Seòmar agus comataidhean

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of the recent reported dog attack in Aberdeenshire, what effect the restrictions on XL bully-type dogs have had on the incidence of dog attacks. (S6T-02090)

I endorse the cabinet secretary’s words about the people who were horrifically attacked. Although the cabinet secretary did not actually answer my question, I ask her whether the Government holds data on, say, the top 10 breeds that are known to have been involved in attacks on people—or, indeed, on other dogs? If she does not have that data to hand, perhaps she could write to me with it.

I would welcome progress in trying to identify which breeds are involved. As members know, my party’s long-standing policy has been that it is about the deed, not the breed. My Welfare of Dogs (Scotland) Bill tries to address the issue by making sure that people become responsible owners. Can the minister advise me what information is held on the circumstances of such horrific attacks and, if so, where it is kept? I note that she mentioned the NRS. Such information would help to inform policy and behaviour.

To ask the Scottish Government how much it has spent on mitigating any United Kingdom Government reductions to UK-wide benefits since 2019. (S6O-03679)

That brings home the costs of being in the union and under the UK economy.

I ask the cabinet secretary to focus on the bedroom tax, or spare-room tax, which we mitigate. Can she tell me how many homes are helped by the Scottish Government paying it, so that households do not have to meet it themselves?

Does the member think it unfortunate that Tory-led Scottish Borders Council handed back £8 million to the Scottish Government because it failed to spend it timeously on building houses?

The Labour Government’s first move—of course, this was not in its manifesto—was to base winter fuel payment on pension credit, knowing that 40 per cent of those who are entitled to pension credit do not claim it. Of course, the Labour Government cut our funding to make the payment here universal.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that Labour should explain and, indeed, apologise to the estimated 929 households in my constituency of Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale that have not claimed pension credit and that will lose that vital support in winters that are incredibly cold and colder than those in London and the home counties, where these decisions are taken?

On the streets of Southport, there were thugs, racists and all manner of extremists, but there were also people from what we might call “deprived areas” generally raging against the political establishment. Does the 60 per cent turnout at the recent election not tell us that politics is failing, when some choose bricks, not the ballot box, and that the cohesion that Patrick Harvie referred to will be severely tested under increasing austerity?

I am sure that Edward Mountain would agree that some fly-tipping is done by commercial organisations that are actually run by serious organised crime. It goes beyond fly-tipping a fridge-freezer or a mattress; it is something much more sinister.

I am sure that the minister will welcome the progress on two new-build secondary schools in my constituency—Peebles high and Gala academy—which are due to be completed next year and are funded by the Scottish Government.

Does the minister agree that it is a massive burden on Scottish Borders Council’s budget that Borders secondary schools were built under public-private partnerships and the private finance initiative in 2009 by the then Tory-Liberal Democrat administration at an initial cost of £72 million but, by the end of the contract in 2039, they will have cost £258 million, and that we should never forget the punishing continuing costs of projects funded by PPP/PFI, which, thankfully, the Scottish Government ditched?