Chamber and committees

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.

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on Scotland’s ferries. Although I was not an MSP at the time, I am acutely aware of the extensive inquiry that the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee undertook on ferries in session 5. I am sure that we are all in agreement that it is incredibly crucial to our island communities and island economies that we have good transport links between our remote communities and the mainland. Those transport links act as an essential lifeline for residents, including for the supply of food and services.

Over the past few years, Scotland’s ferries have been operating in very tough conditions. Ferries have faced the challenges of the Covid-19 restrictions, combined with increasingly adverse weather events. Vessels also need to be taken out of circulation for essential day-to-day maintenance, which folk in the chamber seem to forget about at times. Those challenges have caused cancellations and disruptions on the ferry network.

In response to those challenges, the SNP Scottish Government has invested more than £1.9 billion in our ferry services, vessels and infrastructure since taking office in 2007. Those investments have included money for new routes, new vessels and upgraded harbour infrastructure, as well as the roll-out of significantly reduced fares through the road equivalent tariff scheme.

The services that are provided by P&O, including the vital links between Scotland, Northern Ireland and Europe through the port of Cairnryan, are essential for Scotland’s economy. The Tory UK Government has consistently blocked changes to employment legislation that would have prevented the abhorrent treatment of workers at P&O Ferries, and it still shows no signs of doing anything to close down the possibilities of future companies doing the same.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that, although there is clearly much more to do, the Scottish Government’s efforts and ambitions around tackling the climate crisis have been widely recognised, including by Chris Stark, the chief executive of the United Kingdom Climate Change Committee, who said on “Good Morning Scotland” recently that the Scottish Government “has been noticeably better” than other parts of the UK

“at putting a vision around ... what it wants to do to make Scotland more resilient”

in terms of climate, and also said that

“We don’t see that, for example, from DEFRA in the UK”?

Normally, I would take an intervention, Mr Kerr, but I have absolutely no time.

I am aware of the 46 per cent capital cut that Labour and the Liberal Democrats made in the time that they were in Government.

Given the investments and actions that I have laid out, it is simply puzzling that we continually hear from across the chamber calls for more funding for everything, including transport infrastructure, healthcare, justice and education. The list never ends, but I am still waiting to see what any of the Opposition parties’ budgets would have been. I have seen neither sight nor sound of where they would cut funding in order to fund their endless calls for money. It is very easy to make those demands when they do not have to balance the books every year. If the Opposition parties joined our calls for full fiscal autonomy for this Parliament, they would at least have a basis for their uncosted financial demands. Coming from a local authority setting, where most Opposition parties provide an alternative budget, I was amazed that none came forward in this chamber.

The Scottish Government is committed to undertaking the first comprehensive review of the ferry network. The islands connectivity plan will replace the current ferries plan and look at aviation, ferries and fixed links, to ensure that all potential options for connecting our island communities are considered. As part of that plan, it is key that the Scottish Government consults the users of the ferries and learns from the experiences of other countries and other modes of transport, and I ask the minister for an assurance on that.

I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government will produce and maintain a long-term plan and investment programme for new ferries and development of ports, in order to improve resilience, reliability, capacity and accessibility, increase standardisation and reduce emissions to meet the needs of island communities.

In 2005, when the Ferguson’s yard faced closure because of the inaction of the previous Labour Government, the SNP joined Labour rebels to demand that the yard be saved. In 2014, when the yard faced closure once more, the SNP Scottish Government stepped up and helped to save it, rescuing more than 300 jobs. Today, there are almost 500 permanent and temporary staff at Ferguson’s. Let us contrast that against the recent developments with P&O Ferries, a multimillion-pound corporation that benefited from taxpayer Covid-19 funding and has just made 800 staff redundant with absolutely no notice.

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?

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?

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?