Chamber and committees

Will Labour join me today in supporting the Scottish Government, which shows clear support for P&O Ferries employees and calls for those fire-and-rehire practices to be outlawed?

I hear what Mr Bibby is saying, but we have put the budget in place, and sometimes what is in place is more important than what is delivered—that does not really make much sense, Presiding Officer. What I was meaning was that, sometimes, it is good to have the budget in place and the responsibility within the Scottish Government.

As Mr Bibby said, since 2007, eight new vessels have been introduced to the CalMac fleet, including a further two that are under construction. That highlights the SNP Scottish Government’s commitment to crucial infrastructure for our island communities.

Our Scottish Government has delivered significant ferry fare reductions on the Clyde and Hebrides routes, which has led to a welcome boost in carryings, which supports our island and remote communities and their local economies. That was emphasised by the Scottish Government budget, which continues to provide support for subsidised ferry services across the islands, with £19.2 million for local authority ferries—an increase of £7.7 million on the previous year. That demonstrates the commitment that the Scottish Government has made to our islands.

Chris Brodie mentioned that we need more folk to move back to work and that we need more routes for training, upskilling and retraining. I have a really simple question. What do you mean by retraining? Is it about folk who are already in an industry or folk who are coming into an industry for the first time? I ask that question because, putting aside the just transition stuff, folk out there may not know how to find out whether they need to retrain or upskill, or what the difference is. I hope that that makes sense.

Also, what can our local authorities do to build the capability and capacity that we have talked about, not only in their own workforce, but also to help the private sector?

Pam, you spoke about local authorities sharing expertise in best practice. Will you explain briefly what arrangements are in place and what could be done to improve sharing of best practice among local authorities?

Good morning, panel. I will follow up on a couple of points that have already been touched on.

Jane Tennant has spoken about planning as a career and mentioned that we should try to ensure that school pupils are aware of planning as a career. What more could schools do to ensure that that happens? There are still career days and so on, but I am sure that, for people in S3, for example, becoming a planner might not be top of their list. What could schools do to encourage young folk to come forward?

Simon Hewitt said that we need to blur the lines of who is responsible for what in education and training. I could not agree more. I said earlier that education on the subject should be started at primary school level. What are local authorities doing to work with you to make sure that that happens? Are they informing you of their priorities when they set their budgets so that you know what to expect from them?

I am not sure who would be the best person to answer my last question, so whoever thinks they are best placed should shout out.

We saw in the Covid-19 pandemic that decisions were made and things were put in place in super quick time. What lessons can we learn from that as we try to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions?

From what you say, we need people in local authority planning departments to step across the corridor and speak to people in the education departments and ask them to plug the planning department.

I think that Robbie Calvert talked about skill sets needing to be in the right places. Is it doable for local authorities to grow their own, especially if we could get apprenticeships off the ground? In my local authority, we grow our own environmental officers. Could local authorities do that for planning?

The report says that

“One of the main barriers is a lack of visibility of the population of people with learning disabilities.”

Can the minister set out how individuals’ and their families’ lived experience of complex care needs will be factored into the creation of a new national care service?

I am pleased to take part in today’s Scottish Government debate on delivering on active travel commitments and recognising the important investment that our Government is making in our communities and the benefit that it will have to our constituents.

It is the Scottish Government’s aspiration to reduce car kilometres by 20 per cent by 2030, so as we move towards net zero, we need to get people out of their cars and considering other forms of transport. That will need a number of folk to consider active travel for the first time as a serious option for getting around. Increased active travel will also improve people’s wellbeing, and it will contribute to safer, cleaner and healthier communities.

Active travel helps to build healthy habits, which helps to improve the health of our population and reduce the burden on our NHS. Physical inactivity contributes to almost 2,500 deaths in Scotland each year, as Mr Bibby said earlier.

With that in mind, as we move forward, we need to increase the number of adults who follow physical activity guidelines and do 30 minutes of moderate activity five times a week. If we can get more folk to cycle or walk regularly, it will potentially reduce the risk of heart disease, cancer and diabetes, improve mental health, and tackle asthma.

Achieving our ambitious carbon reduction targets will require serious investment. It is therefore welcome that the Scottish Government is committed to investing in public transport by spending 10 per cent of the transport budget on active travel by the end of 2024-25.

Recently, I was pleased to attend a walkabout with Sustrans in my constituency of Aberdeen Donside, where we discussed the active travel networks in the city and the difficulties that face local authorities while they are challenging the behaviours of drivers and getting people out of their cars.

It is key that we change habits, and the best way to do that is by ensuring that our young people participate in active travel, as it is then more likely that they will continue to do so into their adult life. The Scottish Government’s commitment to providing free bikes for all children of school age who cannot afford them will make such a difference to so many of my constituents. The benefit of increasing access to bikes for children are obvious. It ensures equality of opportunity in building life skills, confidence and independence, and it can embed healthy and sustainable travel choices into everyday life. Affordable travel will also increase their options in education, work or further training, and ensure that they continue on a journey to a positive destination.

At this point, I want to give a shout-out to a project that is local to me—the Middlefield Community Project. It gives out bikes on long-term loans and it helps the children with the servicing and fixing of those bikes. The project does an awful lot more in my community, but I just want to give it a wee shout-out for that.

We have a long way to go to reach our net zero emissions targets, but if we continue to invest in active travel and in our young people, we can change habits for the better and ensure a sustainable future for generations to come.