Seòmar agus comataidhean

That the Parliament recognises that 3 to 9 February 2025 marks Children’s Mental Health Week and welcomes this year's theme, Know Yourself, Grow Yourself, which encourages children and young people to develop self-awareness, build resilience, and understand their emotions in order to support their mental wellbeing; believes that fostering emotional literacy from an early age is crucial in enabling children to express themselves in a healthy and constructive manner; acknowledges what it sees as the vital role that schools, parents, carers, and youth workers play in creating supportive environments where young people feel safe to talk about their mental health; commends the work of organisations such as Place2Be and others in promoting awareness and providing essential mental health support to children, young people, families, and educators across Scotland, and notes the particular challenges that it believes are facing young people, including the impact of poverty, social isolation, exam pressures, and access to mental health services.

As an amendment to motion S6M-16330 in the name of Jenny Gilruth (Addressing Child Poverty Through Education), insert at end "; welcomes the recently published guidance on school uniforms, including key recommendations to limit costs, and calls for this guidance to be put on a statutory footing as soon as possible."

As an amendment to motion S6M-16330 in the name of Jenny Gilruth (Addressing Child Poverty Through Education), leave out from "welcomes" to end and insert "acknowledges that more than a quarter of children in Scotland live in poverty; recognises that, while investment in tackling child poverty through education is important, it must be accompanied by a focus on improving educational standards; notes that, while the Scottish Government has spent £1 billion on early years and childcare, there remains a significant disparity in the availability of early years provision across Scotland, which risks deepening inequalities and limiting parental employment opportunities, and has long-term consequences for children’s development and educational outcomes; further notes with concern that education in Scotland has gone backwards in Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) international rankings; acknowledges that the attainment gap in primary pupils’ reading, writing, literacy and numeracy remains similar to pre-COVID-19-pandemic levels and has failed to close; regrets that the pledge to provide universal free school meals for primary pupils has not been fulfilled; expresses concern over the rising level of violence in schools, which negatively impacts both attainment and wellbeing; calls on the Scottish Government to provide greater support for teachers and local authorities to tackle this issue; further calls for a review of policies to improve the identification of and support for care experienced and young carer pupils in schools, ensuring that they receive the necessary assistance to succeed in education, and believes that the Scottish Government’s main priority should be ensuring that every child, no matter their background, has the best start in life."

As an amendment to motion S6M-16330 in the name of Jenny Gilruth (Addressing Child Poverty Through Education), leave out "and recognises that progress has been made" and insert "but accepts that despite the hard work of education staff little progress has been made to close the gap and it will not be closed by the deadline of 2026".

That the Parliament recognises the devastating impact that miscarriage and stillbirth can have on women and their families, and extends its condolences to all those who have been affected; acknowledges the importance of good stillbirth care and that improvements continue to be made by NHS boards and through the stillbirth national bereavement care pathway; notes that, although miscarriage care in Scotland is generally considered to be of high quality, there is still more to do to standardise and end the variation in the care and support delivered across Scotland; welcomes efforts from NHS boards to further improve miscarriage care following recommendations in The Lancet series, Miscarriage Matters, and Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists and NICE guidelines around the use of progesterone; thanks hardworking NHS staff and all those who have contributed to the progress to date for their care and professionalism when caring for women experiencing miscarriage; welcomes the publication of the Delivery Framework for Miscarriage Care in Scotland and the Progesterone Pathway as key steps in implementing a graded model of care that will ensure that women receive tailored support from their first miscarriage; supports the provision of dedicated facilities for women experiencing unexpected pregnancy complications, miscarriage or still birth, and believes that it is vital that everyone in society, including employers, works together to break the stigma surrounding miscarriage and stillbirth to ensure that women and their families can access the information, care and support that is right for them.

That the Parliament agrees that all relevant provisions of the Great British Energy Bill, introduced in the House of Commons on 25 July 2024 and subsequently amended, so far as these matters fall within the legislative competence of the Scottish Parliament and alter the executive competence of the Scottish Ministers, should be considered by the UK Parliament. 

As an amendment to motion S6M-16330 in the name of Jenny Gilruth (Addressing Child Poverty Through Education), leave out from ", which is" to end and insert "; commends Scotland’s teachers and schools for their work; notes that the poverty-related attainment gap has not improved in P1 and is the widest it has ever been at Higher level; further notes that the Scottish Government’s failure to plan for the school workforce has meant that teachers are often overworked and children are unsupported; expresses its disappointment at what it sees as the Scottish National Party’s broken promise of rolling out free school meals to all P6 and P7 pupils; believes that education should set young people on the path to opportunities for their future and can help lift people out of poverty; understands that 'Scotland’s colleges play a particularly important role in supporting learners from more deprived communities to access learning', as described by Audit Scotland, but that the 'financial health of the sector has deteriorated since 2021-22'; welcomes that 100,000 people in Scotland have already received a pay rise thanks to the UK Labour administration’s New Deal for Working People; acknowledges recent analysis by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the extent of child poverty in Scotland, which observed deficiencies in the key data used to calculate poverty rates and found that 'we will need to go further to reach the 2030-31 targets', and calls on the Scottish Government to work with the UK Department for Work and Pensions to ensure that accurate data is available for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and other organisations to accurately assess the extent of child poverty in Scotland and the impact of policy interventions on it."

That the Parliament does not consider the 26 January 2025 elections for the Presidency of Belarus as legitimate, nor does it consider the vote legitimate or democratic; believes that the four non-incumbent candidates were merely "paper candidates" sanctioned by the Lukashenko regime, and understands that, for the first time, there were no candidates from the democratic opposition on the ballot; echoes the concerns of the Viasna Human Rights Centre and Belarusian Helsinki Committee regarding the "repressive climate of threat, fear-mongering, pressure and persecution" in the country; supports the sanctions in place against the Lukashenko regime; applauds what it sees as the refusal of the Belarusian people to be silenced and their continued calls for democratic elections, respect for human rights, the rule of law and fundamental freedoms; stands in solidarity with them; supports the Belarusian democratic forces, and calls for real, free and fair elections, the release of all political prisoners and the end of repression in Belarus, with the perpetrators, including what it sees as Europe’s last dictator, Aleksandr Lukashenko, to be held to account.

That the Parliament notes reports that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund returned the highest profit in its history last year; understands that the fund, which is overseen by the Norwegian central bank and stands at $1.8 trillion, is the largest government fund in the world, returned 2.51 trillion Norwegian Krone (NOK), the equivalent of $222 billion, surpassing the record of 2.2 trillion NOK the previous year; acknowledges that the fund, which was created in 1996, was set up to manage revenue from Norway’s oil and gas production; recognises that Norway is an independent country of around 5.5 million people, located in the north west of Europe, with a significant oil and gas industry in the North Sea and that it is currently ranked fifth in the world by the International Monetary Fund in terms of GDP per capita, which is 17 places ahead of the UK; believes that Norway is an example of what Scotland could have been if it had the full powers of independence; condemns the UK Government for what it sees as an immoral waste of Scotland’s wealth from oil and gas revenues in recent decades, and looks forward to the day when Scotland is an independent country, with full control over its own resources and wealth.

That the Parliament welcomes the announcement of multi-year funding for the next three years for a number of arts organisations based in the city of Aberdeen; notes that Peacock and the Worm will receive £1,001,001, Grampian Hospitals Art Trust will receive £392,246, Citymoves Dance Agency will receive £470,000 and Scottish Culture and Traditions Association Youth will receive £320,897; further notes that the Belmont Cinema will receive £507,000 towards its continued refurbishment, and Aberdeen Performing Arts, which runs His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen Music Hall and the Lemon Tree, will receive £1,691,373; believes that the organisations receiving this funding are all worthy recipients and play a huge part in enriching the lives of people in Aberdeen and expanding the north east’s creative sector; thanks Creative Scotland for what it sees as this vote of confidence in what Aberdeen has to offer, and hopes that the funding enables these organisations to do great things in the years to come.