Chamber and committees

I know that, yes, but we do not have them here and you might be the nearest person who has an understanding. [Laughter.]

Thank you very much.

Are you saying that the Scottish Government needs to put its money where its mouth is?

My questions were going to be similar to John Swinney’s, so I will take forward that point about the disconnect between stated policy and reality on the ground. According to the Scottish Parliament information centre, the community justice budget is flat in real terms. You will know that this committee spent a considerable amount of the past year looking at the bail legislation that is coming through. It is clear from Angela Constance that the Scottish Government’s long-term strategy is to shift towards more community justice disposals as an attempt to reduce prison numbers or even keep prison numbers where they are, because the direction of travel is up, as we know.

Surely it is the politicians and the Government who drive change. Who else can possibly drive change if not the politicians who are put there to do it? Who else in the system is in a position to do that? What discussions have you as an organisation had with ministers about what they expect from you? If the money that the sector gets does not increase, are you being asked to do more? Is that being made explicit to you? Surely the courts will use community justice disposals only if they are there. Is that not the major factor that determines that our prison numbers continue to go up and, from what you say, that the sector is shrinking rather than expanding? Is that fair?

If those alternatives were available in every part of the country, would they be used by the courts?

My question is probably for Dr Bruce. Trauma-informed care is obviously an issue across the justice system, but I know that Dr Bruce has said that more of her work is associated with victims and witnesses. You have already said that the way that the prosecution takes evidence from a witness can have a big impact on the quality of the evidence that is given. Could you expand on that? What implications does that have for cross-examination by the defence? Witness preparation is not a major feature of our justice system. From the work that you have done with people who work with victims and witnesses, do you have any comments on issues that arise?

Are you saying that sheriffs and others do not make community-based disposals because they think that the offender will not comply with them?

The First Minister’s announcement of a council tax freeze without consulting councils will have a detrimental effect on local services if it is not fully funded. Last week, West Dunbartonshire Council warned that it faces a funding gap of £17.3 million next year. Will the Scottish Government provide a fair funding settlement for all councils, including West Dunbartonshire, so that local services such as sport and leisure facilities are protected?

It is a pleasure to follow Christine Grahame’s contribution about some of the positive work that is already going on.

This debate on mitigating flooding impacts and increasing the resilience of communities is particularly important in the light of storm Babet, and I welcome the points that Maurice Golden and Sarah Boyack made in their opening speeches. As Claire Baker said, three people tragically lost their lives in the storm, and I associate myself with the condolences that she sent. I also pay tribute to our emergency services, the affected communities and local authorities for their efforts in responding to the storm.

Unfortunately, however, as Willie Rennie made clear, storm Babet was not a one-off extreme weather event. The reality is that extreme weather events are becoming more common and are going to occur more frequently as the climate emergency worsens. That means that we must be better prepared to deal with the changing climate and that the warnings from organisations such as the Climate Change Committee and Audit Scotland cannot be ignored. They have been very clear about the lack of progress made on climate adaptation measures.

Last year, the CCC warned that progress in delivering adaptation had actually stalled. It highlighted that there was a lack of clear targets and monitoring in place to determine what progress the Scottish Government was making in delivering climate adaptation measures. Back in April, Audit Scotland published a report in which it highlighted that adaptation was the area in which the Scottish ministers were making least progress.

Despite the Parliament declaring a climate emergency in 2019, it would appear that the Scottish Government is failing not only to make significant progress in meeting its own emissions-reduction targets, but to deliver vital climate adaptation measures. As has been said, the Climate Change Committee and Audit Scotland made a number of recommendations, including on the need for clearer adaptation targets and improved oversight of their delivery. I would be grateful if the minister could give an update on whether those recommendations are being acted on.

In addition, it has been revealed that the Scottish Environment Protection Agency has faced real-terms funding cuts of 26 per cent since 2010, and two former SEPA chief executives have warned of the damaging impact that those funding cuts will have on the organisation’s ability to protect Scotland’s environment and respond to climate-related risks.

Yesterday, I held a members’ business debate on the cuts that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service faces. Over the past decade, the SFRS’s budget has been cut by 22 per cent, or £64 million, in real terms, 1,200 firefighter jobs have already been lost and it is believed that a further 780 jobs will be under threat if the planned budget reductions go ahead. Those job losses could be accompanied by a further reduction of dozens of appliances.

The SFRS has a statutory duty to make provisions for flooding and, in its climate change response plan, the service has identified that the threat of flooding will become more frequent and severe. The service has highlighted that one in 22 of all residential properties in Scotland are now at risk of flooding from rivers, the sea or heavy rainfall. It has said that it is placing specialist resources, such as flood response stations and swift water rescue units, in areas at greater risk of flooding.

However, the “Firestorm” survey that FBU Scotland published last week found that 93 per cent of the Fire Brigades Union members who were involved—that is about 1,500 members—took the view that

“The SFRS is not adequately resourced enough to deal with the increase in climate-related incidents such as wildfires and flooding.”

That is why FBU Scotland is calling on the service to increase its capacity to deal with the predicted increase in incidents of flooding. Of course, an increase in incidents of wildfires has already been observed in Scotland over recent years.

As of 20 October, the fire service had responded to almost 70 weather-related incidents across Scotland, which included rescues from homes and floodwaters as a result of storm Babet. Ultimately, it is clear that we need to do more if we are to be able to respond to what is an increasing threat. Therefore, I repeat Scottish Labour’s call, which I made in yesterday’s debate, for an emergency funding package for the SFRS to enable it to deal with the challenges that the climate emergency poses.

I welcome the opportunity to raise the serious concerns that are currently facing the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. I thank all those members who signed the motion to enable the debate to take place, and I put on record my gratitude to the Fire Brigades Union Scotland for its briefings and its tireless campaigning work.

Last week, FBU Scotland published “Firestorm: A report into the future of the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service”—a state-of-the-nation report on the fire service, in which almost 1,500 serving FBU members in Scotland participated. It makes for grim reading.

In the past decade, there has been a real-terms cut of 22 per cent to fire service budgets, which amounts to around £64 million in real terms, going by the Scottish Parliament’s inflation calculator. More than 1,200 jobs have been lost, which is about 15 per cent of the entire workforce. In addition, according to Chief Officer Ross Haggart when he gave evidence to the Criminal Justice Committee, another 780 jobs are at risk if the Scottish Government proceeds with the planned budgets.

When I speak to firefighters, they tell of fewer firefighters on every shift, and fewer available for each incident. They often speak of how, when the first appliance has arrived and there are insufficient firefighters available to proceed to fight the fire or deal with the incident without acceptable risk, there are delays while they wait for more colleagues to arrive.