Chamber and committees

Members across the Parliament should all consider what needs to be done to reduce the prison population and to reach consensus on the issue so that it does not become a political football. Will the cabinet secretary outline further how the review of penal policy might help to achieve that while ensuring that we have policy and measures in our justice system that are fit for the 2020s and beyond?

I am pleased to speak in support of the budget. It is a difficult budget at a difficult time. Years of Tory austerity have taken their toll on the budget, as has the sky-high inflation of recent years, which means that the money that we are allocating is stretched much thinner than it might have been—and that is before we factor in that things have been made worse by Brexit and by nearly every one of Liz Truss’s 50 days as Prime Minister. In short, times are tough. That stands true not only for the Scottish Parliament’s budget, but for household budgets across this country.

I believe that this budget delivers for these difficult financial times. It delivers significant investment for our public services, it delivers support for Scotland’s growing economy, it delivers on tackling the climate emergency, and it delivers on protecting our most vulnerable people from the full force of Tory austerity. I am proud that the Scottish National Party Government is refusing to follow Westminster’s austerity agenda and is instead, with the limited powers of devolution, using this budget to mitigate some of the worst of the Tory cuts. That includes the continued mitigation of the bedroom tax. The Scottish Government is investing in tackling inequality and in our future, such as through the record investment in social security.

The Scottish Government is unashamedly targeting resources at the people who are most in need. Since 2007, where devolution has allowed, we have made a range of choices in this Parliament that have made things a little easier for those people than they are for people elsewhere in the UK.

An SNP Government decided to stop taxing folk for being sick. That means that prescriptions in Scotland are free, saving folk £9.65 for every prescription that they need to pick up. The same goes for eye tests, saving folk £25 every time that they need to get their eyes tested.

An SNP Government decided that university education should be free. That means that back-door tuition fees—graduate endowments—were scrapped. University tuition has remained free in Scotland while the cost of it has soared to up to £9,250 a year in England.

An SNP Government made a decision to invest in Scotland’s future and give our young folk the best possible start in life. That means that we are well ahead of the rest of the UK in the provision of universal funded childcare. It means that the game-changing Scottish child payment, which is now going up to a record £26.70 a week—that is £26.70 more than anywhere else in the UK—will benefit more than 327,000 under-16s. It means that every baby born in Scotland is supported with the contents of a baby box, which includes a range of essentials to support a baby’s first six months.

The accumulated impact of those decisions adds up, and they are making a positive difference to folk across Scotland. That means that, on average, people are spending £37 a year less on their water bills than people in Tory-controlled England are. It means that, on average, households are paying £648 a year less in council tax than households in Tory-run England are. It means more investment in education, with £305 more per person being spent in Scotland than in England. It means more investment in transport, with £234 more per person being spent. It means £87 more per person being spent on police, public order and safety; £294 more per person being spent on housing and community amenities; £86 more per person being spent on environmental protection; £75 more per person being spent on agriculture, fisheries and forestry; and £124 more per person being spent on enterprise and economic development.

In practice, that means that, per head of population, Scotland has more police officers, more prison staff, more firefighters, more nurses and midwives, more hospital consultants, more general practitioners, more dentists, more NHS staff, more teachers and more schools. All of that has been achieved without the full range of powers that the Tories have at Westminster. It has been achieved despite the many obstacles that the Tories have thrown in our way, such as austerity, Brexit and Liz Truss. And that is before we touch on the billions being spent on Trident, the billions disappearing on Covid cronyism contracts, the millions being spent on unelected lords and the billions being spent on new nuclear power plants at the expense of investing in a just transition for the north-east of Scotland.

What a contrast with what we have in front of us today. At the heart of the SNP budget is our social contract with the folk of Scotland. For 17 years, the SNP has delivered for the folk of Scotland. It has made life better for them, and the budget is no different. It will still do only a fraction of the good that it could be doing, though. It is only with the full powers of independence that Scotland can escape Westminster austerity for good, invest in our future properly and realise our full potential. However, whatever resources and powers we have, that social contract with the folk of Scotland will be honoured to the best of the Government’s ability.

The Scottish Government must adopt a range of approaches to address housing pressures, not just in Glasgow but right across Scotland. I feel that part of the approach should be to ensure that existing housing stock is being used effectively. Can the minister update the Parliament on his work to ensure that long-term empty homes are brought back into use? That would go some way towards addressing the current situation.

Tragically, a train derailment at Carmont on the Aberdeen to Dundee line in 2020 resulted in the loss of three lives. What work has been done to improve safety and resilience on the Aberdeen to Dundee line?

I know that the motion mentions industrial zones—

I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, as I am a former councillor in Aberdeen City Council. As it is traditional to do so, I congratulate Douglas Lumsden on bringing the debate to the chamber.

His timing in lodging the motion ties in with what has happened not just in Dubai, on the global stage of COP28, but in our old stomping ground of Aberdeen City Council. On the same day that COP28 came to a close, Aberdeen City Council was due to discuss a petition calling for it to join Nuclear Free Local Authorities, whose members aim to

“tackle, in practical ways and within their powers, the problems caused by civil and military nuclear hazards.”

I understand from my former council colleagues that the petitioners, when they finally spoke to councillors earlier this month, gave a very impressive presentation, in which they spoke of how renewable energy generation is cheaper and does not leave future generations having to deal with the nuclear waste that is left behind.

During a cost of living crisis that has been driven, in part, by high energy prices, it is particularly important that we consider how much it costs to generate energy, especially if there is a risk that those costs will be passed on to consumers.

In case the member did not realise what I meant, I was referring to places where new plants would be built, because Mr Lumsden seems to have decided that they should be near the places that they are going to serve.

There might be a role for nuclear in Scotland at some point in the future but, at present, the cost of new power stations runs into billions of pounds, they take years to construct, and they look set to cost about three times as much per unit as can be achieved from renewables sources. I firmly believe that, as we look to tomorrow, our focus should remain on clean, green and cheap renewable energy.

—but I want to hear place names, and which parts of Scotland—[Interruption.]

I will take an intervention from Mr Hoy, because he is chuntering from the sidelines, as usual.

No male Opposition member took an intervention from any of the females on the SNP side of the chamber yesterday, so I will not give way to any male MSPs tonight. If we cannot intervene on the gentlemen, I will not take an intervention from the member.

I understand that, as things stand, nuclear costs £92.50 per megawatt hour, whereas offshore wind costs £37.65 per megawatt hour. The major driver of that higher price is the up-front costs of constructing the power stations. That ties into the Scottish Government’s position, whereby it supports extending the operating lifespan of Torness, provided that strict environmental and safety criteria continue to be met, but it does not support the building of new nuclear fission power stations in Scotland with current technologies.

That cost remains high—too high, I believe—despite significant investment by the UK Government. Meanwhile, greener renewable technologies are not getting anywhere near the same level of financial support. An example is pumped storage hydro, which the minister has spoken of previously. It is able to plug gaps in the intermittent supply that can result from other forms of renewable generation.

Douglas Lumsden and I, along with Audrey Nicoll, who is also in the chamber, have the great privilege of representing Aberdeen, which is—I will keep saying this—the future net zero capital of the world. Alongside our hugely skilled workforce, which I maintain is our biggest asset, we also have, across and around Scotland, an abundance of renewable energy sources.

The motion that we are discussing states that nuclear technologies

“can be located where they are needed”.

Before I finish, I pose an open question. In a Scotland that has as much potential to generate wind, wave, tidal and hydro energy as we have, where exactly do Conservative members think should be fully considered for hosting new nuclear plants in the future?

Recent reports that renewables technologies generated the equivalent of 113 per cent of Scotland’s overall electricity consumption in 2022 were welcome. How will the Government’s planned green industrial strategy bring about the investment that our renewables industry needs to build on that success and fully deliver our net zero ambitions?