Chamber and committees

Good morning, everyone. I am going to ask about two areas. First, I will ask about the attainment challenge and the budget that will support that. I will then ask about Gaelic education.

On the attainment challenge, you would expect me to be fully aware of how stubborn the poverty-related attainment gap is and the fact that many portfolio areas cover it. Education gets the focus for closing that gap. I am aware of that context. While so many portfolio areas cover the poverty-related attainment gap, funding the work is a challenge—I understand that.

I heard the cabinet secretary talk about the £100 million to support closing the gap, and I was pleased to see that there has been a wee bit of a recovery, especially in primary schools, in going back to pre-pandemic levels, but we know that progress could be better. We understand that, and we know why the issue is so difficult.

How will the budget support the continued attempts to close the very stubborn poverty-related attainment gap? How will the public be assured that, with all the money that the Government is quite rightly spending, they are getting value for money? How will that be monitored and tracked?

Will the member take an intervention?

I thank my colleague Gordon MacDonald for bringing this subject to Parliament this evening and highlighting the opening of the National Robotarium at Heriot-Watt University.

I requested to speak in the debate in order to delve deeper into the subject, as members will be aware that I take a keen interest in education and research and development, and I am fortunate to have many world-renowned further and higher education institutions in my Glasgow Kelvin constituency.

In May last year, MSPs were given the opportunity to test our skills in a simulation of robotic surgery with the Da Vinci robot—I hope that my skills as a politician are somewhat greater than my skills as a surgeon, although my hand-eye co-ordination was not that bad. That remarkable technology is already in use in the Scottish national health service. As well as improving the safety, efficiency, and precision of procedures, it enables clinicians to operate remotely from anywhere in the world. Although the skill of the surgeon remains paramount, the technology enables the NHS to deal with more patients more quickly, and with safety assured. It is a great example of technological progress that we are already embracing.

Mechatronics, metrology, cobotics and many other areas of research, study, and practice will probably be as unfamiliar to other members as they are to me, yet the impact of those developing specialisms on how we learn, live and work will only increase as time goes by.

Universities and colleges in my constituency of Glasgow Kelvin are at the forefront of teaching and research and development across those new technologies. One example is the University of Glasgow, which has a world-leading reputation in research and teaching in that area that has been further enhanced by the opening last year of the state-of-the-art Mazumdar-Shaw advanced research centre, which I have had the pleasure of visiting, as I would encourage anyone to do. There, I was able to see specific areas of active research and collaboration, including remote robotics, space robotics and electronic skin that can learn from feeling pain, which could help to create a new generation of smart robots with human-like sensitivity.

The University of Strathclyde, which is also in my constituency, is home to the sensor enabled automation and robotics control hub, which is a £24 million research innovation and technology transfer laboratory, and to the centre for ultrasonic engineering. It is the anchor university of the National Manufacturing Institute Scotland group, which will soon open its digital factory in Renfrewshire. The factory will showcase the state-of-the-art applications of robotics, cobotics and automation.

The University of Strathclyde also helps academics and students to exploit new innovations around robotics commercially through university spin-out companies and entrepreneurial support. It has become a cliché to say that we need to educate young people for jobs that do not exist yet, but that does not make it any less true.

There is also huge manufacturing potential for Scotland in this area, on which we must capitalise. Let us grasp that opportunity, while ensuring that all demographics benefit from the community wealth-building possibilities that these incredible developing technologies present.

On behalf of Stuart McMillan, I vote yes.

On behalf of Stuart McMillan, I vote yes.

Deputy First Minister, thank you for the update on caseworker recruitment. I would like to look into that a little. You acknowledge that more work needs to be done on that. I have a constituent whose case I have been following. Initially, they felt that there was a shortage of caseworkers and were not allocated one, although the situation has moved on since then. That seems to mirror what you said about the recruitment of 23 caseworkers. Will the number of caseworkers be maintained throughout the operation of the redress scheme? Is there any wiggle room? Cases are obviously very complex. Is there a requirement for more casework to be done or for more people to be brought in?

Yes, that is absolutely noted. Those of us who are dealing with constituents on the matter are aware of one layer of the complexity and sensitivities around it, so I can imagine the challenges for caseworkers in doing that very professional job. It is important to put an acknowledgement of their work on the record.

You mentioned that people have been waiting a long time. Is there any priority given? Obviously, every case is individual, and they all deserve the same priority, but there will be people who, for either medical or other reasons, might be prioritised. Has that been considered?

On behalf of Stuart McMillan, I vote no.

On behalf of Stuart McMillan, I vote no.

That is a valid point. I am not saying that decriminalisation is the answer in and of itself, and I have outlined that the Government wants to provide the other half of the solution, which Mr Greene mentioned.

The situation in Portugal does not mean that there is no police intervention when an individual is found to be in possession of drugs, but it means a different response. If the person has less than the legal limit for individual possession, they are required to report within three days to the commission for the dissuasion of drug addiction, where they are interviewed and evaluated by a team of health professionals to assess whether they are in need of treatment. Every individual is then invited to attend a treatment facility. Eighty per cent of people accept referral, including those who are not problematic users. As well as providing access to high-quality treatment and recovery options, there is also access to a psychologist or counsellor to discuss their drug use. That massive transfer of focus from punishment to access to treatment has been highly successful in reducing drug deaths and petty crime.

We must acknowledge that a key underlying factor of drug deaths in Scotland is poverty. In 2021, people in Scotland’s most deprived areas were 15 times more likely to have a drug-related death than those in the least deprived areas. Tackling poverty is a key priority for the Scottish Government and I urge it to continue to fund benefits such as the Scottish child payment and other essential anti-poverty measures.

The inequality that stokes our appalling drug deaths statistics must be undone if we want to see a dramatic reduction in drug deaths and drug misuse and an increase in hope and wellbeing in communities where those are currently sadly lacking.