.

“We will take a supportive approach to dealing with customers who may be experiencing issues.”

These delays stop small business owners earning