Official Report 1092KB pdf
National Health Service Recovery Plan
From day 1, we told the Scottish National Party that Humza Yousaf’s national health service recovery plan would not help patients. That was back in 2021, but only now are Humza Yousaf’s big promises finally in the bin. All those years were wasted while patients suffered and John Swinney insisted that everything was going great. He has now grandly announced all the same ideas that the SNP has already failed to deliver, but still with absolutely no credible explanation as to how any of it will actually be achieved. How can John Swinney expect anyone to believe that he will ever deliver his recycled promises?
At the start of the week, I set out the Government’s focus, which will be on three key areas: ensuring that the resources are used to the greatest effect and have an impact in driving down waiting times and clearing treatment backlogs; reforming the system to deliver the right care in the right place; and making a long-term shift to prevention. We will accomplish that by providing the necessary policy direction, which I have just set out, and the resources, which will be included in the Government’s budget, with the biggest settlement for the health service. I am very pleased that we have parliamentary support for the budget, but it is well shown that the Conservatives are not part of the agreement to move the health service forward in any way, shape or form.
I hope that John Swinney heard what the British Medical Association had to say about his speech. Dr Iain Kennedy of the BMA said:
“we still lack the detail and comprehensive vision needed to make any plan a reality.”
In a classic case of Government by press release, all that matters to John Swinney is an easy headline; he has no interest in the difficult job of delivery. I will give an example of that. Six years ago, all NHS patients south of the border were given an app through which to access information. They can make appointments, order prescriptions, view medical records and more. Two years later, in 2021, the SNP announced plans for a Scottish NHS app, but there is no app, and John Swinney has had the audacity to announce it all over again. The SNP has kept Scotland’s NHS trapped in the analogue age. When exactly will Scottish patients get access to that vital technology?
What I set out on Monday and what have been followed up in regular engagements between me, the health secretary and health service leadership around the country are practical steps to improve the health service and to secure delivery.
We will concentrate on steps such as expanding the NHS Scotland pharmacy first service to improve access to healthcare and increasing general practice capacity in the country through a £10.5 million investment to expand its activity. We will deliver a new acute interior eye condition service, which will free up a combined 40,000 hospital appointments per year in Scotland. We will expand the capacity of hospital at home to create at least 2,000 beds by 2026. We will expand capacity at national treatment centres, and a number of other centres—Gartnavel general hospital, Inverclyde royal hospital, Stracathro hospital, Perth royal infirmary, Queen Margaret hospital and the Golden Jubilee hospital in Clydebank—will deliver extra cataract procedures. We will also reduce the radiology backlog. I hope that that is enough detail to show that, while—[Interruption.] I am very happy to go on, Presiding Officer.
I am content that your response is complete, First Minister. However, before I call Mr Findlay again, I remind members that the purpose of this session is scrutiny. If we have on-going noise in the chamber, all that is happening is that fewer members will have an opportunity to put a question. I ask all members to bear that in mind.
I was not making a single noise. I was just smiling in incredulity, because I asked the First Minister about an app and he went off and read from a different script. That answer tells patients that the Government has no idea when the app will appear—if it does.
That is not the only reheated promise that John Swinney made this week. A decade ago, the SNP announced plans to create a network of national treatment centres. They were supposed to be all over the country—[Interruption.]—if Shona Robison would care to listen. But here we are: the centre in Livingston is not open, Ayrshire is not open, Perth is not open, Lanarkshire is not open, Edinburgh is not open, and—[Interruption.]
Thank you, members.
—Aberdeen is not open. Now, John Swinney is again making the same old promises to deliver national treatment centres. Can he please tell the truth to the thousands of Scottish patients who are waiting in agony: when will those centres actually open?
Here is some truth for Parliament. [Interruption.] In the years of austerity under the Conservative Government, the capital budgets of the devolved Governments and the United Kingdom Government were slashed. Why? Because of economic and fiscal incompetence by the Conservatives. That is what happened.
I am now going to deliver the national treatment centres. What has certainly not helped me—[Interruption.]
Members!
What has not helped me has been Mr Findlay’s support for the economics of the madhouse, which was brought forward by Liz Truss, whom he wanted me to follow. [Interruption.] Mr Findlay wanted me to do exactly what Liz Truss had done. Thank goodness I never followed the stupid ideas of Liz Truss and Russell Findlay.
I only asked the man when he is opening those treatment centres. What we heard back is the populist party’s disease of blaming someone else for its failings. The SNP Government gets record funding and it is continuing to pick the pockets of taxpayers. The state of the NHS in Scotland is entirely on that lot over there. The SNP needs to stop chasing headlines and start doing some hard work. We need a health secretary who is focused on the job. The projects that are in the press releases need to be delivered, and taxpayers’ money should be spent much more effectively.
Right now, across Scotland’s health service, more than £850 million is being spent on communications, human resources and other departments. That is almost £1 billion a year spent on backroom corporate functions, not front-line medical services. If the SNP attempted to cut that bloated bureaucracy and kept its countless promises, waiting lists could come down. Would it not be better to spend less money on back-office staff and more money on doctors and nurses?
It would not be possible to spend more money on doctors and nurses if I followed Mr Findlay’s tax plans, which would cut £1 billion from public expenditure. That would be stupidity on stilts from the Conservative Party, to add to all the other economic chaos that it has created.
The Parliament will face a very simple choice in a few weeks. Mr Findlay wants me to prioritise the health service and make sure that investment is in place. Investment is in place, but the Parliament has to vote for it. What will the Conservatives do? They will vote against a record funding settlement for the health service. That tells us all that we need to know. For all that posturing from the Conservatives, they do not care about the national health service.
National Health Service Recovery Plan
This week, the Scottish National Party attempted to launch yet another NHS recovery plan. Having been in charge of Scotland’s NHS for 18 years, it has lost touch with reality and all credibility.
The Royal College of Nursing has said:
“Many nursing staff will not recognise the first minister’s description of a resilient and robust NHS in Scotland. Their current experience is of a service struggling to meet the needs of patients and leaving them to carry the burden of not being able to deliver the care and treatment required.”
The British Medical Association Scotland has said that the plan lacks
“the detail and comprehensive vision needed to make any plan a reality.”
Unison has said that the First Minister’s hollow promises of “jam tomorrow” will not solve the critical problems facing the NHS in Scotland.
Why does John Swinney think that he is right and that Scotland’s nurses, doctors and patients are wrong?
As Mr Sarwar knows, because I told him last week, I am engaging directly with all the interested parties in the health service to make sure that we create cohesive leadership and a focused agenda to improve and strengthen the national health service. That is what is occupying my time, and it is what is occupying the time of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. We are getting on with doing that.
We are not promising jam tomorrow; we are promising the largest budget settlement for the national health service in a few weeks, and the folk who are not going to vote for it are that lot, Labour, and that lot, the Conservatives.
John Swinney has been passing budgets for 17 years and things are still getting worse in Scotland—I just remind him of that.
We have had five NHS recovery plans in less than four years. Of plan 1, in August 2021, the SNP First Minister said:
“This plan will drive the recovery of our NHS—not just to its pre-pandemic level, but beyond.”
Instead, we are doing 50,000 fewer operations compared with pre-pandemic levels.
In launching plan 2 in July 2022, the SNP health secretary said:
“I am announcing some of the most ambitious targets in the UK.”
The SNP Government did not meet a single one of them.
In October 2023, the SNP First Minister said that plan 3 would cut waiting lists by 100,000. Instead, waiting lists went up by 20,000.
Of plan 4, in June 2024, the SNP health secretary said:
“I am not looking to publish another strategy. ... Our task now centres on listening and delivery.”—[Official Report, 4 June 2024; c 56.]
This week, we have a new plan and a new strategy. After such a record of failure, why should anyone believe John Swinney and the SNP?
Mr Sarwar has made the same mistake that Jackie Baillie made last week of saying that things are getting worse week by week. I go back to the same information that I put on the record last week. On accident and emergency waiting times, four-hour performance has increased week on week since the week ending 22 December. Jackie Baillie and Anas Sarwar are once again saying— [Interruption.]
Members, let us hear the First Minister.
—things that are not true.
In my speech on Monday, the Government set out a series of interventions to strengthen the national health service and its capacity by delivering extra procedures at a number of centres around the country, by improving referrals through radiology services and expanding the rapid cancer diagnostic service, and by making sure that we expand capacity in a range of different disciplines through eye condition care and the NHS Scotland pharmacy service.
Those are the practical steps that will make a difference, but they will happen only if the Government’s budget passes. Who stands in the way of the Government’s budget passing? Who is not going to lift a finger to support and endorse that investment? The Labour Party in Scotland—Labour members should be ashamed of themselves.
That answer proves why John Swinney cannot fix the problems in our NHS. Scotland’s NHS is in desperate need of reform, but the brutal truth is that John Swinney cannot see the damage that his party has done. He cannot see it, but I will tell you who can: the 863,000 people who are stuck on NHS waiting lists, the 100,000 Scots who have been waiting for more than a year for treatment, the record number of people who have been forced to pay to go private and the staff who his Government is failing every single day.
We need a Scottish Government that will do whatever it takes to clear the NHS backlogs and make sure that the NHS is there when Scots need it—always free at the point of need and fit for the future. After 18 years, why can John Swinney not see that Scotland does not need another failed SNP First Minister, another failed SNP health secretary or another failed SNP plan? It needs a new Government and a new direction.
There was not a single solution offered by Anas Sarwar—not one. [Interruption.]
Let us hear the First Minister.
Listen—we will be here for as long as it takes for me to explain my point to the Parliament. [Interruption.] I see that Mr Sarwar’s allies have come to the rescue!
From the screen in front of me, I am aware that a huge number of members would really like to put a question today. I am very keen that our constituents have an opportunity to hear this session. I ask all members to bear that in mind.
Presiding Officer, I see that Mr Sarwar’s allies in the Conservative Party have come to his rescue once again. There was not a single solution offered by Anas Sarwar in all of that long diatribe to Parliament, because he is high on rhetoric and low on delivery. [Interruption.]
Thank you, members.
Mr Sarwar promised the WASPI women—women against state pension inequality—in Scotland that he would be at their side. At the first whiff of change, the Labour Government came in and shut the door on the WASPI women. That is why Mr Sarwar is high on rhetoric and low on delivery, and why Scotland does not take him seriously.
Cabinet (Meetings)
To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. (S6F-03751)
The Cabinet will meet next Tuesday and ministers will have the opportunity to consider the implications for the Scottish budget of the welcome agreement that has been reached with the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the Scottish Green Party and Alba. All that we are waiting for is some common sense to break out in the Labour Party and the Conservatives.
It is because of the Liberal Democrats that the Scottish budget now includes a new Belford hospital in Fort William; a replacement eye pavilion for Edinburgh; support services for babies born addicted to drugs; investment to make it easier for people to see their general practitioner or a national health service dentist; long Covid care pathways; backing for hospices; new skills pipelines for care and for offshore wind power; business rates relief for hospitality; more affordable homes; a better future for young people at Corseford College; the right for family carers to earn more; and more money for councils, ferries and social care. Our priorities will now be backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of Government investment. That is Liberal Democrats acting responsibly, setting aside differences and getting things done.
We also fought for a winter fuel payment for Scotland’s pensioners, and it is happening. That matters, because we learned this week that a third of households are in fuel poverty. After 18 years of Scottish National Party Government, why are so many people still freezing in cold homes?
First of all, this is the first time that I have formally had the opportunity to welcome, in Parliament, the support that the Liberal Democrats have expressed for the Government’s budget and for the agreements that we have reached on policy priorities—which we have also reached with members of the Green Party and with the member from Alba. That is an indication of how Parliament should work.
Over the course of Mr Cole-Hamilton’s question, he was subjected to yah-boo behaviour, principally of the Conservatives, who have contributed absolutely nothing to, and have achieved absolutely nothing out of, the budget process. Those are their actions and conduct. The Labour Party is in exactly the same place—it has achieved nothing out of the budget process to date.
I say to Mr Cole-Hamilton that parties have to work together in the common interests of the people of Scotland. I welcome the collaboration that has taken place, because the Government is interested in delivering solutions for the people of Scotland, and not in coming here to posture, as the Labour and Conservative parties are doing. We are interested in doing the hard work to deliver for the people of Scotland. We will deliver a winter fuel payment for pensioners, and the Labour Party and the Tories will not support it when the budget comes to Parliament.
Confederation of British Industry Report
To ask the First Minister what the Scottish Government’s response is to the recent CBI report, which reportedly suggests that businesses are preparing to “cut staff and raise prices”. (S6F-03764)
I was deeply concerned by what I read in the CBI report on business confidence in the United Kingdom. In my regular engagement with Scottish business, I hear directly that the impact of the recent employer national insurance contribution increases at a UK level is a significant factor.
The Scottish budget for 2025-26 includes a raft of measures to support business and economic growth, as well as enhanced measures to attract private investment.
The CBI’s monthly survey highlights weak hiring intentions, with business and professional services expecting a 20 per cent reduction in head count, while consumer services anticipate a sharper 44 per cent fall. Labour’s employer national insurance hike is a tax on jobs, and the decisions relating to it are already beginning to bite. What engagement has the First Minister’s Government had with the UK Government to get it to see sense and to rethink its daft decision to tax jobs, so that we can protect the Scottish economy?
I have raised the impact of the planned increase in reserved taxation with the UK Government and I wrote to the Chancellor of the Exchequer earlier this month. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has also raised the issue with the Treasury.
We have made clear the wide-ranging concerns about the impact that the change—which was introduced with no consultation—will have on Scotland. The UK Government seems determined to ignore those concerns, but we will continue to raise the issue and the impact that it will have on the Scottish economy. The Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government will raise the issue with the Chief Secretary to the Treasury next month.
It seems to me that that particular decision is having a damaging effect on the UK Government’s growth agenda. Although I am wholly supportive of that agenda, that measure is counterproductive to trying to deliver growth in the economy.
The First Minister is entirely right to raise concerns about Labour’s tax on jobs, but the Scottish Government’s budget for the coming year, which he encourages us to support, does little or nothing to support businesses in Scotland. According to the Scottish Parliament information centre, spending on three key areas to help to grow the economy—the enterprise agencies, VisitScotland and employability schemes—has been cut compared with the past financial year, while the Barnett consequentials from rates relief that is available south of the border for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are not being passed on in this budget, which short-changes Scottish business. Why is the Government not doing more to support Scottish business?
I know that Mr Fraser was a contender for the leadership of the Scottish Conservatives, but he has just given an answer that is directly contradictory to the position of his party leader. His party leader wants us to cut the budgets of agencies—he said that he wants us to get rid of them. However, Mr Fraser has just argued for an expansion of the budgets of economic development agencies.
For the record, I happen to think that Scotland today is extremely well served by our economic development agencies: Scottish Enterprise, Highlands and Islands Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise, VisitScotland and Skills Development Scotland. They work very well for Scotland, in that they attract significant investment and visitor numbers. We could add to that the capital investment for offshore wind, which we are increasing to £150 million; the £100 million for digital connectivity programmes that we are rolling out; the investment that we are putting into planning services; and the support that we have put in place for non-domestic rates relief, which is worth an estimated £731 million. All those measures show that this Government is on the side of business, as is demonstrated by business’s endorsement of our budget. I think that the Conservatives should support it.
80th Anniversary of the Liberation of Auschwitz
To ask the First Minister whether he will join His Majesty the King and other world leaders in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz extermination camp and offer his reflections on the theme of this year’s Holocaust memorial day, “For a Better Future”. (S6F-03762)
On Holocaust memorial day, we honour the 6 million Jews who were murdered by the Nazis in one of the darkest chapters in human history. As we proclaim, “Never again”, we also reflect on the subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur.
This year, we commemorate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. I welcome the decision of His Majesty the King to travel to Auschwitz to represent us all at the commemoration. This evening, alongside Mr Carlaw and the Minister for Victims and Community Safety, I will participate in the Scottish ceremony for Holocaust memorial day. At that event, we will stand united against hatred and for building one Scotland, together, for a better future.
I welcome the First Minister’s participation in tonight’s event, which I will co-host with my Labour colleague Paul O’Kane.
I commend the First Minister and the Scottish Government on their work to ensure that Holocaust education schemes across Scotland are second to none in comparison with those available in the rest of the United Kingdom. It is a real tribute to the efforts of the Scottish Parliament, and the various Governments that have presided within it, that Holocaust education in Scotland is as remarkable as it is. If this year’s theme is “For a Better Future”, we must surely realise that that future depends not on us but on the generation that follows. Fundamentally, such education programmes are critical to the understanding of the next generation. Will the First Minister commit to ensuring that the funding of such programmes continues in perpetuity?
First, I associate myself with Mr Carlaw’s comments about Paul O’Kane’s hosting of tonight’s event. I welcome cross-party co-operation on this question.
In his members’ business debate last night—in which, as ever, Mr Carlaw gave the deep and solemn commitment that he has always given to the issue—he generously referred to the fact that I had taken part in one of the visits to Auschwitz by Scottish school pupils that are supported by the Scottish Government. He correctly indicated that the experience that I had that day will never leave me. I saw, too, the profound impact on the young people who travelled with me on that occasion. For me, that was an indication of the value of the investment that the Government makes in ensuring that future generations understand and appreciate the awfulness of what happened in the Holocaust, and of why those generations must be reminded of it.
Mr Carlaw has my unequivocal commitment that, for as long as I am First Minister, this Government will be a firm funder of Holocaust memorial education in Scotland. I see that as part of our obligations to the past and the future, and it will have my unreserved support as First Minister.
“UK Poverty 2025”
To ask the First Minister, in light of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation report, “UK Poverty 2025”, whether he will provide an update on the Scottish Government’s actions to tackle poverty in Scotland, including in relation to any potential impact of planned United Kingdom Government welfare reforms. (S6F-03773)
I welcome the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report and its analysis, which finds that Scotland is the only part of the United Kingdom that will see child poverty rates declining, thanks to policies such as the Scottish child payment.
Through the Scottish budget for 2025-26, we will go further by committing resources to develop the systems that are required to mitigate the impact of the two-child limit. The Child Poverty Action Group estimates that scrapping the two-child limit could lift a further 15,000 children in Scotland out of poverty.
In its report, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation confirms that
“Child poverty rates in Scotland ... remain much lower than those in England ... and Wales ... due, at least in part, to the Scottish Child Payment.”
Although that is very welcome, the Labour UK Government is doubling down on austerity measures such as the two-child limit, the bedroom tax and the benefit cap, and it is now pursuing welfare reforms that could slash benefits for hundreds of thousands of long-term ill and disabled people.
Will the First Minister offer an assessment of the potential impact of UK welfare reforms on poverty levels in Scotland and outline how the draft Scottish budget for 2025-26 will expand anti-poverty work here?
In its analysis, the Joseph Rowntree Foundation says that it expects the gap between the child poverty rate in Scotland and rates in the rest of the UK to widen because of the action that we are taking to tackle the issue through measures such as the Scottish child payment.
I encourage the Labour Government to take a different course from the one that has been advertised. It is maintaining the two-child limit. Although the Scottish Government will act to remove that in Scotland, our task would be made easier if the issue was remedied at UK level.
We will take every measure that we can. In the budget, we are taking further measures on the two-child limit and the expansion of free school meals in an effort to address child poverty, which is the overriding priority of my Government.
The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s report is, of course, serious and sobering, as it is every year. It shows that the child poverty rate in Scotland is static at 24 per cent, which means that 250,000 children are in poverty. The First Minister and I have previously had constructive debates on the matter, and it will not be lost on him or members across the chamber that the current rate means that we are seriously off course with regard to meeting the statutory child poverty targets that are set by the Parliament.
The report also highlights that a higher than average proportion of working-age adults are unemployed or economically inactive and that households in Scotland in which someone is in work took home a lower level of earnings than the UK average.
Does the First Minister recognise the importance of supporting people into secure, well-paid work? Given the cuts to employability services over recent years, what is his Government doing to reverse the trends that are outlined in the report?
Those are important questions. As the Government’s “Bright Start, Best Futures” strategy indicates, the way to tackle child poverty is through a combination of measures, such as the provision of direct payments, as in the case of the Scottish child payment, or through the provision of employability support, childcare support or transport support, all of which are part of the Government’s budget proposals.
On economic inactivity, the Government is safeguarding funding for employability schemes. Given our confidence that the budget will be passed by the Parliament, as a consequence of our agreement with partners in the Parliament, we are able to give early certainty to employability schemes in Scotland, which they did not have last year, given the financial challenges that we faced. There will be much more certainty about the roll-out of employability programmes from 1 April, and the Deputy First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government are giving such assurances to organisations around the country.
I know that Mr O’Kane is deadly serious about tackling child poverty, and he knows that I am, too. That is where I get a bit concerned about where parliamentary discourse has got to, because there is a budget to be voted for. Mr O’Kane wants employability support to be put in place for members of the public in Scotland, and so do I. I am going to vote for it, and I hope that he and his colleagues will, too.
I have received 25 requests from members who wish to ask constituency and general supplementary questions. If members are concise, we will be able to get through more questions and involve more members.
Disability Benefits
Recent research from Pro Bono Economics has found that disability benefits improve people’s health and wellbeing and are more positive than costly for the economy. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Labour Government has proposed cutting UK disability payments, as we have heard from my colleague Collette Stevenson, which has caused widespread concern among stakeholders. What assessment has the Scottish Government made of that new research? Can the First Minister provide assurances that, unlike the UK Government, the Scottish National Party Government in Scotland will continue to deliver social security that is based on the principles of dignity and respect?
Those principles are enshrined in law because this Government put them into law. We intend to follow that through consistently; my colleague Elena Whitham has my absolute assurance on that.
The Government is investing about £1.3 billion more than the funding that we are forecast to receive from the UK Government through the social security block grant adjustment, because we want to invest in supporting people to be able to make as much of an economic contribution as they can. That will be the ethos of this Government.
Data Breaches (NHS Tayside)
Will the First Minister join me in condemning what has been the third data breach by NHS Tayside of patient confidentiality in the Sam Eljamel case, which has further undermined the trust of former patients? The matter is now, rightly, in the hands of the Information Commissioner, but what action can the Scottish Government take to stop such data breaches ever happening again?
The law on freedom of information is absolutely crystal clear, and all organisations should comply with it and follow its provisions. If the matter is being looked at by the Information Commissioner, I will leave the commissioner to undertake its statutory duty.
Demi Hannaway (Review of Investigation)
The First Minister will be aware of reports regarding the sudden death of Demi Hannaway in May 2021. Demi’s parents are calling for an examination into her death, which was recorded as suicide, and have lodged a formal complaint about the police response, saying that there was absolutely no investigation.
Demi was subject to physical and mental abuse at the hands of her partner, who was jailed last year after admitting to threatening and abusive behaviour. Her family believes that obvious lines of inquiry regarding her death were not pursued. It has also emerged that the pathologist in the case was not informed by the police that Demi’s partner had a history of strangling her.
Will the Scottish Government consider ordering a review of the investigation of Demi’s death?
I am familiar with those details and extend my sympathies to the family of Demi Hannaway. I understand the family’s concerns about the information that has been put in the public domain and am familiar with the fact that a complaint has been made and is being handled by the professional standards channel of Police Scotland.
The Crown reserves the right in all circumstances to review any new evidence in a particular case. It does that independently of the Government, so it would be wrong for me to prejudge any of that information. However, I will raise with the Lord Advocate the point that Claire Baker has made to me about the family’s desire for further investigation of the case, because taking that forward would have to be a matter for the Crown, given the circumstances. I give Claire Baker the assurance that I will do that as a consequence of our exchange today.
Brexit (Economic Impacts)
This week marks the fifth anniversary of the United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union. A recent report by the Institute for Public Policy Research highlighted the slump in trade with the EU and said that trade policy had been “muddled” and “rudderless” since the 2016 vote on Brexit. Will the First Minister give his response to that report, and does he agree that Brexit has been an economic disaster for Scotland and that it would be in Scotland’s best interests to return to the EU as an independent nation?
I agree with Clare Adamson on both points: that Scotland would be best served by being an independent member of the EU, and that Brexit has been an economic disaster for Scotland as part of the United Kingdom. It is as a consequence of our membership of the United Kingdom that we have lost our EU membership.
The economic damage done is obvious. That is what is undermining living standards in this country. I accept and acknowledge that and have a solution to it, which is that we should repair our relationship with the European Union and ensure that our businesses and organisations can trade and that we can benefit from freedom of movement.
I assure Parliament that we are encouraging the United Kingdom Government to repair the damage that has been done to our economy and to our relationship with Europe. The living standards of our population depend on that, and it must be given greater priority than it has been given since the change of Government in July last year.
Shoplifting
The Scottish Retail Consortium reports that theft has reached record levels, costing businesses £170 million last year, and that violence towards shop workers is on the rise, with an average of 170 incidents every day over the year 2023-24. The situation is spiralling out of control as perpetrators are becoming more brazen. It is clear that thieves simply do not fear committing their crimes. What is the Scottish Government’s plan to ensure that shoplifters, many of whom are violent, are made to pay for their actions and know that their actions will have consequences?
The Minister for Employment and Investment, Tom Arthur, met the industry leadership group, which involves the many retail interests, on this subject this morning. In the budget, subject to parliamentary approval, we will make £3 million available to tackle retail crime, and we commit ourselves to supporting some of the innovative work that has been taken forward by the Scottish partnership against acquisitive crime, which is led by Police Scotland and the retailers. The partnership is taking a collaborative approach to preventing and deterring crimes such as shoplifting, and we will work constructively to ensure that that happens, using the resources that I mentioned, which I hope Parliament will support in the budget process.
Social Housing (Waiting Lists)
I was recently contacted by a constituent who is on the waiting list for social housing with her 13-year-old daughter. They have been sharing a room and a bed for nine months, and by the time they are allocated housing, her daughter will be 16 years old. Does the First Minister think that that is in any way positive for their wellbeing? Will his Government finally step up with real action to end the housing emergency and unacceptable waiting times for social homes?
I sympathise with the circumstances of Mr Choudhury’s constituent. I of course want individuals in our country to be adequately and properly housed.
As Mr Choudhury knows, because I have told Parliament this on many occasions, the Scottish Government has presided over an affordable housing building programme that has built more houses per head of population in Scotland than have been built in any other part of the United Kingdom. Crucially, in the budget that will be before Parliament in a few weeks’ time, there is an increase in that budget to £768 million. Mr Choudhury is quite entitled—indeed, it is his duty—to bring his constituents’ concerns here and represent them. I contend that it is also Mr Choudhury’s duty to try to make solutions happen by voting for the budget and helping to build more houses and ensure that we can get more void houses being used by people. [Interruption.]
There is no point in Labour members shouting at me, as they have done all the time today. That is the solution. If we want to build houses, how do we pay for them if we do not have the votes for the budget? I encourage Labour members to stop being observers on the sidelines, sitting there with their Tory allies. They should vote for the budget and do something constructive for Scotland.
Heathrow (Third Runway)
Given the vital importance to the Highlands and Islands of access in order to export our fine malt whiskies, our high-quality salmon and shellfish and many other products, will the Scottish Government provide its full-throated and unequivocal support for the third runway at Heathrow, which is the future gateway for Scottish Highlands and Islands exports to the willing world?
The decision to allow expansion at Heathrow airport lies exclusively with the United Kingdom Government. The Scottish Government will engage closely with the UK Government and Heathrow airport to understand any potential impact of its expansion on Scotland, particularly on our climate targets and connectivity.
I share Mr Ewing’s aspiration that Scottish goods should be able to get to market as quickly as possible, but I am reminded that, when I was in Shetland a few months ago, the fish sector explained to me the obstacles that are in its way to get its products to market because of the stupid procedures that are involved in Brexit, which are deeply damaging to our economy.
If we want to get Scottish produce more quickly from the Shetland Islands and other communities in Scotland to European markets, the immediate priority of my Government would be to get agreements in place with the European Union that would allow freer trade to be undertaken. What I say to people in Scotland is that they have to understand the colossal damage that was done to our country’s economy by Brexit, which was inflicted on us by a bad deal by the Conservatives. I hope that the Labour Government will do something to rectify that, because it is undermining the Scottish economy.
Car Usage Reduction (2030 Target)
Today, the Auditor General and the Accounts Commission have said that the Scottish Government has made “minimal progress” on its target to reduce car usage by 2030 and that the target has no clear delivery plan—that always sounds familiar. To reduce car usage, it is essential to have affordable public transport, yet, under the Scottish National Party, Scots seem to be turning away from those services in droves. Does the First Minister believe that the 2030 target is still achievable, or is it another headline-grabbing deadline that was never going to be delivered?
The Government has made a range of interventions to improve access to public transport. For example, more than 2 million children, young people, disabled people and older people in Scotland are now benefiting from free bus travel. Throughout Scotland, more than 150 million bus journeys have been made by children and young people under 22, using their free entitlement. We have been working to expand the opportunities for people to safely walk, wheel and cycle, with the expansion of the network to around 450 miles of routes for walking, wheeling and cycling.
The Government will do that as part of its plans, but it is, frankly, laughable for Sue Webber to take me to task on the issue. Every time that a measure is presented to Parliament that might change any of those patterns of behaviour, who opposes it? The Conservatives do—every single one of them, and then they come here every week and posture with empty rhetoric about such issues. If Sue Webber wants investment in public transport, I gently and respectfully encourage her to vote for the budget that will pay for it, instead of wasting her time coming here and posturing on a weekly basis.
That concludes First Minister’s question time. There will now be a short suspension to allow those leaving the chamber and the public gallery to do so.
12:47 Meeting suspended.Air ais
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