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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 26 April 2025
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Displaying 2643 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament

First Minister’s Question Time

Meeting date: 22 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

—bringing together those focused on action to speed up the journey to a greener, fairer future?

Meeting of the Parliament

First Minister’s Question Time

Meeting date: 22 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

I thank the First Minister for that considered answer. There is, of course, a consensus for deeper and more far-reaching action on the climate emergency. Scientists, campaigners and communities on the front line are demanding it, and the public mood is shifting. Most MSPs in the chamber—apart, of course, from the extremist and increasingly climate-denying Tories—know what must be done yet, too often, when action is proposed it gets drowned out by naysayers, defenders of business as usual and those who are content with watching the planet burn. Time is running out, so will the First Minister commit to a climate conversation later this year—[Interruption.]

Meeting of the Parliament

First Minister’s Question Time

Meeting date: 22 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

To ask the First Minister how the Scottish Government will recommit to the leadership needed to tackle the climate emergency. (S6F-02266)

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 21 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

Barriers under existing powers mean that SSPCA inspectors who are already on the ground investigating animal abuse are prevented from seizing and securing evidence of wildlife-related crimes, and inspectors are further limited to enforcing powers only on living animals, with their hands tied if a wild animal is found dead. Does the minister agree that that is inexcusable, and will she close the loopholes during future stages of the Wildlife Management and Muirburn (Scotland) Bill?

Meeting of the Parliament

Topical Question Time

Meeting date: 20 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

Scotland’s deposit return scheme was getting ready to go live, create jobs and make our streets cleaner before it was recklessly blocked by the UK Government. When the minister met UK ministers to discuss their decision to impose unworkable conditions on our scheme, did they provide any reassurances that Scottish expertise and experience, a lot of which sits in Circularity Scotland, would be used to contribute to the development of a UK-wide scheme?

Meeting of the Parliament

Motion of No Confidence

Meeting date: 20 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

Sarah Boyack is shaking her head, but if she does not believe me, she should listen to Welsh First Minister Mark Drakeford, who recognises the power grab for exactly what it is.

It is important to reflect on the qualities that good ministers have an abundance. The ability to show determination is important, but so is the ability to listen, to understand how policy affects people and business—[Interruption]

Meeting of the Parliament

Motion of No Confidence

Meeting date: 20 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

—and to respond with humility to concerns and make improvements.

Lorna Slater was tasked by Parliament with bringing in one of the most ambitious DRS schemes in Europe. She has spent the past 18 months listening and responding, and revising the scheme, so that we now have a DRS that has been designed and shaped by business itself. It sets the model for the UK, and Lorna Slater deserves huge credit for getting it to the point of launch—[Interruption]—only for the Tories to step in.

Meeting of the Parliament

Motion of No Confidence

Meeting date: 20 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

I am proud of my minister, Lorna Slater. She has not only brought the DRS to the point of launch but has increased investment in nature, banned new waste incinerators and introduced the Circular Economy (Scotland) Bill to cut littering and waste. She is also delivering Scotland’s first new national park in a generation. She is a doer—a renewables engineer with real-world experience in industry. We are lucky to have her—[Interruption.]

Meeting of the Parliament

Motion of No Confidence

Meeting date: 20 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

The motion of no confidence is the most shameless, cynical and desperate Tory stunt that I have yet seen in this chamber. On the very day on which their leadership at Westminster fell apart among Boris Johnson’s lies, they lodged the motion in a pathetic attempt to distract everyone from the dying days of their Government.

The audacity of the motion—the absolute brass neck of it—beggars belief, because it is the Tories who have scuppered the DRS scheme by forcing the removal of glass, which the scheme was built around, and by setting conditions on its operation for which it is impossible to plan. Now they are trying to gaslight Scotland into believing that it was somehow Lorna Slater’s fault all along. That is absurd.

We can expect that sort of rank opportunism from the Tories, but what about Labour? I urge every Labour and Liberal Democrat member in the chamber to think long and hard about what they are voting for and whom they are lining up with to do that, because this is not just an attack on Lorna Slater—it is an attack on everyone who believes in devolution. [Interruption.]

Meeting of the Parliament

Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2021

Meeting date: 20 June 2023

Mark Ruskell

The cabinet secretary is right to highlight the record investment in active travel and the free buses for more than 2 million people. In addition, with the removal of peak-time rail fares in the autumn, the dial is starting to shift towards a greener and fairer transport future. What more action does the Government need to take to reduce transport demand? What is the role of the UK Government in securing that reduction in transport demand? What is the role for the other parties in the Parliament, which are very quick to sign up to targets and very weak when it comes to taking the action that is needed to tackle the growth in transport demand?