Chamber and committees

—the way to get out of this mess is to put more money into people’s pockets and to bring about more profit restraint in businesses, not the other way round.

Will the member give way?

In the spirit of unity, would the member agree in principle that—this is a practical solution—the idea of extending free concessionary travel to asylum seekers in Scotland would be a commendable and practical way of helping people now?

I thank my Glasgow colleague for giving way on the important point of the income available to asylum seekers, which is hugely constrained compared to that available to other parts of the population. Does she agree in principle that extending free concessionary travel would be a practical way for us in Scotland to help asylum seekers increase their income?

I thank the Government for bringing its motion, which I signed, to the Parliament for debate. I also place on the record my thanks to the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government and the Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development and Minister with special responsibility for Refugees from Ukraine for the constructive discussions that we have had on the issues in recent months.

Scotland has a proud record of welcoming refugees and asylum seekers into our communities. We are a diverse and multicultural society, a society that embraces the benefits that immigration brings and a society that sees refugees and asylum seekers for what they are—human beings who are often fleeing unimaginable horrors and are determined to make a better life for themselves and their families.

Sadly, not all refugees and asylum seekers are treated with compassion after landing on our shores. Determined to stoke division and appealing to people’s cruellest instincts, Boris Johnson and Priti Patel have been intent on vilifying and persecuting some of the most vulnerable people in the world. They decided that small boats crossing the Channel should be physically blocked and pushed back by UK border authorities and the Royal Navy. They vilified the Royal National Lifeboat Institution for doing its job—saving lives at sea without fear or favour. Most recently, they have been trying to send asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing—a move that was rightly blocked by the European Court of Human Rights.

Unsurprisingly, like many of Boris Johnson’s deplorable schemes, those plans have turned out to be unworkable, unviable and ultimately illegal. It is therefore heartening to see the Scottish Government taking a more compassionate approach to refugees and asylum seekers. The bombastic rhetoric that we hear from the Tory demagogues in the House of Commons is thankfully not replicated by many of us in this Parliament. However, we cannot pretend that everything is fantastic for asylum seekers and refugees living in Scotland. There is more that the Scottish Government could be doing to improve their lives now.

It is a little over six months since I launched my campaign to extend the concessionary travel scheme to all asylum seekers in Scotland. The campaign has the backing of just about every stakeholder working in the sector, including the Scottish Refugee Council, Refuweegee, Maryhill Integration Network, the British Red Cross’s Voices network and others. It has the backing of MSPs across the chamber from Scottish Labour, the Scottish Liberal Democrats, the SNP and the Scottish Greens. Most important, it would cost less than £400,000 a year, meaning that it is affordable. At a relatively modest cost, it would improve the lives of asylum seekers across Scotland immeasurably.

To their credit, the refugees minister and the cabinet secretary have engaged positively with my proposal, along with the Minister for Transport. However, there has been no announcement yet of a timeline for the policy to be implemented. I seek a public endorsement from the Government that the proposal is something that it is actively seeking to implement. I would like to have at least the security of an announcement today on the timescale and the principle that the Government is working as hard as it can to do what I have proposed. I urge the Government to commit to it. The Government knows where I am coming from. I am not interested in playing politics with this. I just want to improve the lives of asylum seekers and refugees who call Scotland home.

I have some concerns about the unequal and multilayered system that we are seeing emerge in our asylum system. The situation in Ukraine is horrific and my heart breaks for those families who have been forced to flee knowing that they may never be able to return. The response from both the UK and Scottish Governments to Ukrainians seeking refuge has been admirable. We have opened our homes, introduced specific visa schemes and, in some instances, sought to provide free travel to Ukrainians in Scotland.

However, we do ourselves a real disservice if we continue to pretend that Ukraine is an isolated and exceptional incident. Vladimir Putin inflicted the same devastation on Aleppo as he did on Mariupol. Saudi Arabia bombs Yemen with impunity, and Israel continues to breach international law with its oppression of Palestinians. Where is our compassion for those countries and their people? Where are the visa schemes for Yemenis? Where is the homes for Syria scheme? They do not exist, and that should give us huge cause for concern.

One cannot truly show compassion to those who are fleeing war and persecution until that compassion is shown regardless of race, ethnicity, nationality or circumstance, but I fear that that is not happening. It may be inadvertent, but the evidence shows that our treatment of people who are fleeing war and persecution has been far from equal. That needs to change.

The Scottish Government’s policy is far in advance of the UK Government’s when it comes to attitudes to refugees and asylum seekers, but I am sure that most of us agree that that is a low bar. There is undoubtedly more that could be done within the powers that the Scottish Government has available to it to help refugees and asylum seekers now. Let us start by introducing free concessionary travel for asylum seekers in Scotland. That policy is simple and cost-effective, and I can think of no better way to mark this week, celebrating refugees and asylum seekers, than for the cabinet secretary and ministers to stand up in the chamber and unequivocally commit the Government to implementing it.

We can work together to improve the lives of refugees and asylum seekers, and I am convinced that the political will exists among those in this chamber to make that a reality. I truly hope that, along with members across the chamber, the Government shares my ambition for those in our asylum system, who could, if they were given the chance, contribute so much to our society.

Does Stephen Kerr accept that there is no legal obligation on asylum seekers to seek refuge in the first safe country that they get to? There is a myriad of complex reasons why someone might want to seek onward travel to the UK, such as family ties, diaspora connections and the fact that they speak English rather than French. Does he accept that those are valid reasons for seeking a safe route rather than being forced into an unsafe route, such as crossing the Channel?

I thank the cabinet secretary for that encouraging response. I just want to put it on the record that JustRight Scotland has offered legal opinion that there are ways to circumvent the no recourse to public funds issue and ways of introducing new measures, if they are outwith the list of, I think, 27 defined benefits. Will the cabinet secretary take that into consideration?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the delivery of the missions of the Scottish National Investment Bank. (S6O-01240)

Challenge accepted, Presiding Officer.

It was a pleasure to support the motion when it was lodged by the member for Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale. I am delighted that the motion achieved enough support for a debate in the chamber, and I congratulate the member on that. I also congratulate all those who were involved in producing “Men Don’t Talk”. I hope that they are rightly proud of their work and that they continue to enjoy much success in such a worthwhile endeavour.

I am also grateful for the opportunity to pay tribute to men’s sheds across Scotland—more specifically, in Glasgow and, in particular, the Springburn park men’s shed in north Glasgow, with which I have had a close association in recent years. Led by the fantastic Tom Bennett, it took over an abandoned Romney hut at a council depot in the park and was formally established as a men’s shed in August 2018. Since then, it has grown exponentially as a supportive environment for men in the local area, as well as a wonderfully creative and generous community initiative.

Springburn park men’s shed is a wonderful example of the ideals and missions of the general men’s sheds project in Scotland: to provide valuable services in the community and a means for men to share their skills and knowledge with others. The men’s shed has worked brilliantly with local business to reuse excess material in order to benefit the community, such as in the construction of new mental health wards at Stobhill hospital, which is just half a mile away. Surplus materials, including portakabins, were used to extend the men’s shed complex and build a community library, tea station and kitchen facilities. The men’s shed has grown arms and legs thanks to construction companies such as BAM Construct UK supporting it in such a practical and meaningful way. The men’s shed has used those investments by private businesses and the council to secure positive impacts for the community across all generations. For example, the men’s shedders regularly visit primary schools to install outdoor play equipment, including mud kitchens—I am not sure what those are, but they are, apparently, very popular with children. The men’s shed also offers a handyman service for elderly and infirm people on Mondays and Fridays, which is really important and is booked up until August.

That is a real issue that we need to face in our communities. As statutory services face real financial pressure and council budgets for housing and garden maintenance are cut back, an increasing reliance on that sort of good will is building up informally in communities. Although I deprecate cuts to public services, we must recognise the importance of community resilience, and the men’s sheds are a fantastic example of where community good will can come to the fore and help to ensure that people’s wellbeing and lives in the community are sustained. That is particularly important for those who are infirm and unable to fully maintain their properties. Springburn park men’s shed also provides fantastic one-off projects for great local causes, including building a Santa’s sleigh for a local children’s hospice and providing garden furniture to the Marie Curie hospice at Stobhill hospital. The projects were all well received and the organisations were grateful for that work.

Members across the chamber have raised points about what the play “Men Don’t Talk” means in essence. It is about how men’s mental health must be treated differently, particularly with regard to men from an older generation. Purpose, fulfilment, satisfaction, self-esteem, companionship and friendship are the key attributes of men’s sheds, and they are so important. That also has to be understood in the context of our wider mental health and care strategies in Scotland. We have a tendency to overmedicalise things, but we must recognise that the normalisation of these softer approaches is critical to avoiding costs elsewhere in our public services, particularly in the national health service.

I hope that the minister will take on board this opportunity for cost avoidance, because the often precarious nature of the funding that men’s sheds get is not helpful. There can be a virtuous rather than vicious circle in how we approach the funding of these great community assets. It is not just about maintaining our properties and ensuring resilience in our communities; it is also, fundamentally, about ensuring the resilience of a generation. Men’s sheds build connections and skills across generations and with young people, and they ensure that we have a more robust and resilient community across Scotland.

In the light of Professor Ross Brown’s warnings on 23 May that the Scottish National Investment Bank will continue to flounder and will ultimately fail if its missions remain so broad and incoherent, will the Scottish Government commit to providing the bank with a clear mission to drive high-value-added industrial growth in advanced manufacturing in Scottish-owned firms instead of investments in things such as a forestry fund that is aimed at high-net-worth clients who are seeking tax-efficient structures?