Chamber and committees

Should I sit down again, Presiding Officer?

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank the minister for his intervention. I agree that a lot needs to be done and that there is a lot that we could do about what has been foisted on us since the 1980s, but this is not a debate on independence.

Like many across the chamber, I have a constituency—Aberdeen Donside—that has fallen victim to derelict sites. I have been trying to see action on one of those for many years, including during my time as ward councillor. The Logie shops on Manor Drive, near the Haudagain roundabout and just off the newly named Brian Adam Road, have lain empty for well over 20 years. Quite frankly, the site is an eyesore. I have raised the site’s derelict condition with Aberdeen City Council and am pleased that it has agreed to carry out a safety assessment, of which I await the outcome. Before anyone stands up to intervene, I say to members that I contacted Aberdeen City Council both when and after the city had an SNP administration—I take no prisoners with regard to who is in administration. I will be urging the local authority to use the powers outlined by Emma Harper MSP, so that decisive action can be taken on that building once and for all.

The public sector—including Aberdeen City Council—can lead the way in identifying the potential for sites to be transformed into assets that provide real benefit to local communities. It would be great to see a community orchard in that place, which is small but could have huge benefit. Those transformations could include much-needed green space for health and wellbeing, growing spaces, community facilities and housing and business use. I therefore ask the minister for a commitment that the Scottish Government will work with local authorities, as it already does, as much as possible and will provide as much support as it can to see derelict sites addressed in communities across the country.

I again congratulate my colleague Emma Harper on bringing forward this debate. Addressing derelict sites—including across Aberdeen Donside—brings numerous benefits and we must see national action to bring about meaningful change.

I thank—

I will, but I am no expert, so I do not know whether I will be able to answer it.

My question follows on from Gillian Mackay’s. Will the minister outline the resources that are being provided to recruit, train and retain staff within the ADP workforce?

I am not sure how I am going to follow Peter Rabbit; I will not even try to.

I thank the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for all the work that it has undertaken to get us to where we are today. I will not pretend to be an expert on accountancy, because I only ever got to O grade, but I did pass my O grade in accountancy.

I am delighted to be able to take part in today’s stage 1 debate on the Moveable Transactions (Scotland) Bill. At its core, it is a simple bill. It seeks to simplify the law to allow business to use moveable property—as folk have said, that is property other than land and buildings—to access finance for business investment. The bill will support smaller businesses to raise finance, helping them to maintain income and address rising business costs.

Scottish moveable transactions law is widely considered to be out of date, inflexible and inadequate. Scots law on moveable transactions is a long way behind international standards, which makes some transactions difficult, or even gey near impossible, to execute. In turn, that necessitates the use of cumbersome, complicated and therefore expensive workarounds that take longer and are more expensive for companies in Scotland.

If the bill is not progressed, Scotland will fall even further behind international standards, and individuals and companies will be unable to avail themselves of the means of accessing finance more easily that is proposed in the bill.

Competing jurisdictions—in particular, in England and Wales—already have moveable transactions laws that are more commercially friendly than those in Scotland, including, in particular, the Scots law precedent. There is significant support for the reform and modernisation of Scottish moveable transactions law among those who use it—in particular, the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, FSB Scotland and CBI Scotland, which have already added their support for the bill.

The benefits of the bill will be wide ranging. It will incentivise entrepreneurship and support lifelong skills development; remove barriers to participation in the labour market, so that everyone is enabled and empowered to participate in our economic success; embrace the opportunities of new technology, boosting productivity and focusing resources on innovations that have made and will make a difference to our economy and our society; and bolster economic investment in Scotland.

Although it is important to get the bill right for businesses, we must also ensure that consumers are adequately protected as the bill proceeds. I am aware that the minister recently met Citizens Advice Scotland and some of the debt advice agencies, and that he listened carefully to what they had to say about the application of the bill to consumers. That followed the raising of concerns by CAS and others about whether the bill should apply to individual consumers, and about the threshold for the granting of a statutory pledge. I welcome the fact that the minister has committed to raising from £1,000 the monetary threshold under which it will not be possible to grant a statutory pledge—although I heard Paul Sweeney say that the committee has recommended a figure of £3,000.

I was not aware of that, so I thank Paul Sweeney for his intervention.

I also welcome the commitment that a statutory pledge should not be possible in the instance of ordinary household goods. However, I ask the minister to clarify how that commitment will be incorporated into the bill at stage 2. I did not quite hear whether he covered that in his opening speech; I apologise if I missed it.

I thank the minister for that clarification.

If the law on moveable transactions—the assignation of debt and security over corporeal and incorporeal moveable property—is not reformed, individuals and businesses will continue to operate at a disadvantage in Scotland. As a result, businesses and individuals in Scotland would continue to be restricted in their ability to raise finance through the use of their moveable assets and debts.

The Federation of Small Businesses has indicated that, each year, 3,500 small businesses in Scotland fold because their invoices remain unpaid. The reform of the law of assignation of debt in Scotland—in the form of the bill—will permit a business, by means of an assignation, to more easily transfer to a bank or other financial institution its unpaid customer invoices, and thus obtain immediate finance.

If no action is taken, the assignation of debt in Scotland will continue to be governed by legislation that dates from 1862, which makes the process cumbersome and expensive and, in turn, makes it impossible to assign future debt. If the bill is not passed, it would remain the case that, if a business wished to assign its unpaid invoices to a financial institution in order to raise finance, a written intimation—notification—of the assignation would have to be provided to every invoiced customer. That is cumbersome, expensive and often impractical, since there may be numerous debtors. In addition, it cannot be done in respect of future claims, such as invoices that will be due from existing customers in the future, where the debtor cannot yet be identified.

The effect is that some Scottish businesses elect to enter into contracts that are governed by English law to avoid the need for intimation, which means that invoice financers can charge more for their services in Scotland than they might in England.

As has been demonstrated, the bill is essential for business in Scotland to ensure that we are key international players and to attract business and investment, and I look forward to it moving forward.

I am pleased to be able to bring to the chamber this members’ debate, which celebrates the hard work and commitment of the young folk across Scotland during #iwill week. I thank colleagues from all sides of the chamber who have supported my motion, thereby allowing us this evening to highlight the volunteers and young people across Scotland who are making a positive change in their communities.

The #iwill week was established in 2013 and brought together 50 young people who wanted to make a difference in their community with 50 organisations that could help them to achieve their goals. The #iwill week now reaches more than 700 young #iwill ambassadors and more than 1,000 organisations, and this year it took place from 21 to 25 November.

It has the aim of shedding light on the challenges that are faced by young activists and change makers, as well as helping to encourage meaningful conversations among all those who work in the youth work sector on how they can continue to support youth social action into 2023. From primary schools to a clinical commissioning group in Barrow-in-Furness, and from FTSE companies to Government departments, the #iwill movement has gone from strength to strength.

However, challenges lie ahead, including poverty, the climate emergency, worsening mental health and wellbeing, social and economic inequalities and racial injustice. Challenges that existed before the Covid-19 crisis have been exacerbated by the global pandemic, and the future has never felt more uncertain. This is why #iwill week is so vital: it provides a platform through which young people can truly influence change.

Social action is about people coming together to improve their lives and solve the problems that are important in their communities. It can include volunteering, donating money, taking community action or undertaking simple neighbourly acts. Through the commitment and skill of citizens, social action can empower communities and help people in need. Taking part in social action is associated with higher levels of wellbeing and can improve folks’ confidence and skills. It is often reported to be the catalyst for people becoming involved in local democracy and national politics, which are areas where we need more diversity.

Our ambition as a country is to be a democratic and welcoming nation. To do that, we need to empower our communities to take more ownership of the decisions that are made and we need to empower folk to have influence over their lives and outcomes. Social action is important at a young age. Young folk should grow up influencing decisions and their communities in ways that will shape their futures and spaces to make a positive difference.

The #iwill week is one way of celebrating the young folk across the country who are involved in social action and are striving to make their communities better for all young people, as well as seeking to see and make changes to policies that might impact on young folk at local and national levels.

Research suggests that high-quality activities meet six principles. They will be youth-led, they will be challenging, they will have a social impact, they will allow for progression to other opportunities, they will be embedded in a young person’s life and they will enable reflection on the value of the activity. The higher the quality of the social action, the more likely it is to benefit both the young folk involved and the communities or causes that they are trying to help.

I give a quick shout-out and my personal thanks to Cian Gullen for the help that she has provided for me with this topic. Cian recently marked her sixth year as an #iwill ambassador. In those years, she has worked with YouthLink as co-chair of the #iwill advisory group and has been involved in a lot of the planning of #iwill events in Scotland, as well as helping to ensure that the movement remains youth led. She has worked with other #iwill ambassadors and other young people to help to progress the #YouthVIP recommendations to make volunteering more accessible to young people across Scotland. She is a true advocate for social change and I know that others take inspiration from her work.

I end by strongly encouraging all members to promote the remarkable work of #iwill and the #iwill ambassadors in helping to make change not only for young people but for the wider communities that we represent. It is important that we recognise the incredible work of young people across our communities and regions and right across Scotland.

Without being clichéd, I can say that children and young people are our future. We must enable them to lead the way, listen to their views and support them to bring about meaningful social change. I ask the minister for a commitment that the Government will build on its record in that regard and will continue to support the advance of youth democracy and social change.

During last week’s debate on the bill, the Parliament agreed overwhelmingly that the Tories’ bonfire of European Union law threatens vital protections, creates enormous uncertainty and undermines devolution, and should therefore be scrapped. Will the cabinet secretary assure members that he will highlight the Scottish Parliament’s rejection of the so-called Brexit freedoms bill when he deals with his UK Government counterparts?