Chamber and committees

I apologise, but I do not have time.

In its fiscal sustainability development plan, the Scottish Government outlined steps that it would seek to take on tax. One of those was for ministers to undertake engagement regarding the taxation of wealth and to publish a literature review on the subject. I would appreciate it if the minister could outline how that would work and, indeed, how work on land taxation more generally is progressing.

Ahead of the Scottish Government’s budget, I hope that ministers will engage seriously with unions, and those of us in the Parliament, on the issues that are being raised in today’s debate.

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recently published report by National Records of Scotland, “Healthy Life Expectancy, 2021-2023”. (S6O-04906)

Healthy life expectancy estimates for both men and women in Scotland have hit their lowest point since records began in 2014. There are also clear regional variations, with North Ayrshire having the joint lowest healthy life expectancy, at 52.5 years for women and 52.6 years for men. What work is the Scottish Government doing to improve healthy life expectancy nationally, and what work is it doing with North Ayrshire Council and NHS Ayrshire and Arran specifically in relation to North Ayrshire?

The title of the debate is “Improving Scotland’s Finances”. To do that, we need to produce an economic strategy, based on growth; to develop an industrial strategy; to address productivity; to rise to the challenge of the green industrial revolution; to be at the forefront of the technological changes that are required to address the climate challenge; and to recognise the changing demographics, with an ageing population and low birth rates.

We need to increase funding, but to do so in a way that does not increase taxes for working people, who are already worse off than they were in 2010, and who have suffered with austerity, wage stagnation after the financial crash, increased costs and higher interest rates. As has already been mentioned in the debate, the Scottish Fiscal Commission forecasts that Scotland faces a funding gap of roughly £4.7 billion a year by 2029-30. That is equivalent to 4 per cent of day-to-day spending and 23 per cent of the capital budget. Recent GERS figures highlight that Scotland’s public spending deficit now stands at more than £26 billion, or around 12 per cent of GDP.

Scotland’s finances are undoubtedly in a challenging state, but addressing the state of our public finances comes down to political choices. We can choose to protect public services, save jobs and invest in our communities, or we can repeat the failed experiment of austerity. The Scottish Government’s political choice, as set out in its medium-term financial strategy, appears to be one of further cuts to public services.

Public sector workers and public services should not pay the price for the Scottish Government’s mishandling of public finances, yet its plans for public sector reform will result in precisely that. There is still a lack of detail from ministers on what services will be subject to cuts and which jobs will be lost, but the Scottish Trades Union Congress has warned that up to 10,000 jobs could be lost.

Scotland has already lost more than 1,000 firefighters, 1,000 police officers and around 65,000 local government workers since 2006. Those are the very people who keep vital front-line and local services running. A loss of an additional 10,000 workers will undoubtedly have an impact on those, and on the delivery of wider public services, at a time when they are more needed than ever.

I would therefore be grateful if the minister could provide any detail about which services will be subject to cuts and job losses, and how they will deal with that deficit.

I refer to my entry in the register of members’ interests.

It is a pleasure to follow Christine Grahame. I was very pleased that she raised the Beeching cuts, which I believe have proved to be a disaster for many communities.

I hope that we all now accept that supporting and extending rail services is vital to meeting our climate change targets and to making transport more sustainable. The scrapping of peak fares, which came into effect last week, is very welcome. Ending peak fares is important for increasing passenger numbers by making rail travel more affordable for working people. That is why the Scottish Government’s decision to end the pilot scheme last year was strongly opposed by both passengers and rail unions, and it is a testament to their tireless campaigning that the Scottish Government has now changed its position and has scrapped peak fares. I congratulate the cabinet secretary on that decision.

While the scrapping of peak fares will make rail travel more affordable for many, people in many parts of Scotland will not benefit. It is important that rail travel is truly accessible for all passengers, and that is why the rail unions and campaigners have repeatedly warned about the impact of cuts on ticket office opening hours. Reducing ticket office opening hours means that some stations will no longer have guaranteed staffing for notable periods of time. That leaves many passengers—women, the disabled and the elderly, in particular—unable to seek assistance, and it leads to passengers feeling unsafe at a time when crime on Scotland’s rail network is increasing.

Scottish Government research has shown that passengers feel safer at staffed stations. I take on board what Jamie Greene is saying, but women, in particular, and other groups tell us repeatedly that they feel safer if there are staff available. However, many stations across the West Scotland region are being affected by cuts to ticket office opening hours. Ticket offices at Ardrossan South Beach, Irvine, Largs and Saltcoats stations, along with many others, are seeing opening hours reduced by at least one hour or more.

There are on-going issues with the punctuality and reliability of ScotRail services, which the Scottish Government must address. ScotRail, as has been said, is still running fewer services than it ran before the pandemic. ScotRail ran more than 63,000 services this July, which is 6,000 fewer than in July 2019. More than 17,000 services were cancelled last year, and more than 55 per cent of services failed to arrive at their scheduled time.

Last year, I raised concerns about the punctuality and reliability of the Largs to Glasgow line. More than 200 trains were cancelled on that line alone last year, and more than 500 services were late. In 2023, a total of 455 services on that line were either fully or partially cancelled, which is simply not good enough. The repeated failure to deliver rail services for the people of Largs, Ardrossan and the wider area is unacceptable and, unfortunately, that is not an isolated example. I hope that action is now being taken to improve infrastructure, reduce cancellations and ensure that trains run on time.

As I said, crime on Scotland’s rail network is increasing. Reported crime has increased by a third since before the pandemic. The number of reported sex crimes has increased by two thirds over the same period. More than 200 women and girls were assaulted or harassed or faced unwanted sexual behaviour on Scotland’s rail services in the past year alone.

Rail workers, too, are facing an unacceptable level of abuse and violence, and rail workers have raised concerns about the abuse that they receive. Women transport workers, in particular, have told me about the increase in threatening behaviour that they are subjected to. ScotRail staff were subjected to more than 100 attacks on trains and at stations last year, which is more than double the number that was reported in 2022. I hope that the cabinet secretary will outline what steps the Scottish Government is taking to improve the safety of rail services for women and girls.

The UK Government’s proposals to create a single, publicly owned and nationally integrated rail network are welcome. I hope that Scottish and UK ministers will be able to work together to ensure that the proposed Great British railways and ScotRail deliver improvements to infrastructure, reliability and safety, and I hope that we continue to have debates of this nature in the chamber.

I, too, was going to ask the witnesses about women.

Given everything that you have said, is it fair to say that the new prison at Stirling and the two new women’s custody units have put a lot more focus on these issues, and that the fact that they are new facilities has been positive for the direction of travel?

We talked about meaningful activities earlier. I get the impression that, although it is not quite a postcode lottery, the picture in different parts of Scotland is variable. The pressures in different prisons are very different, and the overcrowding in some prisons is far more extreme than in others. During Covid, prisoners were generally not allowed out of their cells.

I often get the impression from speaking with prisoners and their families that what is happening in prisons varies. The picture is not uniform, and there are pockets of good practice—perhaps in Stirling and the two women’s custody units, and no doubt in many other places. Is that your experience? Is that a fair comment on the issue?

I welcome the fact that the motion has been lodged by the Scottish Government, and that the debate is taking place in Government time. I also welcome the earlier statement from the First Minister.

I appreciate that there are those who say that this Parliament should not be debating international issues, but I believe that it is right that we are holding this debate, as it affects all of us and our security, and we cannot stay silent as we watch the carnage and the multiple breaches of international law.

The main argument against the Scottish Government’s position seems to be that now is not the time. Given the slaughter that we have all seen, now is the time—in fact, we should have recognised Palestine many years ago.

The UK Parliament voted in favour of recognition of the Palestinian state in 2014, in a non-binding vote. However, successive UK Governments have failed to recognise Palestine. As the cabinet secretary and Alex Cole-Hamilton have said, the state of Palestine has been recognised by 147 of the 193 member states of the UN, and it has been a non-member observer state since 2012. As Anas Sarwar pointed out earlier, France, Australia, Canada and the UK recently stated their intention to recognise Palestine by September 2025—this month. This debate is therefore timely, and I urge the UK Government to recognise the state of Palestine without condition.

The backdrop, of course, is the extensive media coverage of human suffering, the mutilation and slaughter of children, the levelling of Gaza and destruction of infrastructure, starvation, famine and a blockade. Nobody can say that they are not aware of the human misery. Since the horrific events of 7 October 2023, there have been at least 20 UN votes expressing concerns and condemnation of Israel’s actions and calling for a ceasefire and for self-determination of the Palestinian people—but Israel is not listening. Israel annexed land by force in 1948 and 1967; illegal Israeli settlements have been built on Palestinian land since 1967; and the Israeli state has a formal system of legalised discrimination against Palestinian people.

Over the past two years, there have been some of the highest known death tolls among journalists, health and humanitarian workers and UN staff. Hundreds of Palestinians have been detained and have been subject to arbitrary detention in the West Bank. Children in Gaza have borne the brunt of the war; thousands of children have been killed and many more are living with life-changing injuries. There are verified reports of children dying from starvation and disease.

Any plan for peace must include Palestinian voices. I hope that the political groupings come together—it would be disappointing if the vote today were not unanimous. The Scottish Parliament must support the Palestinians and must support recognition today.

In February, after years of the Scottish Government ridiculing those arguing for the public ownership of Ardrossan harbour, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport announced, during rural affairs portfolio questions, that the Scottish Government now supported it. The Scottish Government knew more than 10 years ago, when it decided to commission the two Arran ferries, that the ferries did not fit into Ardrossan harbour, that the Scottish Government did not own Ardrossan harbour, and that it was going to be very difficult to get a deal with the owners, but it spent years failing to take the necessary compulsory action. Does the cabinet secretary accept that the Scottish Government has failed the people of Arran and Ardrossan?