Chamber and committees

No other member wishes to ask a question. I therefore thank all our witnesses for their evidence and for giving us their time. I think that we can all agree that our session has been informative and beneficial. If our witnesses would like to provide any further evidence to the committee, they can do so in writing; the clerks will be happy to liaise with them on how to do so.

The committee’s next meeting will be on Thursday 29 September, when we will conclude our pre-budget scrutiny by taking evidence from the chair of the Scottish Government’s standing committee on pandemic preparedness, followed by evidence from the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Covid Recovery.

That concludes the public part of our meeting.

That is interesting. Does anyone else want to respond?

Thank you. I agree with your point.

Murdo Fraser will ask the next questions.

I ask the witnesses who are participating remotely to type an R in the chat box when they would like to respond to an issue that is being discussed. We will bring you in at the earliest opportunity.

We will facilitate the discussion by inviting each member to speak to our witnesses. Each member will have approximately 15 minutes to ask about specific issues. We need to finish the discussion by 11.30 am so that members can attend chamber business later this morning. We should be okay for time but, if time runs on too much, I may have to interrupt members or witnesses in the interests of brevity. I apologise in advance for that.

I will begin by asking the first question. We face challenging times. What impact could current and future inflationary pressures have on the effectiveness of the outcomes that the Covid recovery strategy sets out?

Just when we need it—absolutely.

I want to bring in Álfrún Tryggvadóttir from the OECD, who is online. I have to say that I am really impressed by the online OECD Covid-19 recovery dashboard, which I could have spent hours on. I refer it to anyone for a look, because it is fascinating.

How was the dashboard developed? Why were the indicators that it uses chosen?

Thank you. The approach is really important, especially given—this goes back to the previous question—all the challenges that we face at the moment. When the pandemic hit, there was no guidebook that set out the correct things for each country to do, and the comparisons between the different nations, which show who is and who is not doing things well, are really important for us to monitor. The website is fascinating, and it would be appreciated if you could get back to me with any information that you can get.

I want to move on to the issue of our ambition in recovery of moving towards a wellbeing economy. Lukas, I note that you have concerns that

“the current spending allocations will not be sufficient to achieve a meaningful redesign towards a Wellbeing Economy.”

Can the Scottish Government balance the competing pressures of the cost of living crisis and Covid recovery while also achieving a wellbeing economy?

Good morning and welcome to the COVID-19 Recovery Committee’s 20th meeting in 2022. The committee has agreed to focus its pre-budget scrutiny on how the Scottish Government plans to fund its Covid recovery strategy and the on-going costs that are associated with the pandemic, as set out in the Covid-19 strategic framework.

I welcome our witnesses, who will speak about the Covid recovery strategy. I invite them to introduce themselves. We will go round the table; two witnesses are participating remotely.

Thank you. That is interesting. Mairi Spowage wants to come in.

Thank you, Mairi; you raise some valid points.

I thank my colleague Clare Adamson for bringing this important debate to the chamber and for highlighting some important points in her speech. It is so important that people understand the importance of gas safety and the dangers of gas, which can cause death and serious injury.

Worryingly, figures from research by the Gas Safe Register show gas safety being at the bottom of the list of priorities for home owners. Only 12 per cent of home buyers would have a new boiler fitted, whereas 27 per cent would prioritise redecorating the home first.

Unfortunately, I have a community in my constituency that has been devastated by a gas explosion and which knows only too well the devastating consequences. Last year, at around 7 pm on Monday 18 October, a major gas explosion devastated the Kincaidston community in my Ayr constituency. The explosion was heard miles away in neighbouring towns. I remember vividly my windows rattling and hearing a big bang, which I dismissed as my children perhaps jumping off a bed upstairs. Shortly afterwards, an image of devastation, panic and chaos appeared on social media.

Fire, police and ambulance services were all redeployed at pace to assist at the scene. Sometimes, one does not appreciate the emergency services until one sees them in action in a national emergency such as the one that occurred on that night. I want to offer my thanks and gratitude to all the members of the emergency services who worked relentlessly that night and in the days after that awful event.

In the moments after the blast, there was confusion, panic and fear. Hundreds of people were evacuated, four houses were destroyed, windows were shattered, cars were destroyed and the community was in panic. Rather than what you would expect in a quiet neighbourhood in Ayr on a Monday night, it was comparable to a war scene. For many hours, nobody knew what had happened or how many people had been injured. The local community centre opened its doors and members of the Kincaidston community pulled together in an effort to make some sense of what had just happened and to support one another. Because of the devastation, it took days to confirm that, thankfully, there had been no deaths, although, unfortunately, a family of four were hospitalised that evening.

In the following days, not only the community of Kincaidston but the whole of Ayr pulled together. Individuals donated food supplies, and local businesses made sure that people who had been affected had essential supplies and a safe place to sleep while they waited for the all-clear to return to their homes.

One year on, the people of Kincaidston are still haunted and recovering from that night. As time went on, the community demanded answers. Why did the explosion happen? What could be done to prevent such an event from happening again in the future? A recent Health and Safety Executive report revealed that the explosion was caused by corroded pipes running through the estate, which had been laid down by the predecessor to SGN. Before the report was published, SGN prioritised replacing all the old lead gas pipework that was laid in the area in the 1970s with new, safer plastic pipes. I ask that lessons be learned from the gas explosion in Kincaidston. We need to prioritise replacement of the old lead pipes with the new, safer plastic pipes as a matter of urgency throughout our communities.

I raise the incident in Kincaidston because it shows that gas is something to be treated with respect and with caution. Failure to do that could result in life-changing consequences. We go to turn on our heating or hot water without thinking about it. The problem is that we often do not realise how dangerous gas can be until it is too late.

Although the Kincaidston explosion was unrelated to the residents’ activities, we can still take important lessons from that night. I echo the statements that have already been made. If someone smells gas, they should shut off the gas emergency control valve, open the doors and windows to let fresh air in, extinguish all naked flames and not smoke. They should not operate electrical switches, even to turn them off, and should call the gas emergency number, which is 0800 111999. I urge people to write that number down, save it on their phones and share it with family and friends. It is an emergency number that we should all remember.

We can also take important and easy steps to prevent gas leaks. We should have our gas appliances serviced and safety checked every year using a Gas Safe registered engineer. It is a small thing to do, but it will provide peace of mind and might save our lives.