Chamber and committees

Should part-time students be included in the target? You did not say what data is coming out regarding them. Are they able to access things relating to fairer access?

Previous witnesses have talked about the possibility that free school meals could be included as an individual measure of fair access—you touched on that in your opening comments, and you mentioned the north-east pilot, too. What is your view on using free school meals as a measure? Will you give us an update on how the north-east pilot is going?

Scotland’s councils are being left to make difficult decisions about whether to increase council tax bills or cut back on services due to Labour’s reckless decision to increase employer national insurance contributions and not to cover the cost. I am aware that Aberdeen City Council is setting its budget today and that most, if not all, of the proposed increase in funding will be used to pay for its increased employer national insurance contributions. Does the cabinet secretary agree that the Labour UK Government must stop twiddling its thumbs and agree to fund that additional public sector cost in full? Will she join me in calling on all Scottish Labour MSPs, along with the Scottish National Party, to put pressure on their Westminster colleagues to reverse that ill-thought-through decision?

To ask the Scottish Government how it is supporting Aberdeen City Council to manage the impact of the UK Government’s increase to employer national insurance contributions. (S6O-04387)

Thank you.

As I said, if folk truly believe in nuclear power, they would want a plant in their areas, and I am grateful to Mr Whitfield for owning his point of view. I remind members that, as Mr Stewart said, nuclear power stations need pylons to carry electricity. I believe that it was the former Tory Government that denied us the opportunity to have power lines going underground, because that would have cost far too much money.

I want Scotland to become a hub for clean, green and cheap renewable energy. I want a just transition for the north-east. I want Aberdeen to become the net zero capital of the world. I want my constituents to no longer struggle to heat their homes. That is what I want, and the way to realise that is through a renewable future.

We must be steadfast in our support for Ukraine at this uncertain time, and I echo the need for international solidarity to defeat Russian aggression. Can the First Minister provide an update regarding the financial support that the Scottish Government has made available to support the humanitarian response to the conflict in Ukraine?

Mr Whitfield, please tell me where the nuclear power station should be.

We have a £500 million just transition fund that will help our workers in the north-east of Scotland and Moray. That is one way of doing it.

Let us contrast that with the alternative. We could dither about for decades to plan and build nuclear power stations, which would then likely take decades longer to break even. It is estimated that Hinkley Point C’s construction will cost about £46 billion in today’s money—that is for just one plant. I do not for one second believe that MSPs in the chamber who have campaigned against pylons in their constituencies and regions would be willing to welcome a new nuclear power plant in their patches.

At this point, I will take an intervention from any member who wants to campaign for a nuclear power plant in the area that they represent.

Can I speak? I am aware that I have only 10 seconds left—[Interruption.] Mr Kerr, you may laugh, but I have taken your intervention and I have taken Mr Whitfield’s.

I seem to be speaking a lot about energy recently, and that is not just in the scheduled debates. Energy bills are a pressing concern for folk right across Scotland. Thousands upon thousands of folk are struggling to pay them, and many who would have been comfortable just a few years ago are now feeling the pinch. As if folk were not scunnered enough, they have just heard the news that their bills are due to go up again.

In my Donside constituency, every day this winter, I have heard folks’ experiences of fuel poverty. Even in the energy capital of Europe, folk cannot afford their energy bills. That needs to change, and it needs to change soon.

People are not willing to wait two decades for their energy bills to go down. I believe that that is the timeline for a new nuclear power station to be planned and constructed in the UK. It is also a timeline that I do not think delivers for thousands of my constituents who rely on the energy sector for their livelihoods. I will not miss any opportunity to shoehorn in a call for more funding and support for a just transition and to keep making the case for those workers’ futures.

To my mind, the future of many of those workers is Scotland’s renewable future. We have the energy; we just need the power. Actually, we do not just have the energy, because we have the people as well, and we need to keep them. Since the 1970s, we have assembled one of the best workforces in the world, by training folk locally and encouraging people to move here from far and wide. We have had a little bit of an advantage, because not that many places have oil, and many of the other places that do have it have harsh climates or political regimes that are based on different values to our own.

Although it may feel like we have more wind than most and although our coastline offers huge opportunities, we have to recognise that everywhere has sun, wind and water. Looking ahead, we are now truly competing against the world. If we are going to seize the opportunity to become a net zero capital, we need to act now. We have a huge head start, though, given the amazing workforce that we have. Some of their skills might not match perfectly with what is needed, but Aberdeen has a long history of being able to improvise and adapt.

Our city has been weathered by the North Sea and carved out of granite. It established itself as Europe’s oil and gas capital through tremendous engineering feats that saw us extracting oil 100 miles off our coast from miles beneath the surface. Aberdeen has helped to shape the modern world, and it will do so again in the move to net zero. We are the future net zero capital of the world, so the next chapter in Aberdeen’s story will see us harness the energy of mother nature.

To make that happen, though, a number of things have to occur. One is investment—in green skills, in the supply chain, in a just transition and in the Acorn project, which should be given the green light. We need certainty. New technologies need price guarantees, and the whole industry has been calling for tax certainty. No other industry sees its taxes vary to the extent that the energy industry has seen over the past few years. Finally, there is migration. We have a track record of assembling the best workforce in the world, but employers across my constituency have told me that they are struggling with the visa rules that are in place now.