Topical Question Time
Typhoon Haiyan (Scottish Government Assistance)
1. Presiding Officer, I echo your sentiments with regard to the desperately sad passing of Helen Eadie.
To ask the Scottish Government what assistance it is providing to the Philippines through its international development fund following typhoon Haiyan. (S4T-00508)
The typhoon that struck the Philippines on Friday is one of the worst in history to make landfall and has caused untold destruction and devastation to the Filipino people. I know that members will join me in expressing the Scottish people’s deepest sympathy and condolences, and I have written in those terms to the ambassador and consul general of the Philippines.
Following today’s launch of the Philippines typhoon appeal by the Disasters Emergency Committee, I announce that the Scottish Government will donate £600,000 to the appeal. The funds will be spent by some of our leading aid agencies working in the region to provide much-needed relief for the people who are affected, including clean water, food, shelter and medical supplies. In addition to announcing the Scottish Government’s donation, I take this opportunity to urge the people of Scotland to dig deep and help to support aid agencies that are responding to the devastation that the typhoon caused.
Response teams from non-governmental organisations, which include Scottish aid workers, are already in the Philippines assessing the situation and beginning to distribute relief supplies. I pay tribute to their work.
I very much welcome the announcement of the provision of £600,000 in aid. The unfolding disaster, which has affected millions in the Philippines, has been brought home to people in this country in the most graphic detail. I share the cabinet secretary’s view that the public in Scotland will respond quickly and generously, as they always do, to support the efforts of Oxfam, the British Red Cross, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund and other international aid bodies that are striving to help the people who are suffering.
Given the gravity of the situation and the constantly changing conditions in the disaster zone, will the Scottish Government commit to keeping under constant review, in close collaboration with United Kingdom ministers and DEC, the support that it can offer? In particular, will the cabinet secretary advise the Parliament of the specific steps that have been taken to direct assistance to elderly, young and disabled people and other people who might be least able to stand in queues for long periods awaiting food, clean water and other essentials?
We will keep in touch with the UK Government and the aid agencies. The conditions are desperate, and the weather is causing further difficulties in the area.
The Disasters Emergency Committee is made up of representatives from different organisations, as the member is well aware, including the British Red Cross—Norman McKinley is chairing the Scottish Disasters Emergency Committee—Age UK and Save the Children. In the context of other disasters, we have found that targeted help for the groups and individuals the member mentioned is important, because they are the most vulnerable people in a very difficult situation. The member’s point is therefore well made.
The disaster has resonances of the boxing day tsunami, given the degree and extent of the devastation. Because of the disparate nature of the area’s island geography, there is still a lack of knowledge about what is happening. Constant attention and vigilance is therefore required. There must be an immediate response, as well as a continuing response over the weeks and months ahead.
I share the cabinet secretary’s concern about the immediate issues that face the population in the Philippines.
It is clear that, as well as providing the immediate humanitarian aid that is crucial to ensuring that further life is not lost, the international community needs to help countries such as the Philippines, which was ranked third by the United Nations in a league of countries that are most likely to be affected by climate change disasters, to be better prepared in future. Will the Scottish Government undertake to work with the UK Government to help to take a lead in ensuring that such help and support is forthcoming from the entire global community?
Devastating disasters such as we have just witnessed cannot be prevented, but there can be planning to help countries to respond and to mitigate some of the risks.
We in this country are committed to climate justice. We were one of the first countries in the world, if not the first, to develop a climate justice fund. We doubled our contribution to the fund only weeks ago. It is important that there is an immediate emergency response to disasters, but Liam McArthur is quite correct to say that we must also consider the wider impact of climate change in relation to the devastating disasters that are increasingly happening.
Will the cabinet secretary join me in paying tribute to the individual Scots aid workers who have already flown out to the Philippines and who have the support and best wishes of all in the chamber?
Yes. It is important that we recognise how quickly so many respond to such incidents and, indeed, the fact that they are already there on the ground. I agree with Mr McGrigor that we should send our best wishes to all aid workers either from Scotland or from elsewhere who are seeking to bring relief in what is a very trying and difficult situation.
Will the cabinet secretary join me in paying particular tribute to the Mercy Corps, which is the largest international non-government organisation headquartered in Scotland, with 35 staff based in my constituency? As well as working to provide shelter and water and ensure hygiene, what more can the Scottish Government do to make its expertise and experience available once the television cameras have been switched off to ensure that we can assist long-term recovery and build resilience to mitigate the impact of any future natural disasters in the region?
Jim Eadie has very appropriately mentioned the Mercy Corps and its contribution to international relief. Having had the opportunity to visit the organisation in his constituency, I know that such organisations are constantly vigilant and are constantly dealing with emergency situations.
However, the member is also quite right to highlight the issue of resilience and reconstruction. The chamber might not be aware of this, but one of our most eminent architects, John McAslan, was involved in some of the housing restoration work that took place after the disaster in Haiti. We will certainly see what expertise and so on we can identify and mobilise, but it is very important that all nations work together on this. Even as we speak, the United Nations has launched an appeal and I have spoken to Commissioner Kristalina Georgieva about the humanitarian aspects of co-operation across the European Union. We have expertise to offer and I am sure that everyone will want to know that Scotland is behind the aid efforts and that we want to do whatever we can to help people in a situation that we can only imagine. We will do everything that we can to help.
Common Agricultural Policy Budget Allocation
2. To ask the Scottish Government what the implications are of the common agricultural policy budget settlement in light of the United Kingdom Government's outrageous decision not to pass on the immediate uplift in Scotland’s budget allocation. (S4T-00507)
I remind members that, when they ask questions in future, they must ask the question exactly as it is in the order paper and not add outrageous words.
I thank the member for raising this issue. As he will be aware, I will be making a full statement to the chamber on the budget allocation immediately after this question.
The decision not to pass on the added budgets provided by Europe to the UK is hugely disappointing and will severely limit what we can deliver in this country under the future common agricultural policy. There will be less resource to support our food producers and we are now left with very difficult choices about how we allocate our budgets in Scotland.
We considered that the full convergence uplift should rightly have come to Scotland because the UK was awarded it only because of Scotland’s very low average rate of direct payment supports, which was less than half the European average per hectare. All other parts of the UK are either at or above the European Union average. Without the convergence uplift, Scotland’s average per hectare rate will be only €128 per hectare by 2019, when the EU’s lowest average rate for member states will be €196 per hectare.
Given that a statement on the common agricultural policy budget allocation will immediately follow topical questions, Angus MacDonald has waived his right to ask supplementary questions.