Does the First Minister share my view that, if the Scottish Conservatives sincerely want to support Scotland’s railway network, passengers and employees, they should lobby their colleagues in the UK Government for full devolution of responsibility for Scotland’s railway to the Scottish Parliament?

I express my sincere thanks to Jackson Carlaw for lodging the motion, and I am honoured to speak in the debate. I also want to acknowledge the educators up and down the country and across the world who are teaching our next generations about Holocaust memorial day.

It can be difficult to know where to begin or what words to use when attempting to contemplate such an atrocity. Indeed, that feeling was expressed by Holocaust survivor Sonia Weitz in 1995, 50 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, in a poem that she read aloud to a group of middle-school students in the United States. She proffered the following lines:

“Come, take this giant leap with me

Into the other world, the other place,

Where language fails and imagery defies”.

To educate ourselves and confront the most painful and depraved aspects of our history is to take that giant leap.

In our struggle to comprehend the incomprehensible, survivor testimony has always been one of the strongest tools that we have. As such, I would like to thank the Scottish Jewish Heritage Centre in Garnethill, in my constituency, for sharing two stories with me and for keeping these memories alive through an extensive collection of refugee testimonies, documents and information about how the Nazi regime impacted the lives of people in Scotland. Jackson Carlaw was quite right to emphasise the personal in commemorating this day, and, on my visit to the heritage centre, I was struck by two particular examples in the archives.

Dorrith Marianne Oppenheim was Jewish. She was just seven years old in July 1939 when she left Kassel in Germany and came to Scotland via Kindertransport just weeks before the outbreak of the second world war. Her grandfather had received an iron cross for his services in the Red Cross in the first world war, as did her father, Hans Oppenheim, who was an officer in the dragoons. However, that could not save them from the Nazis.

Dorrith’s parents were unable to follow their daughter to Scotland and later perished in Auschwitz. A young Christian couple from Edinburgh, Fred and Sophie Gallimore, took in the young girl. Dorrith lived and worked in Scotland, later marrying Andrew Sim in 1952, and raised her family in Ayrshire. When she passed away in 2012, her family gifted thousands of documents, letters, photographs, papers, books and artefacts to the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre.

The other story that struck me is that of Hilda Goldwag, who was a talented young Jewish artist living in Vienna with her widowed mother. She escaped to safety in Scotland in April 1939, thanks to the Scottish Domestic Bureau for Refugee Women, a Jewish and Quaker initiative that secured her a UK domestic visa. Hilda was exempted from internment as a refugee from Nazi oppression and was permitted to work while living in Glasgow, raising funds for the war effort. Later, she worked as a textile and graphic designer and was a prolific painter. She lost her family in the Holocaust and remained in Glasgow for the rest of her life.

For those people, and for the estimated thousands and thousands of Jewish refugees who came to Scotland before, during and after the second world war, this country was their salvation. We represented safety, acceptance and a light in the darkest of times. Without Scotland, the fates of many of those individuals hardly bears thinking about.

As the debate has demonstrated, it is rarely an unproductive or fruitless endeavour for a nation to consider its role in history. Countries must take ownership of the individual parts that they have played and reflect on the lessons learned, however painful. In this chapter, Scotland chose compassion for those who had been denied their most basic human rights, and we must take this opportunity on Holocaust memorial day to consider those in need of compassion today.

I thank Rona Mackay for bringing the debate to the chamber; it is on a matter that is close to my heart. In my previous job as a teacher, I gained first-hand experience of working with children who had, sadly, suffered from great abuse or violence or had fallen mercy to the impacts of parental drug and/or alcohol misuse, to name but a few harmful experiences. For such children, early intervention and noticing trauma and neglect are crucial. Taking the time to have gentle conversations and provide opportunities for expression—whether verbally or through play, music or art—can be the first step in getting the child the support that they need.

Like other members, I have been honoured to meet Jay Haston, an ambassador for the WAVE Trust. I met him only last week and have his permission to share some of his story. In his early childhood, Jay was caught up in domestic violence and was sexually abused. He attended five different schools, was unable to concentrate and often displayed erratic and unpredictable behaviours. Jay was, by his own admission, manipulative and controlling. Those factors made establishing and maintaining relationships difficult, which was further compounded by anxiety and depression. He clearly displayed the signs of ACEs. Later, Jay became involved in crime and eventually attempted suicide. However, by the age of 37, he was finally able to make the massive step of reaching out for help.

The lived experience of Jay’s story demonstrates acutely the devastating impact of ACEs and the trauma that impacts on life chances, but it also highlights that hope exists for those who receive the right kind of support. A few years on, Jay now feels an immense sense of purpose and, although his experiences will stay with him, he is able to share his journey of recovery with others and instil in them the notion that help is always an option.

I whole-heartedly welcome the Scottish Government’s ambitions to create a more compassionate, trauma-informed and trauma-responsive approach, with a focus on early intervention. In 2011, the Christie commission reported on the future delivery of public services, and estimated that 40 to 45 per cent of public spending in Scotland is focused on dealing with symptoms rather than root causes. Therefore, I welcome the Government’s commitment to universal health visiting services, the roll-out of family nurse partnerships and investment in perinatal and infant mental health.

I know that ACEs awareness training is being delivered, because I have undertaken that training myself, but I would welcome further roll-out to all adults who are in contact with children and who therefore are in a prime position to notice behaviours that might be indicative of a wider struggle in that child’s life.

Whether we are teachers, jannies, dinner staff, police officers or national health service workers, we all have a sense of duty to the young people around us to take the time to see and hear what the child is trying to communicate and to respond in a way that prevents further harm and supports recovery. I welcome the development of the bairn’s hoose approach, as part of the child protection improvement programme.

Although the task of reducing adverse childhood experiences by 70 per cent by 2030 might sound daunting, I am optimistic that we can achieve it and that we can make Scotland the best country in the world for children to grow up in.

Do you consider that—I am sorry to speak over you. It is difficult not to do so in a virtual meeting, in which we overlap a little bit.

If Mike Grieve wants to add anything, I am happy for him to come in as well.

You keep records so that there is a trail, which is great. Has there been an increase in your record keeping? I mean an increase in your numbers—I am sorry for the clumsy wording.

You said that it is good practice to keep records but that there is no compulsion to do so and no expectation that it will be done. What would be the industry’s opinion if some sort of enforcement was brought in and venues did have to keep records? What would the industry feel about that?

I want to bring in Andrew Green. It is important to get the perspectives of the pubs and licensed trades on the matter. I am particularly interested in their perspectives on staff training and how the bystander model is working.

That is an important point if we are looking at gender-based violence.

Mike Grieve, do you want to come in?

Many businesses and other organisations have EV charging points for the exclusive use of their staff and customers. What discussions have taken place with businesses and other organisations about making private EV charging infrastructure available to the public EV charging networks when their staff and customers are not using such facilities?

The proposed Clyde metro is an exciting prospect for Glasgow and Glasgow Kelvin and the surrounding areas. It could prove to be key to Scotland hitting its net zero targets. Will the cabinet secretary set out some of the envisaged economic, environmental and social benefits of that project?

Thank you.