Seòmar agus comataidhean

Do you liaise with the Irish equivalents of the SSPCA and RSPCA on the issue?

I want to focus on the experience of older people: the over-60s through to the over-90s. It is tough enough getting older, but the impact of inflation on what is, for many, a fixed income—the state pension, occasionally assisted by an occupational pension—has, for many pensioners, meant staying in to save the pennies for food and heating. Yes, the bus pass is an asset for helping with mobility, social contact and general wellbeing, but it cannot make up for poverty-level living, exacerbated by inflation. Many—some 40 per cent—who are entitled to UK pension credit do not claim it, and that money is kept by the Treasury.

The results of an online opinion poll by YouGov for the British Red Cross, which were released in December 2022, showed that 81 per cent of Scottish people agreed that the increased cost of living will make more people lonely, and 43 per cent said that they would restrict how much they socialise because the cost of living is going up.

There are also the after-effects of the Covid pandemic, during which many—including me, as I was over 75—were confined indoors, with only short spells of exercise. That was tough. The experience during the years of Covid got me and many others into a way of life that disconnected us from mixing with folk, and for many of my peers, that way of life has continued. I am unusual, and privileged, to be in an occupation that allows me to work long beyond pension age, but even that does not mean that I do not feel lonely at times.

Previous speakers have referred to the World Health Organization’s research on the health impacts of isolation and loneliness on older people, so I will not repeat them. I would add, however, that with age, one is more likely to attend funerals than weddings, which can increase feelings of loneliness and isolation.

I welcome the £3.8 million social isolation and loneliness fund. I understand that the initial applications period has closed and allocations will be made in the summer. However, we do not know which groups have applied in the first instance, and my concern is that small local groups may not have applied or might not fit the criteria for that particular fund.

I am thinking, for example, of the vital role that the men’s shed network plays in communities in my constituency, and how hard those groups have to fight for funding. Their membership is usually retired men. The Peebles and District men’s shed community, which is located at School Brae in Peebles, has totally refurbished its rooms with work benches and brand-new machinery including lathes, a band saw, pillar drills and so on. Two of the benches have been built at a height suitable for use by wheelchair users, and the shed is also open to women. However, the community is always struggling for funding.

Galashiels men’s shed has community-run workshops with a social area. There, people pursue their hobbies, share skills and have a cuppa and a chat. They get out of the house for a while and get practical help with their projects. Interestingly, the Facebook page talks, appropriately, about offering help with isolation and loneliness. There are others—Penicuik and District men’s shed, for example, does much the same stuff, and it gives men who are quite often shy, and will not admit that they are lonely and looking for companionship, a place to meet.

We therefore welcome the £75,000 for the Scottish Men’s Sheds Association that was announced in January. Would that it were more.

OPAL—older people, active lives—Borders aims to maintain and improve people’s social connections, independence and wellbeing. Group members can decide on the activities that they would like to take part in, such as singing and entertainment, talks from speakers, quizzes, walking and so on.

There is also Borders Buddies, which is not only for the elderly. It supports people to return to doing the things that they once enjoyed, but which, due to the pandemic, ill health or other factors, they have stopped doing. That enables them to reconnect with other people in the community, reducing isolation and building individual and community resilience. During the pandemic, Borders Buddies supported local people in Tweeddale to find a buddy to help them rebuild their confidence about getting out and about again. A lot of it is about confidence. Although things have moved on, Borders Buddies still hears from people who have become socially isolated for all sorts of reasons, and it works with people of all ages over 16.

There is a community centre slap bang in the middle of Ladywood, which is owned by the community and provides a huge range of activities for young and old people. I had a go at pensioners table tennis, and believe you me, it is serious, even brutal, stuff—perhaps because people had the chance to tackle a politician. It is great for physical and mental exercise and for companionship.

Those are all grass-roots examples, and everyone in the chamber could give more. I turn back to my question, which at some point I may have an answer to, although perhaps not today. How do those local groups, and others like them, who do so much to combat social isolation and loneliness at the grassroots level, access that £3.8 million of Scottish Government funding, or indeed other funding sources?

Those local groups work, and they deliver. Big organisations have no difficulty in accessing funding. Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland, Age Concern and such organisations can access funding, but it is those local groups that matter and deliver.

Can I register my concern regarding juryless trials, let alone a pilot in rape cases? For example, in the right to appeal, let alone the appeal itself, a judge-only conviction, compared to conviction by a jury, raises serious issues of parity of right to justice.

You have to be asking yourself why people are in food poverty. It has nothing to do with the Scottish Government or the Scottish Parliament; it is because of the cost of living crisis, low wages and everything else that we have no control over. You should be a bit shame faced about the manner in which you are speaking.

Well, I had to say it: I am boldly going where Christine has not gone before. What do I know about space and satellites beyond “Star Trek”? Actually, I may surprise you and even myself.

It all started when Derek Harris got in touch with me, as he lived in Penicuik, in my constituency. He introduced me to Skyrora, which has been mentioned before, and Black Arrow. Black Arrow was the UK’s only rocket to successfully launch a satellite into orbit, but it had lain at its crash-landing site in the South Australian outback for 48 years prior to Skyrora stepping in to preserve it and return it to Scotland. I sponsored its coming to Parliament—outside, of course. It represents an important piece of heritage in the space sector, which continues to thrive today in Scotland, and serves as inspiration to the next generation of space scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs.

Since being established in 2017, Skyrora has invested approximately £50 million in developing technology and infrastructure and in creating a skilled workforce, which is now 70 people based in a manufacturing and assembly facility in Cumbernauld. Outside investment over that time includes a grant from the UK Space Agency for £2.5 million, which is currently being extended in delivery time period and in scope; a recently confirmed horizon 2020 grant of €500,000 over four years for advanced manufacturing 3D printing; and a national manufacturing programme supporting the licensing of Skyrora’s 3D printer, which I have seen.

According to Skyrora, there has been no further funding from any institutions including Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish National Investment Bank, despite extensive engagement. I leave that for the minister to consider.

I am advised by the company that the key challenges are as follows. Not unexpectedly, one is funding. Another is a UK regulatory regime that is not competitive, even unfit for purpose. That issue has been referred to by other contributors and I will return to it. Also, there is a lack of a clear co-ordinated approach by all levels of Government, starting from understanding why launch is required, and of a road map or plan with clearly articulated steps to make launch happen.

There was strong initial engagement across the space industry, academia and Government. However, more recently, that co-ordination and collective drive has somewhat fallen back to individual companies’ “private aspirations”, as opposed to continuing to garner support and push collaboration.

I go back to licensing. In spring 2022, Skyrora submitted its application to the UK Civil Aviation Authority for its launch licence, after extensive engagement that included a 23-month process from February 2019 to help establish the safety case process approach to evaluation. It is now April 2023, and Skyrora is still waiting for qualitative feedback from the CAA on its submission and, indeed, for any indication of when it might receive a launch licence.

In the meantime, to pursue its requirement for undertaking launch, Skyrora has assisted the Icelandic authorities to establish a permit process over the course of 2021-22 and, in October 2022, Skyrora launched the suborbital test vehicle Skylark-L in Iceland.

In the context of Scotland, Skyrora sought to suggest that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency might be able to take a lead on managing and enabling the regulatory process of procuring a licence, in a similar way that SEPA took the lead on decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure.

For the future, Skyrora’s ambition is to realise income to the Scottish economy of more than £2.1 billion by 2030: 428 full-time equivalent manufacturing jobs, with salaries that it hopes will be 26 per cent above Scottish average, which deals with the issues that Carol Mochan has raised; a research and development investment of more than £5 million every year—five times the Scottish average; and, by 2030, more than 300 internships, 30 apprenticeships and sponsored skills programmes in welding, 3D printing, advanced manufacturing and so on, taking use of Scotland’s national engine test centre in Gorebridge in my constituency.

I turn now to Thistle Rocketry, which is located in Tweedbank in my constituency. That early-stage business received a Scottish EDGE award of £100,000 to support it. It is a space launch start-up, which is currently developing scalable rocket systems for cube satellites. Its award is made up of a £30,000 grant and a £70,000 soft loan.

At the moment, Thistle Rocketry is at the climax of a six-month project. On only a £50,000 budget, it has designed and built an 8-kilonewton suborbital rocket engine—please do not intervene for a technical explanation—with the goal of advancing its proprietary propellant pump, and it is lighting the engine for the first test fire tomorrow, weather permitting. Testing will continue for another few days, with both the engine development and the advancement of its intellectual property representing major milestones for the company. With the completion of that test project, it will formally commence its seed raise, which is planned for this year.

It is the tale of two space satellite companies that I know quite well, one far more advanced than the other, which will both, I hope—and I will end where I started—be businesses that live long and prosper.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I will be brief, but I seek your guidance on this. It seems to me that we are very thin on the ground in the chamber, particularly on the Conservative side. This erosion has been happening for a period of time. I seek your guidance on what the rules are about attending Parliament in person and remotely.

Mr Brignal, you said in your opening statement that you are responsible for the welfare of the dogs only at the track. Is that correct?

There is another little issue—the phrase “prime condition”. You have stated that you say to owners that, if a dog is not in a fit state, you will not let the dog run. No vet is there to assess that. Can you tell me why you should be able to say, without a vet—and it might not be too obvious in certain animals—that they are not fit to be there?

Convener, could we do a follow-up and see whether there is an audit of what happens at the end of the day, what follow-up there was from Borders Union and from Borders College, which also had a stall there? It seems to me that that is an interesting thing for local employment. You employ people locally, they spend locally.

No, it is not. Please do it. I am a consumer and I want this to happen. Normally, I can afford to pay inflation prices but, when I look at the prices on the shelves at the moment, even I say that I am not paying £1.50 for a cauliflower.