Chamber and committees

I say to the minister that we have only 14 months left, but the housing sector needs certainty about substantial proposals and changes that the Government has suggested. The fact that the Government is no further forward with introducing the bill in the Parliament leaves unanswered serious questions about energy performance certificate ratings.

I understand that the Government is consulting on EPCs. However, the current deadline for landlords to comply with the requirement to have an EPC rating of C is 2028. Is that target achievable when less than half of private homes are EPC C rating compliant and the Government might shift the goalposts on the scope of EPC ratings? Will the Government consider the current timelines to ensure that what it proposes and what it expects of private home owners are in sync?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on any correspondence it has had with the United Kingdom Government and the Scottish Public Pensions Agency regarding the legacy of the Scottish police pension 1987 scheme. (S6O-04369)

Many officers who have proven to be unlawfully discriminated against were successful in that remedy under the terms that were set by the contingent decision process. However, despite having the opportunity to buy back their pensions, they were ultimately forced to exit. With the pause under the Public Service Pensions and Judicial Offices Act 2022, that discrimination continues and prevents officers from retiring.

Will the minister provide an update on a proposed resolution and a timescale for when those officers will be able to buy back their pensionable term under the 1987 scheme, as agreed, to provide a remedy for the group of police officers who are affected? Will the minister share with Parliament when the date range that was released last month by the Home Office and the Treasury regarding some members who can be unpaused can be clarified, because that appears to continue discrimination within the police force?

This debate has been important. We need to build more homes, as we are in a housing emergency, and one of the ways in which we can do that is by accelerating the regeneration of our towns and town centres. That would surely provide more living spaces, and there would be more areas in which developers could come in to build homes. That would create a new dynamic, taking pressure off the villages that Fulton MacGregor rightly mentioned in his opening speech. Is the minister steadfast in doing that to try to tackle the housing emergency?

I congratulate Fulton MacGregor on securing this important debate and bringing it to the chamber. I also congratulate the northern corridor community forum, which undertook a lot of work in compiling its report, with the aim of making changes for the better in its community.

All members can support this issue and get around it. Our constituents’ voices matter, whether or not they are in community forum groups such as the NCCF, many of which have put together concerning statistics on lack of infrastructure and other issues that I will come to shortly.

The NCCF’s report shows that people are passionate about the areas in which they live—they care deeply about them. Fulton MacGregor is passionate about the area that he represents, and he has raised local issues in the chamber time and time again. We can share that approach across the parties. I would love to have seen a copy of the forum’s report before this evening’s debate, but I was not able to find it online. I have had direct conversations with Fulton MacGregor, but I am keen to have further discussions offline, to see whether there is a cross-party way forward in which we could examine and address the issue collectively, as MSPs who represent the same area.

In preparing for the debate, I reflected on my time as a councillor in North Lanarkshire. I fondly remember discussing the northern corridor at that time, when a range of unique problems affected communities in the area. Fulton MacGregor hit the nail on the head: many such problems are down to population growth. The number of people coming into the area through new housing development undoubtedly places pressures on infrastructure, healthcare and education, and affects people’s ability simply to get down to local shops, for example. We must ensure that we have the right infrastructure in place for each area.

I was struck by the transport issues that Fulton MacGregor raised, regarding accessibility to train stations and the lack of bus services in the area. Such issues are not unique to the northern corridor or to North Lanarkshire. However, the Scottish Government must refocus its efforts. Local people must be able to get into and out of the areas in which they live or work, but we must also be aware of the impact of the journey to net zero and achieving an affordable just transition, on which I am sure all members are focused.

I was pleased to hear that the forum is not against housing development, but that it wants a sensible and pragmatic approach to how such development comes into the area. It must come with the right infrastructure, otherwise it will not work. Roughly 14,000 people are on social housing waiting lists across North Lanarkshire. It is acknowledged that we have a housing issue in the area, and we must do something to address that collectively—not only local MSPs but North Lanarkshire councillors.

One way of doing so would be to explore using brownfield sites instead of encroaching on villages that have a lot of green belt. North Lanarkshire Council’s area is rich in brownfield sites—I think that it has roughly half of the available brownfield sites in Scotland. We should pursue that to take pressure off villages that cannot cope with the substantial housing developments that come to their area.

Fulton MacGregor read my mind. There are ways to address that issue. For example, a system is available in England, but not currently in Scotland, that allows developers to tap into grants to treat the land on brownfield sites. The aim is to make those sites more attractive. That might help with some of the issues that the member rightly raises.

I am well over time, and I do not want to take up the full debate, so I will stop there. I conclude by congratulating Fulton MacGregor on bringing the debate to the chamber and the community forum on its hard work. I look forward to reading the report in full when I get the opportunity.

I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement.

The minister states that she is unable to comment on the details of individual cases of care and treatment. However, in this instance, individual cases are critical to shining a light on the lack of action taken by those at Skye house and those in the NHS and the Scottish Government.

The Scottish Government did not find out about the problem through the BBC documentary—it has known for years. I have emails from my constituent that outline when she contacted ministers for help. On 23 June 2023, my constituent contacted Scottish Government officials on behalf of her daughter, Harmony. On 12 August 2024, she contacted the First Minister; the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray; and the Minister for Children, Young People and The Promise, Natalie Don-Innes. The email subject line read:

“Urgent concerns regarding the care and treatment of our child”.

On 25 November 2024, she again contacted the minister, Natalie Don-Innes, after being ignored by the minister who has delivered the statement today.

I have no idea how the minister can stand here today and pretend to be shocked, because she has known about this for years. The minister says that she finally feels the need to make a statement on the abuse that young women endured while they were detained at Skye house—two years late. Is she now acting only because the issue has been made public?

Why did none of the Scottish Government ministers treat my constituent’s letter with the utmost seriousness? Why did multiple ministers ignore a parent who was trying to raise institutional failures at Skye house?

If the minister is going to take suggestions from members today, will she conduct an urgent investigation into the matter to find out why nobody contacted my constituent to give them the help and support that they deserved?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. There was an issue with my app; I would have voted yes.

Over the past few months, I have been working with a family regarding their daughter, Harmony. The family told me that their daughter was illegally sectioned and brought to Skye house on 17 October 2022.

Harmony was given the wrong dosage of medication. She was restrained, taken from her family—who were managing her mental health concerns—and put into Skye house, where she was subjected to abuse and neglectful care. The abuse and cruelty that were shown in the documentary lay bare the institutional crisis at Skye house. Those young women were children—children who needed our care and support.

Harmony’s parents have not stopped fighting for their daughter, acting to correct her medical records and challenging those who have failed to care for her. They attempted several times to contact the Scottish Government—including the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, Neil Gray, and the Minister for Social Care, Mental Wellbeing and Sport, Maree Todd—to make it aware of what was happening at Skye house.

Why has the Government—I am looking at both the cabinet secretary and the minister—ignored the family? Will the cabinet secretary respond to the letter that I sent requesting a meeting with the family? Will the Scottish Government step in to ensure that such abuse and neglect will never happen again at such an establishment?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent programme, “Disclosure: Kids on the Psychiatric Ward”, which features Skye house in NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde. (S6O-04322)