Chamber and committees

I will direct my question to Mr Dunphy. However, if that is directing it to the wrong person—something I normally always do—please direct it to the right person.

What are the risks and benefits of sticking with the SIMD as the main measure of progress?

Good morning, Professor McKendrick, and thank you for taking the time to come along today. You have said that work to progress the introduction of additional data measures is a priority. Will you give the committee an update on the progress of that work? What needs to happen next?

Thank you, convener. I have no relevant interests.

I am very pleased to support this budget. From speaking with my constituents, I think that it is a budget that they support, too, because it invests in the things that they care most about. It maintains the SNP’s most popular policies and demonstrates our clear ambition to move Scotland forward.

We are putting some big numbers into the basics. For health, there is a record uplift of £2 billion. In housing, £768 million will result in more than 8,000 new affordable homes being built. In social security, an £800 million uplift will put more money directly into folk’s pockets. Headteachers will get £120 million to tackle the attainment gap. Across Scotland, councils will share an extra £1 billion.

It is a budget that builds on much of what the SNP has already delivered in Scotland—what Anas Sarwar recently described as the “successes of devolution”. If anyone wants to be reminded of those SNP successes, they include extending free education from nursery to university, supported by the expansion of free school meals; maintaining free healthcare at the point of use, from the cradle to the grave, including free prescriptions; free bus travel for more than 2 million folk; and seven social security payments that have no equivalent elsewhere in the UK, including the Scottish child payment, which helps to give every child in Scotland the best start in life.

It is worth remembering that those policies faced challenges to get over the line in the first place. Even after we could see the policies changing lives, the SNP Government had to fight to keep them. I remember when Scottish Labour described it as a “something for nothing” culture. Perhaps if Labour had run with that as we went into the previous election, there would not have been such a sense of shock and utter betrayal about its first few months in charge of the UK Government. Instead, Sir Keir Starmer promised change and Anas Sarwar said to read his lips when he said there would be “no austerity under Labour”, but, after the election, Labour refused to end the two-child cap and, within weeks, it announced that it was scrapping universal winter fuel payments.

My ambition for the Parliament is to do more than simply mitigate the worst policies of the UK Government, but that is what needs to be done today. Today’s budget will reinstate the winter heating payment for every pensioner, helping them through the long and cold Scottish winter. Today’s budget takes the first steps towards abolishing the two-child cap, which will see more than 15,000 bairns lifted out of poverty. That is change that people want to see.

I invite Anas Sarwar to read my lips: the Scottish Government is mitigating Labour austerity. Will his party support that by backing this budget? Will at least his colleagues in the north-east support it? This is a budget that delivers for Aberdeen. The £34 million uplift to the culture budget has already seen multiyear awards made to eight organisations in Aberdeen: Aberdeen Performing Arts, Applied Arts Scotland, Belmont Community Cinema, Citymoves Dance Agency, Grampian Hospitals Art Trust, Jazz Scotland, Peacock and the Worm, and the Word centre for creative writing at the University of Aberdeen. They will receive more than £5 million between them across the next three years.

The budget allocates £25 million to increase the number of jobs that are available in the green energy supply chain. With Aberdeen being the future net zero capital of the world—I will keep calling it that until I can shorten it to simply the “net zero capital of the world”—we need investment in clean and green energy, and we need to give people the confidence to invest in their futures, whether by taking up training or by putting down roots. The continued support of the Scottish Government for a just transition for the north-east alongside Grangemouth is very welcome.

The move to being a net zero capital is not just about what happens 100 miles off Aberdeen’s coast; it is also about what runs through the city. One of the later additions to the budget is a £2 bus fare pilot in a regional transport area, which is a fantastic idea. Encouraging more folk to use public transport is part of the journey to net zero. I would like to see affordable and well-used buses running through the streets of Aberdeen and connecting it to communities across the north-east.

The north-east is the perfect region for that pilot to take place in. Our region offers a good mix of urban and rural communities, with a city at its heart. We have a city council that has supported bus services, from backing hydrogen and electric buses to funding night services. We have an opportunity to further bolster Aberdeen’s net zero credentials with the pilot. I will use the final words of my speech to urge ministers to pilot the £2 bus fares cap in the north-east and to urge members across the chamber to vote in favour of this budget, which delivers for Scotland.

I am sure that all members will welcome the news that HIS and the MWC will undertake a range of visits to all three adolescent in-patient units in Scotland. Will the minister advise whether they are to become regular occurrences? What role does she expect HIS and the MWC to play in holding service providers to account in the future?

Presiding Officer,

“The untapped resources of the North Sea are as nothing compared to the untapped resources of our people.”

Fifty-three years after Jimmy Reid uttered that line as part of a speech entitled “Alienation”, those words still hold true, as does so much else of that speech. Today, folk are feeling alienated. Many feel themselves to be victims of economic forces beyond their control. They are feeling frustration, hopelessness and despair. Eight months ago, many of those people voted for change. They voted for their energy bills to be £300 lower. They voted for Scotland to be the powerhouse of a clean energy mission. They voted for a GB Energy based in Scotland that would see 1,000 new jobs created.

So, where are we now? My constituents’ bills are not £300 lower—they are £279 higher. Some are double that amount out of pocket after Labour took away their winter fuel payment. Funding for the Acorn project, which would move a just transition on leaps and bounds, has been put on pause. When the Labour UK Government announced £22 billion for carbon capture, Scotland did not even get a mention. At Grangemouth, where Labour pledged to save the refinery and jobs, the workers have been betrayed by the UK Government, while Scottish Labour has been shamefully silent.

Meanwhile, in my Donside constituency, we finally got the news that GB Energy was going to be based in Aberdeen, which was always the obvious choice. I welcomed it, but then the news got taken back because, of course, Labour conference was just around the corner, so any investment got put on pause until it could be reannounced. A month later, a chair was announced for Aberdeen-based GB Energy, and he was going to be based in Manchester. Those 1,000 jobs that we were promised are apparently still coming. We just need to wait for 20 years.

It is no wonder that folk feel betrayed and alienated. Do not get me wrong. I welcome any investment in a just transition. I welcome any investment in clean and green energy. I welcome any new jobs coming to Aberdeen. I welcome and support those things, because they will benefit the folk who I represent. I will support the motion, but I really wish that I was welcoming more.

North Sea oil has given Scotland, and the north-east in particular, a lot of advantages, the biggest of which is that the north-east now has a workforce that is world leading in many ways. Some of those folk were born and raised in Aberdeen and have spent their whole careers there. Some learned their skills there, travelled the world, gained experience and came back. Some moved to Aberdeen because of the industry and have put down roots there. Wherever they are from, they are some of the best in the world, and we are lucky to have them in Aberdeen. However, if we want to keep those workers there—if we want their help in delivering a just transition, guaranteeing our energy security and making our energy supply cleaner, greener and cheaper—we need to invest properly in the north-east and give them a reason to build their futures in Scotland, while they build Scotland’s future. If the UK Government will not go far enough and fast enough, let Scotland deliver it herself. We have the energy; we just need the power.

Good morning. Thank you for your opening statement, which seems to have been a wee while ago now.

I was pleased to hear that you have had a frank and honest discussion with SATH. I believe that SATH has called for a major review of higher history. What is your view on the matter? Was that part of your discussion?

Are you confident that what needs to take place between SATH and the SQA will take place?

I know that you cannot say, “Yes, everything’s going to be positive.” I meant on the whole.

It is vital that every child has the best possible start in life and that any developmental concerns are identified early. Will the minister outline what steps the Scottish Government is taking to support families and young people to ensure that assessment times are reduced?