Chamber and committees

::I declare an interest: I sit on the advisory board of Pregnant Then Screwed.

I come to this debate not as a member of the Parliament but as a parent. Last year, my daughter began her 1,140 hours of funded childcare. Like many parents, I was grateful for that support. If it works, it makes a difference. It can ease the burden, and it may allow families to breathe a little bit easier when it comes to their finances.

However, I have also experienced the first-hand reality behind the policy headline, which comes down to the fact that, every month, parents face the dreaded calculation about whether they can afford to have children and be in employment at the same time. I have done my own sums for my daughter. If she happened to be at nursery full time, the costs would be just short of £1,000 per month. That is nearly £12,000 a year for just one child. That is not a small household bill; it is the equivalent of a second mortgage payment every month.

Even once the 1,140 hours are available, the challenge for parents does not disappear, because, on its own, the availability of funded hours does not guarantee flexibility or choice, as my colleague Roz McCall rightly highlighted. Like many parents, my husband and I have sat round the kitchen table researching nurseries and childminders and asking the same questions. Does it open early enough? Does it cover school holidays? What happens if our work meetings run late? What happens if we do not finish work until after 6 o’clock at night? Can we juggle more than one care setting? Who will fill in for the drop-offs and the pick-ups?

That is the practical reality of modern life for working parents. Across Scotland, parents are juggling shift patterns, commuting times and the part-time roles that have been stitched together just to make ends meet. They are also making complex spreadsheets to work out whether, financially, they can stay in employment. That is why we are seeing many parents reducing their hours—it is not because they want to; it is because childcare structures leave them with no alternative.

The work of Pregnant Then Screwed has consistently shown that childcare costs are pushing parents, particularly women, out of the labour market. Some are delaying having children, and others are deciding against growing their family entirely because the numbers simply do not stack up. There is too much month left at the end of the money.

::To clarify, my point was not about the funding that the Government has put in. In 2023, the Government promised to expand childcare from the age of nine months, but nothing has materialised. That is the half-hearted ambition.

::I remember that, during the gender recognition reform debate, I broke my maternity leave because it was important to me to vote on the issue. I had Charlotte in one arm and I was trying to vote with the other hand. It can work, but not in all circumstances, although I take Christine Grahame’s point.

Pregnant Then Screwed has announced its latest state-of-the-nation report, which is important to what comes next in terms of our childcare settings. It says that 66.1 per cent of childcare costs are the same or more than the parents’ income, and 34.5 per cent of those who responded found themselves agreeing with the statement “I often find myself choosing between paying for childcare and household essentials”. That shows that something is broken in the system.

We need to reflect on the policies that we have spoken about in this chamber. In 2023, the Scottish National Party made a commitment to expand funded childcare from nine months onwards. That never materialised and we do not know what happened to the pilot programmes. That lack of ambition has prevented us from pushing forward.

We need to be honest about delivery. My experience shows that choice and flexibility matter for parents. That is why we need to look at the private, voluntary and independent sector and at what is not working right now.

Presiding Officer, I know that I need to finish, but this is not a niche policy area for me. Parents sit at the kitchen table, working out affordability, every single week. They tour nurseries, asking about hours and flexibility. They worry about job stability and providing for their children. We owe it to them to do better than broken promises, better than half-hearted ambition and better than a system in which going to work leaves families barely breaking even.

Childcare will be an election priority for parents in May—

::The Scottish Conservatives have been calling for an inquiry for months, but there has been no urgency from the Government—none whatsoever. It was confirmed in November 2025 that we did not know the true scale and nature of grooming gangs. I even asked a question on it, and it has taken the Government four months to come to the chamber today to announce an inquiry. What concerns me more is that the cabinet secretary seems unable to tell Parliament what further information has come to light for the Government to change its mind.

The inquiry needs to be fearless and fully transparent and, most important, it needs to have victims at its heart. The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee considered a petition that called for a national whistleblowing officer to be established. Will the Scottish Government now consider that, to give whistleblowers the confidence to come forward and stand up for victims, so that victims get the justice that they deserve?

The Scottish Conservatives have been calling for an inquiry for months, but there has been no urgency from the Government—none whatsoever. It was confirmed in November 2025 that we did not know the true scale and nature of grooming gangs. I even asked a question on it, and it has taken the Government four months to come to the chamber today to announce an inquiry. What concerns me more is that the cabinet secretary seems unable to tell Parliament what further information has come to light for the Government to change its mind.

The inquiry needs to be fearless and fully transparent and, most important, it needs to have victims at its heart. The Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee considered a petition that called for a national whistleblowing officer to be established. Will the Scottish Government now consider that, to give whistleblowers the confidence to come forward and stand up for victims, so that victims get the justice that they deserve?

Good morning. We have already touched on the premiums, so I will not go back to questions on those. However, the committee heard last week about a number of circumstances that may arise in rural areas where properties might need to be left empty for periods of time. One example that was given was operational rural accommodation linked to estate operations. I am looking for more information from the cabinet secretary on whether the Scottish Government will provide guidance for local authorities to help to ensure consistency in how those properties are treated.

:I am still a little bit concerned, because I believe that there is a risk that local authorities are, in effect, incentivised to not exempt such properties because of the additional income that they might get from generating those types of policies. How does the cabinet secretary propose to mitigate that?

:That is helpful. Thank you.

:Good morning. Cabinet secretary, you touched on the fact that the exemption will apply to buildings of more than six units. How did the Scottish Government take account of the differences between urban and rural settings when arriving at that definition?

:That is helpful to know.

Cabinet secretary, you mentioned earlier that you hope to incentivise turning short-term lets into longer-term tenancies. However, measures being brought in by this Scottish Government, particularly during this parliamentary session, will not incentivise people to enter the private rented sector in order to bring those homes in and create longer-term rental properties. What is the Government’s overall strategy? If the Government continues to disincentivise the private rented sector, the proposed measure will not achieve the desired outcome.