Official Report 365KB pdf
The next item of business is a members’ business debate on motion S6M-20849, in the name of Jamie Halcro Johnston, on the sustainability of remote, rural and island communities. The debate will be concluded without any question being put, and I invite members who wish to participate to press their request-to-speak buttons as soon as possible.
Motion debated,
That the Parliament recognises a special duty to ensure the long-term sustainability of Scotland’s remote, rural and island communities; notes the view that addressing the needs of these communities requires policy that recognises and accommodates the particular circumstances of the Highlands and Islands region and other parts of remote, rural and island Scotland; acknowledges the challenges of delivering public services such as education, transport, local health and social care, policing and justice to areas with lower population density; believes that a range of local public services have been centralised or downgraded and no longer have a visible presence in many remote and rural communities; considers that the rural economy and rural businesses have faced unprecedented challenges in recent years with the farming and fishing sectors under real pressure and uncertainty, increased regulation impacting the visitor economy, and high streets and town centres struggling; believes that access to housing and affordable accommodation has become increasingly difficult in these communities, particularly for young people; recognises what it sees as the vital importance of connectivity to the prosperity of these communities, including preserving and expanding travel links by road, rail, sea and air and the need to plan for the future investment needs of essential infrastructure, and notes the view that building strong communities in all parts of Scotland will require a greater focus and consideration from across Scotland’s public bodies.
13:46
I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests as a partner in a farming business.
I thank all those who have signed today’s motion, allowing me to bring the debate to the chamber. With an election on the horizon, there will inevitably be a more partisan tone in the air after today’s proceedings, but I just want to recognise how often members representing remote, rural and island communities have been able to work together to get things done.
I especially appreciate the work of all those who joined me on the cross-party group on islands that I established this session. There is scope for the CPG to do more and reach out even further, but I hope that MSPs and the many other organisations and individuals involved have seen the value of having a forum for island issues at the heart of the Parliament.
In yesterday’s stage 3 debate on the Crofting and Scottish Land Court Bill, I talked about the loss of experience and expertise from this Parliament, and this debate will feature the last contributions that a number of members from the rural communities will make.
My party colleague Oliver Mundell is stepping down after 10 years representing the Dumfriesshire constituency. Oli is a scion of the great Mundell political dynasty; I first worked with his father, David, when I was a relative newbie to politics and this Parliament was further up the road. Like David, Oli has dutifully served those he represents and has always stood up for their interests, regardless of how popular it made him with our Conservative whips. I know that colleagues from across the chamber will miss his consideration of and commitment to the issues that he was most passionate about.
Beatrice Wishart, too, will be giving her last speech, and I particularly thank her for all her efforts on the CPG on islands, for making it the success that it has been and for the strong voice that she has been for Shetland. Our island communities face many challenges, and it is vital that their voices are heard in the chamber and in the corridors of power. Beatrice Wishart has very much played her part in that respect, and I wish her all the very best for the future.
John Mason, too, will be bowing out after today’s debate. I would be hard pressed to describe him as a strong voice for our island communities, given his previous confusion about what actually constitutes an island. [Laughter.] However, I have served with John on committees, most recently the Finance and Public Administration Committee, and I know how diligent he has been in conducting the vital scrutiny required of MSPs.
Last but not least, the cabinet secretary will be giving her last speech, too. I know that, because she reminded me of the fact last week. We have not always agreed—and the rest of my speech will probably highlight some of those areas of disagreement—but Mairi Gougeon has always been one of the more approachable members of a Government that is not always known for truly welcoming differing opinions. I and my colleagues would recognise that, if it were needed, the cabinet secretary would sit down with those with concerns and hear them out, and that was appreciated. We certainly wish her all the very best in whatever she chooses to do after this place.
With all of the niceties out of the way, I turn to my motion. Although it directly mentions the Highlands and Islands, I know that most of the issues that we will talk about touch constituencies and regions around Scotland that are facing the challenges of remoteness and rurality. Some listeners might see them as little more than a list of grievances, the complaints of people who have chosen to live furth of the central belt. Some might see them simply as a variation of problems felt elsewhere, and therefore no better or no worse in the end.
However, that is not the feeling on the ground in rural Scotland. Last year, the Scottish Government’s research into the effect of increases in the cost of living concluded that
“Rural and remote places in Scotland are more exposed to high inflation”,
noting the high costs of fuel, food and transport.
That is not, in itself, unusual: such businesses often operate on reduced margins; salaries are lower; and costs are often higher. What is different now is a palpable feeling that many communities are on the edge of a precipice. Instead of creating sustainable communities, it feels more as though the core resilience of many of our villages and towns has slowly been crushed.
That has practical consequences—whether it is the young family facing another year of being unable to afford a permanent home for their children; the small business owner who seems to be sacrificing more than she gains, but who keeps going; the working person who is trying to make ends meet; or the older person on a fixed income who is afraid to turn on the heating. Specifically rural issues are pushing more people into those sorts of categories. The result can be anything from depopulation to despair.
When the motion was written, I referred to the many unprecedented challenges that remote, rural and island communities have faced. We can now add a crippling energy crisis on top of those. That crisis hits not only households, but businesses and public services. It comes at a time when household finances are already stretched, when many businesses have already had their confidence battered and when we were already worried about additional costs through rate revaluations and tax changes from April. For the public sector, it comes against a backdrop of overstretched and underresourced services.
The traditional rural economy is struggling by almost every measure. Farm incomes have fallen, harvests have been decimated by the climate, and increases in regulation have driven up costs and complexity. Many rural communities are also dependent on visitors—whether they are in the Highlands and Islands, the south of Scotland or places such as Stirlingshire and Perthshire. There, too, costs for operators in the visitor economy are escalating, while the Government sees this as a good time to impose more regulation and more tax.
In addition to economic woes, small rural communities are increasingly seeing services moved further away. The local police office has disappeared, the local general practitioner surgery has been combined with one elsewhere and the local hospital has had services downgraded or lost entirely. Perhaps even the local school is at risk. The goal of efficiency savings—often without any consideration of second-order effects—is motivated not by the efficient management of resources but by driving costs down. There is a visible retreat of public services from communities. That has a cost in towns and villages being hollowed out. It also impacts the quality of service that people are receiving: it is more difficult than ever for many people to see their GP; it is a struggle to find a national health service dentist in most of the country; and crimes are going unreported, because there is no expectation of their being investigated.
The problems of remoteness are made all the greater by failures in connectivity. Our roads are in the worst state in my memory. Major infrastructure projects, such as the dualling of the A9 and the A96 and tackling the repeated closure of the Rest and Be Thankful, have been delayed or overlooked. The costs are not solely economic—sometimes they are measured in lives lost. Meanwhile, the ferries crisis continues, with the Scottish National Party Government coming face to face with the consequences of two decades of neglect, while islands and ferry-dependent communities pay the price.
If the next Scottish Government is to serve the people of remote, rural and island Scotland, there desperately need to be a reassessment of the relative cost of delivering public services in remote and rural areas. It is clear that those services are not currently being delivered effectively. In many cases, such as the delivery of social care at home, there is no strategy at all. We also need there to be real effort to grow the economies of Scotland’s regions, and an economic strategy from the Scottish Government that analyses regional impact and recognises how island and remote communities operate.
We will not always agree on the way forward. However, there are many areas in which we can work together and where the need for change is both urgent and evident. As we go into this election, I hope that the needs of remote, rural and island Scotland will be at the top of the agenda.
Before we move to the open debate, I advise members that the debate is heavily oversubscribed. I am conscious that afternoon business starts at 3 o’clock and that there will need to be time for the chamber to be prepared for that. Therefore, I will have to keep members to their speaking time allocations and I will cut them off if they go beyond their four minutes.
13:54
Thank you, Presiding Officer. Since this will be my last speech of session 6, I thank you and the Presiding Officer team for your patience and for the fair and courteous manner in which you have presided over proceedings of this Parliament.
As the convener of the Finance and Public Administration Committee, I also record my thanks to the committee’s members and clerking team. The committee has won multiple awards and has built a formidable reputation, and none of that would have been possible without the hard work and dedication of its clerks and the collegiate working by colleagues.
I note that her speech today will be the cabinet secretary’s last response to a debate. I find it sad that Mairi Gougeon is leaving Parliament at such a young age, after a mere decade in this place—eight years in Government and five years in Cabinet. I wish her all the best for her future endeavours after she catches the midnight express.
I congratulate Jamie Halcro Johnston on securing the debate. Scotland’s islands are truly remarkable places. Our island communities are consistently identified as being among our happiest communities and the best in which to grow old or raise children.
As MSP for a constituency that includes Arran and Cumbrae, I know at first hand the outsized contribution that both places make to our economy, culture and natural heritage. I will speak today about the many positive developments that are taking place in Arran and Cumbrae, such as Millport’s £48 million flood protection scheme, which has improved flood protection for more than 650 homes and businesses; the £9.17 million investment that has gone into Arran’s bus services; the reopening and refurbishment of Millport town hall, which received a £1.934 million regeneration grant from the Scottish Government; and the 18 affordable homes that were delivered as part of the Rowarden affordable housing project.
Instead, I will focus on the issue that influences every aspect of island life—the ferries. Both communities that I represent are beyond exasperation with the current situation—and with CalMac Ferries, for that matter. In Cumbrae, the community has been fighting a rearguard action against CalMac’s attempts to impose scheduled maintenance windows and increased turnaround times. The new summer timetable shows a significant reduction in sailings, which impacts both islanders and visitors on busy, sunny summer days. There is deep concern about the lack of transparency around the evidence that is used to justify those changes, such as the undisclosed turnaround time report and the limited explanation for withdrawing simultaneous loading and unloading, despite decades of safe operation. As one Millport resident put it,
“It seems to me that CalMac has forgotten that they are meant to provide a service, not service a business plan.”
On Arran, the situation for islanders has become intolerable. According to the Isle of Arran ferry committee, the last day that Arran had a timetabled service without risk being advised was 14 February; since then, there have been constant cancellations. Arranachs have endured a level of disruption that few other communities in Scotland have faced, given the issues with the MV Glen Sannox and the seemingly constant breakdowns of the MV Caledonian Isles, even after £11 million-worth of repairs.
The consequences are profound. Constituents described 40 visitors sleeping overnight in Brodick hall, cancer patients forced into exhausting and costly detours via Claonaig, families stranded for days on the mainland, empty shop shelves as freight struggles to get through, and elderly residents missing vital hospital treatments because they simply cannot rely on the ferry. The deterioration of confidence in the route is real, and the emotional, financial and social toll on Arran is immense. Islanders are asking not for miracles, but simply for a reliable, functioning lifeline service.
I visited Ardrossan harbour on Monday to hear about the essential redevelopment project that will begin next year as well as some of the immediate actions that Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd is taking to improve resilience. The Scottish Government’s acquisition of Ardrossan harbour should be a landmark moment. Now that it is in public ownership, there is a clear path towards the harbour’s much-needed redevelopment. Coupled with the new tonnage that is being added to CalMac’s fleet, it should represent a turning point in west coast ferry services.
However, although it is welcome, that significant investment alone is not enough. Islanders have been clear that the tripartite structure of CalMac, CMAL and Transport Scotland needs reform in order to streamline decision making and improve accountability. That will now be for the next Parliament to deliver. Islanders will rightly expect urgency, accountability and a ferry system that is worthy of the communities that it exists to serve.
13:58
Before I start with some final thoughts, I want to make it clear, up front, that my comments are not personally aimed at the cabinet secretary, who I respect and with whom I enjoy working, as everybody across the chamber does. I have never felt the need to compare her to a chlorinated chicken, unlike her predecessor. Instead, Mairi Gougeon deserves recognition, not least for her decision to pull the plug on the Galloway national park, which is a rare example of Scottish Government ministers listening to the views of rural Scotland. I know how seriously she takes the health and wellbeing of all Scotland’s rural workers, which is to her credit.
In leaving, I am saddened not at the thought of going, but at the knowledge that the Parliament that I leave behind is not a true friend to rural Scotland. I share the frustrations of my constituents that Holyrood is dominated by urban, central-belt thinking and is obsessed with telling people who live in rural Scotland how to live.
When the Scottish Government is not busy banning things, it is busy imposing them. Our precious uplands are being carpeted with trees and turbines, often displacing people and changing the character of our communities for ever. Along with supporting the many community events and projects that make my Dumfriesshire constituency so special, the proudest moments I have had while in elected office have been those when I have stood alongside communities in David versus Goliath battles to see off the worst attempts to industrialise our countryside. The playing field is far from level. It often feels as if money talks, with hillsides being sold to the highest bidder without any thought about the social consequences or about how future generations will put food on the table.
Meanwhile, here in our national Parliament, tokenism too often prevails over substance. That might mean flying the European Union flag outside the building, long after we have left the EU; serving what is still labelled as “oat milk” despite court clarification that that is unlawful; or banning greyhound racing long after the last track in Scotland has already been shut. By doing those things, we do a disservice to and go out of our way to diminish the great democratic prize that others fought for. Indeed, much of the debate in this chamber seems a far cry from the genuine excitement that I witnessed as a child when I first watched Donald Dewar address the Parliament in 1999. Most institutions grow in stature as they age, but Holyrood seems to be stuck in reverse.
That fuels the growing disconnect between the Scottish Parliament and many of the people whom it is supposed to represent—decent hard-working people, who get their hands dirty and pay their taxes, just like anyone else. My sincere hope is that future sessions of the Parliament will be different and that other members will be more successful than those of us here, including me, in shifting the dial.
Instead of attacking rural Scotland, we should celebrate and back it. We must be willing to recognise that delivering rural services costs more in a country such as ours. Rural Scotland, not least Dumfriesshire, holds real potential. The answers to many of our most pressing challenges can be found in our rural and remote communities, but they must be given the freedom to flourish. Our communities need politicians who will listen to those on the ground, who really do know best. Endless legislation and policy are not substitutes for substance or real-world experience. Politicians, however green they claim to be, must understand their limitations and remember those who elected them.
14:02
As a South Scotland MSP, I am no stranger to the harsh realities faced by those accessing services in rural areas. I speak to constituents from across the region, and the issues that we discuss match those found in the Government’s own research, with people mentioning transport, travel costs and access to GPs and other services, along with depopulation and a lack of economic opportunity.
The pressing issues that we are discussing today are unique and diverse and any action taken to address them must be flexible and responsive. It is usually my colleague Rhoda Grant who speaks in rural debates, and I know that she has really appreciated the support from Mairi Gougeon and Jim Fairlie and their work in committee. I pass on the very best wishes of the Labour group.
We all agree that living in a remote or rural community should not limit access to basic and specialist care, nor should it limit opportunities. We know that the housing crisis is acute, that depopulation and demographic change are very real in rural communities and that transport and connectivity issues are raised with every member in the chamber. Access to services can be limited, economic instability often affects rural communities in a heightened way and the cost of living is much greater for those living in them.
As everyone has said, the next Parliament must work together to rebuild trust with rural communities and businesses, and it must redouble efforts to co-design a rural strategy with communities and to put the future of rural and island areas on a more secure footing. The next Government must work with those communities to ensure that legislation is implemented and monitored to enable delivery.
Given that much of my time in my five years in the Parliament has been focused on health, it would be remiss of me not to raise the subject again in the context of rural and remote communities. This parliamentary session ends as it began, with a Government that has really let down the patients and staff in our rural and island health services. Indeed, we have heard repeatedly of a healthcare system that underdelivers and underperforms for our rural communities.
Our universal healthcare system has become a bit of a postcode lottery, with rural health inequalities continuing to be exacerbated by decisions that do not always work for those communities. General practitioners are difficult to get in rural areas; waiting times are increasing; and the level of delayed discharge is high.
Rural areas bear the brunt of the failure to match up services, and distances can make things difficult. In the next parliamentary session, there really needs to be cross-portfolio working, with links made between transport, economy and the cost of living. In my region, there are difficult stories to tell about maternity and alcohol services, but I want to raise in particular the issues of training and support for staff to stay in rural areas, because those are cross-portfolio matters. We must work with trade unions, professional bodies, training providers and NHS boards to get flexible training opportunities, delivery and recruitment in place. One particular area that I have mentioned is apprenticeships, and I hope that we can do more work on that in the next parliamentary session.
I hope that the Parliament can pass on as a legacy the requirement for cross-portfolio working when it comes to rural issues, and I hope that we see that happen in the next session of the Parliament.
14:06
Before I start, I want to thank Oliver Mundell. He has been a great colleague, and I thought that he gave a really good speech on rural Scotland and what it means.
I also thank Mairi Gougeon for the work that I have been able to do with her over the past year. It is frustratingly difficult to enrage her, which is always annoying for those on committees, but we have had a good working relationship. We might not agree on things, but I am sad to see her go.
Finally, I have a quick message about John Mason. For those of us of Christian faith in the Parliament, he has led by example, and his prayer breakfast will not be forgotten. The pastries have always been welcome on a Thursday morning.
Rural Scotland is, to me, incredibly important. I have spent my entire working life there. I have been on thousands of farms across the north-east and the Highlands and Islands; I have been on many estates; and I have worked with different communities. It is, for me, a passion that I wanted to bring into this chamber when I came here just over two years ago.
At that time, I went to my party’s chief whip and said, “I want to do something on rural Scotland,” and, in the past two years, I have been lucky enough to secure three members’ business debates on the issue. The first was on health and social care, because I recognised very early on in my days on the council that that was an incredibly important area. Indeed, I think to this day that it is not right that basic services are not delivered in rural communities throughout Scotland. It is fair enough that people might have to travel for complex surgery, but we should be delivering basic services as local to home as possible.
My second debate was on the rural depopulation crisis. It is one thing to have a plan to deal with rural depopulation—it is another to deliver it. As Oliver Mundell has said, rurality might cost more, but what would Scotland be if we did not deliver for rural Scotland?
My final debate was on rural bridges and the importance of connecting communities. There are now four bridges in Moray that are falling down, and it is not right that we are disconnecting communities in that way. If I return, as I hope, in the next parliamentary session, I will continue the pressure to bring back the capital funding that is required for rural bridges.
I thank the communities across the Highlands and Islands that are doing so much to keep rural Scotland going, making businesses work, helping each other and working to attract the professionals whom we need across rural Scotland. However, I also want to highlight the challenges and the increasing number of rural penalties that I feel that I see.
I tried to put an exemption for travel on health grounds into the visitor levy, and I think that it represents a rural penalty that my amendment did not get through. The fact that patients have to travel for routine care is a rural penalty. The fact that ferries do not work is a rural penalty. That bridges do not get fixed; that the A9 and A96 have not been dualled; that councils do not receive the funding that they need; that rural buses and services are stopping; and that parcel delivery is more expensive—those things, and many more, are rural penalties that we have failed to deal with and which we will need to deal with.
Finally—this, too, is incredibly important—I want to send a message to the young people of rural Scotland. I know that many of them will want to travel, explore the world and see the lights of the big cities as they get older, but I want them to know that there will always be a home for them in rural Scotland. Therefore, we must ensure that housing, jobs, employment, transport and opportunities are the very best that they can be, if they are to feel safe enough to return to Scotland at some point in their lives.
It is one thing to have a rural depopulation plan, as I have said; it is another thing to live and breathe it. I just want to recognise, as we should all recognise—and as I hope that Parliament will recognise in the new session—that rurality might well cost more, but Scotland would be a very different place without it.
14:10
I thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for bringing this debate on rural issues to the chamber. Before I contribute to it, however, I would like to pay tribute to several members who will not be back in May. It has been a pleasure to work with Mairi Gougeon on various key pieces of legislation during this session. I thank her for being so constructive and personable during our discussions, and I wish her all the best for the future. I also thank Oliver Mundell and John Mason for their years of public service in the Parliament and to the people they represent. I also thank Beatrice Wishart—I name-checked her yesterday, too—for her championing of Shetland and, in particular, our shared interest in fixed links.
Today’s motion raises several key points that I agree with. The lack of availability of affordable accommodation is a real concern, and I share the view that we need to boost connectivity across the region. As the motion notes, those factors are key to strong communities and the Scottish Government must handle them with nuance. I disagree, however, with its diagnosis of the challenges that rural and island communities face. For example, increased regulation of the visitor economy will help to fix housing shortages and support local authorities to deliver the various services that the motion states are downgraded. The reason for services being on their knees can be traced back to 14 years of Tory austerity at Westminster and historic underinvestment in rural Scotland long before the Scottish Parliament existed.
Throughout this session, the Scottish Greens have delivered for people across the Highlands and Islands. On transport, we have scrapped peak fares for rail passengers, as well as those for islanders on NorthLink ferries. We have introduced a £2 bus cap across the Highlands and Islands and secured consultation on cruise ship levies that will help to reduce pressure on port towns and island communities.
On housing, we have ramped up availability and affordability by winning multiyear funding for community housing projects, getting more money into the rural and island housing fund and implementing tougher council tax rules for second homes. Tenants are better off thanks to Green wins from the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025, including long-term rent controls and stronger protections against no-fault evictions. We were also there for renters in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic, when we were instrumental in bringing in a rent freeze and a ban on arbitrary evictions, both of which were key promises in our 2021 manifesto.
I have also been supporting the agricultural sector, securing funding for a sustainable farm and food skills pipeline that will support the transition to regenerative growing practices and give more young people opportunities in that crucial sector. I urge the Government to follow through on that work. On top of that, I have supported market gardeners, working to set up a support scheme that would ensure that crofters and other small-scale producers are funded based on what they deliver rather than the size of their holdings.
I am incredibly proud of what the Scottish Greens have delivered so far, but I am also aware that more still needs to be done. I am deeply concerned about the impact that Donald Trump’s reckless attack on Iran will have on the cost of living. Energy costs look set to soar, which will hit people across the Highlands and Islands who already face a price premium. The cost of fuel is also likely to rise, which will affect everyone from fishers to community pharmacies that deliver vital prescriptions. The Scottish Greens will continue to be there for folks in the on-going crisis.
Looking further ahead, we want to instigate proper investment in the future. Highlands and Islands communities must see the delivery of a rural housing revolution, more affordable homes, more social housing and more long-term empty properties coming back into the community. We want to ensure that every community has access to essential banking, childcare and public transport, including free bus travel, which is already enjoyed by half of Scotland’s population. We also want to tackle escalating land prices to democratise land.
Scotland’s rural communities are the backbone of our nation, and the Scottish Greens will do all that we can to give them the best possible future.
14:14
I thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for bringing this important debate to the chamber on this, the last day of the sixth session of the Scottish Parliament. This will be my final speech in the Parliament and, appropriately, the debate is on the sustainability of Scotland’s remote, rural and island communities.
It has been an honour and a privilege to serve in the Parliament. I thank colleagues across the chamber for their kind words and for their friendship, and I wish Oliver Mundell, John Mason and the cabinet secretary well as they step down.
During my time here, I have repeatedly spoken about the issues that affect the island and rural areas of Scotland. I have often said that islanders do not look for special treatment. What people seek is the means to live and work in their communities and to survive and thrive in them, which entails putting investment into infrastructure and public services. Despite Government promises, digital connectivity is still not 100 per cent available across island and rural areas, yet it is vital for sustainability in today’s world. The further away from the central belt a place is, the more it costs to deliver services there, and almost everything that people who live on islands need has to be brought in by ferry. A lack of housing for young local families and the high cost of travel are the two reasons that I most often hear for people leaving Shetland to live elsewhere. I have heard numerous accounts of people coming to Shetland to take up jobs in the NHS or the council, only to leave a few months later because they cannot find permanent accommodation.
This will also be the last time that I get to reinforce Shetland’s call for a network of subsea tunnels to link islands, which would be another development in the evolution of its transport connectivity. I am pleased to have been able to work with Alistair Carmichael MP and the tunnel action groups to make progress on that much-needed infrastructure development.
Of course, I did not plan to come to the Parliament: I thank former MSP Tavish Scott for stepping down halfway through session 5 and throwing us into a whirlwind of a by-election in 2019. I thank very much the people of Shetland, who put me here, and I thank my colleagues Willie, Alex, Jamie and Liam for their support. I hope that there will be more women on the Scottish Liberal Democrat benches after the election.
None of us could do the work that we do without the teams who stand behind us, and I am very grateful for my team of Will, Helen, Kevin, Joy and Theo, and past staff Lily, Erin and Louise, who have worked hard and supported me over the past seven years. I also thank all the staff in the Scottish Parliament building who do so much to enable us to carry out the work that we do.
I live in a wonderful community. Like any other place, it has its problems, including drugs, alcohol and domestic abuse, but it is also a generous community, as was demonstrated just last weekend. A plea was put out for funding to enable a well-known local man to access brain tumour treatment that is not available in Scotland. Within three days, the fund had raised more than £100,000 to help with on-going treatment in Germany. For a population of 23,000 people, that is quite remarkable. When tragedy struck my own family 18 months ago, when my dear son-in-law died suddenly, my daughter Louise and their children—Kieran, Leighton and Eve, my grandchildren—and the wider family felt the arms of the community wrap around us with love and support, and for that we will forever be grateful. I also appreciated the support from my colleagues across the chamber, including the Presiding Officer and the First Minister, during that difficult time. I leave now to return to my family and friends, who have supported me throughout my time here, and I look forward to a bright Shetland summer.
If I have a pearl of wisdom for the next intake of MSPs, it is that they should do what we all came here to do and make life better for our fellow citizens, and that they should do so by working together across the chamber, constructively and with kindness.
14:18
It is a pleasure to follow Beatrice Wishart, who, as we all know, has been a real champion for her communities in the time that she has spent here. I also pay tribute to my friend and colleague Oliver Mundell, who has shown us what a constituency MSP should be, and to John Mason, with whom I have had the pleasure of working in the community. I say to John that working with him has always been interesting—I will leave it there.
I also pay tribute to Mairi Gougeon, who is, frustratingly, always happy and upbeat no matter what the situation. Although we disagree on some things, I know that she and I share a passion for locally produced food. We have worked hard together on that, and I appreciate her support.
I thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for bringing this debate to the Parliament. As always, I want to introduce a slightly different approach to the subject and so I will talk about how we should develop health policy. We must start from the position that services should be available to our communities no matter where they are, whether they are urban, rural or on islands.
We should all have access to GPs and to dentistry, pharmacy, accident and emergency, and maternity services. Access to those things should be statutory across our country, no matter what. The same should be said for education and community activity. However, how we deliver that uniformity of service will vary across urban, rural and island settings. There is an acceptance, especially in our rural and island communities, that people will require to travel to access some services—for example, trauma or specialist health services.
I have tried to bring to the chamber my belief that healthcare will be revolutionised by the adoption of technology. No one will benefit more from that than our rural communities across Scotland—it is they who will benefit disproportionately. We are way behind the rest of the world in adopting that kind of technology, which will deliver services in a more effective way across our country.
Connectivity, which has been mentioned, is a lifeline for all our communities. I live in East Kilbride. I know how poor the roads are there, how infrequent the buses are, how infrequent the rail services are and how difficult it is for people to get out of their cars. For rural and island communities, connectivity is a lifeline. As Jamie Halcro Johnston said, roads, rail networks and ferries—we keep coming back to ferries—are key to keeping those communities where they are and stopping migration away from them.
The chamber will welcome the fact that this—eventually—is my last speech in this parliamentary session.
If we are to deliver for all our communities, including our islands and rural communities, we will require to do something that this Parliament has been very poor at: cross-portfolio working. That is what we need to do if we are to deliver people’s basic needs across all our communities.
Before I call the next speaker, in order to protect the time available for each member who wants to participate, I am minded to accept a motion without notice, under rule 8.14.3 of standing orders, to extend the debate by up to 30 minutes. I invite Mr Halcro Johnston to move such a motion.
Motion moved,
That, under rule 8.14.3, the debate be extended by up to 30 minutes.—[Jamie Halcro Johnston]
Motion agreed to.
14:22
I thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for allowing us to debate, on the final day of the parliamentary session, the many issues that he and I have fought most hard on over the course of it.
I have been really lucky with my regional colleagues—Rhoda Grant, Edward Mountain, Ariane Burgess and Tim Eagle in particular. Whether through bumping into each other on surgery tours or working together on committees, they have had a frequent and usually positive influence on my working life. Although Jamie Halcro Johnston and I have interacted less often, we have never clashed outwith this chamber. That is the kind of collegiate working across parties that we should be promoting.
In my first speech in the Parliament, I spoke about the mental health crisis in our region. When I made that speech, only 137 days had passed since my mother died of Covid and 44 months had passed since I was homeless. That was now 1,758 days ago, and I have learned so much since then, from the finer points of goose management to the difficulties in delivering island housing developments. However, my outlook on the core issues that we face has not changed, nor has my passion for addressing them.
The day I made my first speech, I told the Parliament that I would spend the next five years doing everything in my power to improve the lives of others who make the Highlands and Islands their home, that I would work with colleagues across the chamber to make sure that we are getting it right, and that I would use my lived experience to contribute to discussions because I deeply understand the issues faced by my constituents. That is what I did. It was so meaningful to me to serve as the minister with responsibility for addressing depopulation. I am so proud of the addressing depopulation action plan that I published then, and the scale of the work that went into it from the communities that I worked with, many of which were rural or island based.
I worked with the transport secretary to ensure that young islanders benefit from our free bus travel scheme, which has now been extended to interisland ferries.
From this week, my constituents are benefiting from a £2 fare cap for single bus journeys; I am delighted that the trains that I travel on every week are due for an upgrade next year; and now that we have a set timescale for the Nairn bypass, I look forward to seeing spades in the ground for that very soon.
I will never forget amending what is now the Housing (Scotland) Act 2025 to allow us to collect data that will allow future Parliaments to make better decisions, better policy and better law.
When I look back at all that and look forward to the work that remains, I am proud of what has been achieved, but I have a deep feeling of unfinished business. I, the SNP and the Parliament have more to do to ensure the sustainability of rural and island areas and the whole of the Highlands and Islands region, so that locals can access high-quality public services.
On the day I made my first speech in June 2021, I also spoke about how, no matter which direction I am travelling in, I look out for the Kessock bridge lights in the distance and know that I am nearly home. Much as I will miss the contributions of many colleagues who do not plan to return, including the cabinet secretary, Elena Whitham, and Joe FitzPatrick, whose contribution at First Minister’s questions I welled up listening to earlier, and much as I value the work that we all do here, I will head home on Friday morning, and I cannot wait to look ahead and see that bridge.
I will spend the next six weeks working hard to come back here and represent that incredible Highlands and Islands constituency, and I hope that anyone who does so takes the issues just as seriously. I know that society and the Parliament are best when protected characteristics and geography do not limit our ambition. There is a lot of work to do to ensure that people in the Highlands and Islands and young people like me who are homeless and struggling or disabled and fighting are supported to be contributors and to be happy, healthy and productive individuals—maybe even leaders or MSPs.
14:26
I pay tribute to my colleagues who will not return next session, particularly Oliver Mundell, who has spoken out so well for Dumfriesshire, John Mason and my dear friend Beatrice Wishart, whom I will miss dearly. We need to reflect on the hard work that she did with the cross-party group on brain tumours—what she has achieved in such a short time is remarkable. [Applause.] I also thank my friend and colleague Jamie Halcro Johnston for once again showing his passion for rural Scotland by bringing this debate to the chamber.
Rural Scotland has been asked to do more with less, and that is simply not sustainable. For almost a decade, I have stood in the chamber making the case for rural Scotland, campaigning for a moratorium on inappropriate wind farm developments, defending the local services that our cottage hospitals once provided, leading the call to dual the A75 and working through the cost of living crisis to secure support for rural households and businesses.
Our remote, rural and island communities are central to Scotland’s economy, culture and identity, yet too often they are treated as an afterthought. Nowhere is that shown more starkly than in Galloway and West Dumfries, in a region that is shaped by long distances, dispersed populations and fragile infrastructure. However, distance must not mean disadvantage. It should not mean that a hospital appointment becomes an all-day journey, that expectant mothers face an 80-mile trip to the nearest maternity unit or that access to justice, education and essential services depends on how far someone can drive. However, that is exactly the reality for too many. Centralisation continues to hollow out rural life when a bank closes, when step-down beds vanish or when services are removed to distant hubs. It is not only an inconvenience but costs jobs, weakens high streets and leaves communities feeling forgotten.
Connectivity—physical and digital—remains one of the defining challenges. I have led the campaign to dual the A75 because it is not only a regional road but a national economic artery that links Scotland and England to Northern Ireland and carries nearly £9 billion-worth of freight every year. For too long, it has been neglected, with safety concerns, unreliable journey times and chronic underinvestment that hold the south-west back. The A77 faces similar issues. Warm words will not fix those routes—only investment will.
Public transport cuts are another blow. When rural services disappear, communities are effectively cut off—young people from education and opportunities, older residents from independence and workers from employment.
In 2026, it is indefensible that the flagship reaching 100 per cent—R100—programme has failed so many areas of rural Scotland, which still lack reliable digital connectivity. Without it, businesses cannot expand, people cannot work flexibly and communities cannot compete.
Our rural economy is strong but under huge pressures. I have stood with our farmers as they face rising costs, uncertainty and diminishing support. Those are not just businesses; they are the backbone of our communities, but this week’s rural support plan lets them down yet again by offering year-on-year reductions and asking them to deliver more.
I have also raised the concerns of fishing communities, which are navigating rising costs, complex regulation and deep uncertainty while trying to sustain an industry that is central to our heritage. Bizarrely, some of those efforts on the scallop industry were actively and regrettably scuppered by Emma Harper, who had the chance to vote to make the industry more sustainable.
I put on record my thanks to Mairi Gougeon for her support in developing a new boat-based cockle fishery in my constituency. I mean that from the cockles of my heart. [Laughter.] The initiative could bring tens of millions of pounds into the local economy. Indeed, I thank her for all the work that she has done and for being a friend for 10 years. I remember Mairi from her first few days as a new parliamentarian. I wish her all the best in the future.
Tourism is also a major issue in our region, and high streets in towns such as Stranraer, Dalbeattie and Newton Stewart are battling for survival.
I realise that I am running out of time, Presiding Officer.
You have run out of time. Could you wind up, please.
Rural Scotland does not need more recognition of the problem; it needs action. We need policies that reflect rural realities, investment that matches rural needs and a Government that understands that fairness means ensuring that no part of Scotland is left behind. Resilience must not be mistaken for the ability to endure endless pressure. If we are serious about building a fairer, stronger Scotland, we must be serious about delivering for rural Scotland.
John Mason is the final speaker in the open debate.
14:31
I thank Jamie Halcro Johnston for securing the debate and other members for their kind words.
Many people in Scotland’s urban areas and central belt still care deeply for our remote, rural and island communities. I have visited a number of islands with the Parliament’s committees during the past 15 years, including Islay, Arran, Mull, Harris, Lewis, and Orkney, as well as going to Shetland for a council by-election. That has been one of the enjoyable aspects of being an MSP. Normally, I visit islands as a tourist and have visited some 38. I note that I consider the Uists and Benbecula to be one island as I can drive my car between them without using a ferry. I hold to the position from one of my more controversial moments in the Parliament that Skye has not in fact been an island since the bridge was built. [Laughter.] I was proved correct during Covid, when it was treated as part of the mainland.
I can understand the desire to have causeways, bridges or tunnels linking islands to each other or to the mainland. That makes access to a range of services much easier, from shopping to medical services, weddings and funerals. However, I caution that, from a tourist’s perspective, such fixed links can make an island less attractive or magical for a visitor and could have a negative economic impact.
Talking of driving my car, my priority for road improvements in Scotland would have to be the A82 between Tarbet and Ardlui right at the top. The Road Haulage Association was in the Parliament last week. The fact that two heavy goods vehicles cannot even pass each other on stretches of that road is appalling. In my opinion, that should be a higher priority than dualling the A9.
I do not often agree with Scottish Land & Estates, but I agree with some of the key points in its briefing for the debate. Tackling depopulation in rural areas has to be a top priority; and as it says,
“if rural Scotland does not thrive, Scotland does not thrive”.
Last summer, I visited Mingulay for the first time and I have previously visited St Kilda. I find it incredibly sad that islands that once supported a hardy population eventually had to be evacuated and now have no permanent human inhabitants. We do not want that to happen to any more of our islands or remote areas. I noted press coverage just yesterday of the vacancy level for both primary and secondary teachers in the Highland Council area, yet I get complaints from young teachers that they cannot get a job in Glasgow. Somehow, we need to take that on as a national challenge and support teachers and other workers from urban areas to consider moving to more rural and remote parts of Scotland.
Another aspect is political representation. Rightly, the three main island groups are guaranteed an MSP each, yet the whole west coast from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Kintyre forms only three constituencies and is represented by three MSPs. If the Western Isles can have an MSP for 22,000 registered voters, why should Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch have to have 63,000 voters? We need to address that by not being so fixated with the population of constituencies. Land mass should be a factor, too.
This is my last speech in Parliament, so I thank all those who make this Parliament work, including fellow MSPs—and especially those who are leaving. We are much smaller than Westminster, and that is a big advantage in my opinion. We all know each other, to some extent, and we have a building that is modern and fit for purpose, unlike the one on the Thames. We are not hampered by a second unelected chamber. One person can make a real difference in a chamber of 129, whereas, as I can say having been at Westminster, with its 650 MPs, one person does not count for much there, and Scotland counts for very little.
I have tried, over my 15 years here, to say things that no one else would say and to ask questions that no one else would ask. That has clearly got me into trouble at times, but it has certainly been a huge privilege to serve here.
I conclude by thanking you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and your two colleagues. In particular, I thank you, and especially Alison Johnstone, for taking a firm line when some members sought to bully you and undermine Parliament as a whole. Many of us are very grateful that you did so.
Thank you, Mr Mason. As a resident of Burray, I can assure you that the linked south isles in Orkney are definitely islands.
With that, I call Mairi Gougeon to respond to the debate.
14:35
I am grateful to Jamie Halcro Johnston for securing the debate. Given the breadth of the areas that are covered in the motion, any one of my colleagues could have been here to respond. However, I am delighted to have the opportunity to do so, because this SNP Government cares deeply about our rural and island communities. When they thrive, all of Scotland thrives.
There are a lot of items to cover.
I thank everyone across the chamber for their kind words to me. I am so glad that members expressed all of that on a day when my mum is up in the public gallery to hear it—as opposed to in half an hour’s time, when they will be throwing pelters at me again at question time. I wish to recognise my mum, Marianne, without whom I would not have entered politics. She is the most inspirational woman I know, and she sacrificed so much for me. She fostered a passion for debate and a drive for fairness and justice, and she really stoked a fire to campaign for Scottish independence. I thank her for that.
During this final speech, I am flanked by my closest friends and colleagues, without whom I could not have survived these sessions of Parliament: Jenny Gilruth, Jim Fairlie and, sitting behind me, Nicola Sturgeon.
There is so much that I want to cover and talk about today, but it is important to recognise the final contributions of some more colleagues. Oliver Mundell and I entered Parliament at the same time, in 2016. I still remember our first meeting; potentially, he does not. In that session, we were given opportunities to get to meet each other and break down political barriers. We served together on the Justice Committee initially, and, from that initial engagement to now, I have always enjoyed engaging with him. It has always been in good humour—normally outside the chamber rather than inside it, as members will probably have been able to judge today. Inside the chamber, we tend to profoundly disagree on a number of items.
We have just heard the final contribution from John Mason. Despite the fact that he represents a more urban constituency, I have always appreciated John’s interest in matters relating to my portfolio, which I know also matter greatly to him—none more so than the sheep of St Kilda. It was a sheer delight for me, as species champion for the kestrel, to respond to the debate that John Mason brought to Parliament just recently. It is safe to say that the species champion debate is the only debate that unites us right across the chamber. In all seriousness, John Mason has had many years as a councillor, MP and MSP, and it is important to mark that contribution. I wish him all the very best going forward.
It has been an immense pleasure to get to know and work with Beatrice Wishart during our time in Parliament. I have always appreciated her openness to engage with me. Through all the numerous pieces of legislation that we have worked on together, she has always been driven by doing what is best for the people of Shetland. From fisheries to fixed links and a whole host of issues in between, we have not always agreed, but I have always appreciated Beatrice’s ability to have difficult discussions in a constructive way. I wish her all the very best as she steps down from Parliament.
I also want to express good wishes to those who are not stepping back but hope to return in the next session of Parliament. It has been a privilege to work with you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and with Finlay Carson, Tim Eagle, Jamie Halcro Johnston and a number of other members across the chamber, not least Ariane Burgess, with whom we worked closely on a number of key pieces of legislation, always striving to do what is right.
Being Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands has been the privilege of my life. I have worked alongside many others to deliver real and lasting change for our rural and island communities and businesses. Of course, some of those challenges remain, but our rural and island communities and industries are rich with opportunity and this Government has been determined to unlock it.
Housing is a key issue that has been raised in the motion and throughout the debate. Just this morning, we heard more information about the announcement by the housing secretary, Màiri McAllan, of the £10 million that is being made available from 1 April through the Scottish emergency heating oil scheme, which will provide vital support to householders who are worried about the recent surges in the cost of heating oil and liquid petroleum gas. It is a key example of where we have gone over and above what is provided by the United Kingdom Government to deliver for our communities.
That is alongside the wider investment that we are making in housing. Our croft house grant scheme has invested more than £26.5 million to support more than 1,100 croft homes. We are going further still, with an announcement this year of a new rural and island housing grant scheme, with investment of up to £20 million. That is alongside £37 million for a rural and islands housing fund and £25 million in rural affordable housing for key workers.
Transport has quite rightly been mentioned in the debate. We have reduced the cost of travel and have improved connectivity. We have expanded concessionary travel, abolished peak rail fares and introduced a £2 bus fare cap pilot in the Highlands and Islands. The road equivalent tariff has reduced ferry fares significantly, and we cannot forget the significant investment in new ferries, which will improve lifeline links for our rural communities.
I will reflect on two key areas mentioned in the motion that are the lifeblood of our rural, coastal and island communities and that form the heart of my portfolio—agriculture and fisheries. We value our food producers in Scotland, which is why we invest more than £660 million every year in our farmers and crofters. That is the most generous support package anywhere in the UK. We are continuing to back our marine economy with more than £70 million through the marine fund Scotland since 2021 and the £16 million that was announced just last week.
However, that all pales in comparison with the funding that we should receive. The UK Governments, past and present, have short-changed our farmers, crofters and fishermen. They have frozen funding, removed ring fencing, removed multi-annual funding and Barnettised funding across those critical areas. That serves only to short-change our critical food producers.
I am proud of the work that we have done to support new entrants to our agriculture industry, including the 17 new opportunities that we provided on Forestry and Land Scotland land, the transformative projects that we are investing in through the islands programme, and the investment in our community-led local development. Just recently, we had the Tyne and Esk local action group in the Parliament talking about the return on investment that it sees from such development and about the important work that it does in our rural communities.
One of the parts of the job of which I have been most proud has been working with youth local action groups and the Young Islanders Network, which I launched in Orkney a number of years ago. Working with our incredible youth leaders has been inspirational and it ensures that our young people have a voice and take part in our decision making.
As the member who has the honour of making the final contribution in the final debate of this session of the Scottish Parliament, I want to say that it has been an absolute honour and the privilege of my life to serve the people of what I can now definitively say, without challenge, is the most scenic, culturally significant and generally the best constituency in Scotland—Angus North and Mearns:
“almost you’d cry for that, the beauty of it and the sweetness of the Scottish land and skies.”
Lewis Grassic Gibbon, the great author from the Mearns, summarised better than I ever could how I feel about my home region. From the coast to the glens, it really is the best of Scotland. I thank the people of Angus North and Mearns for putting their faith in me to represent them in the past two sessions of Parliament.
It has also been an honour beyond imagining to serve the people of Scotland as a member of the Scottish Government in what is the best portfolio in the Government. One of the great privileges of this role is who you get to meet and work with along the way, and the amazing people who keep you going in your job, too. It is fair to say that I have met some of the best of them, and I will mention some of the people who have made a real impression on me.
First, I had the experience of riding a combine with Andrew Moir, discussing the techniques that he is using on his farm, as well as agriculture policy. Last summer, along with Kenny Gibson, in his constituency, we visited David Carruth and his woolly pigs. Nothing quite warms your heart like driving along the road and having a troop of little piglets running towards you. Bryce Cunningham, of Mossgiel, is an organic dairy farmer in Elena Whitham’s constituency, and he is working tirelessly to improve our food system. Martin Kennedy, whose farm I have been fortunate enough to visit a number of times, is not just a former president of NFU Scotland; he is still working and continuing to drive innovation in the industry that he has worked tirelessly to represent.
There are also our amazing fishermen. Just last week, when I launched the marine fund Scotland, I met Sam Mason and Barry Brunton, fishermen who care about the environment, are innovating to avoid bycatch and are so passionate about what they do. That also brings me to Ian Wightman, whom I have met in Largs a couple of times. One thing that I love about our farmers and fishermen is that they are not backward in coming forward to say what they really think.
I must also mention some of the incredible women I have had the opportunity to work with and meet. Caroline Millar is a true force of nature who has driven the incredible growth of agritourism in Scotland. A chance meeting on a bus at the Royal Highland Show led to a farm visit with Cora Cooper to see at first hand how a commercial livestock business can work hand in hand with peatland and nature restoration. Nikki Yoxall and the incredible Denise Walton are at the forefront of nature-friendly farming.
From the incredible women in agriculture to the incredible women right here, in the Parliament, I have been fortunate to work with so many inspiring women. In my time as a junior minister, I worked with the formidable Jeane Freeman and Roseanna Cunningham. I also worked with my colleague and best friend, Jenny Gilruth, as well as Nicola Sturgeon, who took a chance on me by appointing me to the Cabinet.
I again put on the record my sincere thanks to all those who have supported me in my Government role: the civil servants, the officials, the special advisers—including Ian Muirhead and Kate Higgins—and my incredible private office staff and my unfailing constituency office staff, who have pretty much been with me from the start and without whom I could not do this job. I also thank the Parliament staff, who are so kind and who make working in this building such a joy.
Last but certainly not least, I thank my amazing family, whom I cannot wait to spend more time with, and my amazing husband, Baptiste. It takes the patience of a saint to be married to anyone in this job, but he has looked after me and I would be at a loss without him.
On a final, final note, on this beautiful spring day, I will end on a point of optimism. In spite of the challenges that we face and the times that we are in, I am full of hope and optimism for the future of our country. We have shown that we are delivering for communities across Scotland with the powers that we have. We have focused on the issues that matter: protecting funding for and investment in our farmers and crofters, investing in our rural and island areas, and taking action on land reform. However, we could do so much more with the powers of independence. Therefore, although I am stepping back from elected politics, I will continue to work tirelessly for Scotland’s independence and to deliver the fairer and more equal society that I know it will bring.
That concludes the debate. I will briefly suspend the meeting, and I look forward to regathering with you, cabinet secretary, and a few other colleagues at 3 o’clock.
14:46
Meeting suspended.
15:00
On resuming—
Previous
Mobile Phone Use in Schools (Ban)