The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 502 contributions
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 23 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
Okay. I will leave it there.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
One that is unnecessary and unlawful, as we have heard.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
I say politely that the obligation on us as parliamentarians is not to put legislation on the statute book that is potentially unlawful, that enables ministerial overreach and that takes up a huge amount of parliamentary time and resource. Instead of preparing for future emergencies when we do not know what they might be, we could solve many issues in education today. Why should I, as a parliamentarian, put more power into the hands of ministers when they have been so incompetent not only during the pandemic but over the past 10 years? Is the job not better done by Parliament? We proved that we could do that at the height of the pandemic.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
I will leave it there. Sadly, the Scottish Government is more interested in hoarding powers than in using them to help young people. We see that again with the bill.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
[Inaudible.]—in private.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 9 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
I think that most people in education and those who are watching at home will think that this is a total waste of time. I think that they will look at this and think that you are totally out of touch, cabinet secretary.
Most people who are involved in education—whether they are a parent or a teacher or they work in the sector day to day—realise that the problems during the pandemic had nothing to do with what was on the statute book; rather, they were all caused by ministerial incompetence, or by bad decisions that had been made prior to the pandemic. What makes you think that the bill would solve those problems? What would it do to address what we are seeing now, which is a third year of failure, with the Scottish Qualifications Authority again screwing over young people? What would it have done to prevent ministers from cutting 3,500 teachers and leaving schools in a really difficult position? What will it do to ensure that young people get the devices that they have been promised so that they can work remotely? I think that the answer is nothing. Is that right?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
I want to come back to David Belsey from the EIS about whether the same kind of discretion should be given to headteachers in schools. It is all well and good to say that local authorities should have the power to shut a school on health grounds, but the example in Glasgow that you cited and other experiences that I have seen in my constituency have involved difficult judgment calls, and the person who knows the school, young people and community best should surely have a say in such decisions, too.
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
I am sure that it will be worth the wait.
I have a question for the witness from Public Health Scotland. I want to push on that point. In relation to building public trust and confidence and encouraging people to continue to follow the guidance as we move into the next stage, how important is proportionality? How important is it that the legislation matches the situation and the level of emergency and fear that people across the country feel?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
It is for the witness from Public Health Scotland. Do you factor in how the public as a whole feel, how organisations feel and how decision makers feel if the legislation on the statute books is out of step with the perception of the risk and state of emergency that we are in?
Education, Children and Young People Committee
Meeting date: 2 March 2022
Oliver Mundell
For absolute clarity, could the lack of proportionality make the legislation unlawful?