Chamber and committees

The focus has been to consider issues that are associated with the changing nature of ownership in the sector. I will speak a little about that and perhaps come back to Alex Cole-Hamilton’s point.

Earlier in the debate, I spoke about issues that relate to offshore ownership in the sector, which is, increasingly, a problem. I will say a little bit about one particular situation.

According to work that was done in 2016, across the UK in general, five large chains accounted for almost 20 per cent of beds. I suspect that the figures would now show more of a concentration of ownership.

One example that members might be aware of or might have been involved in as constituency representatives was the 2011 collapse of Southern Cross Healthcare, which was owned by the Blackstone Group. The consequences of that collapse affected 31,000 care home residents across the UK. Many of those care homes were in Scotland, including in the constituency that I represented at the time.

Many Southern Cross care homes were sold to Four Seasons Health Care, which was owned by the Jersey-based equity firm Terra Firma. In April 2017, 220 care homes and 17,000 residents were affected when that organisation also became bankrupt. Four Seasons, like many private equity operations, had a complex corporate structure. The Financial Times reported that it consisted of 200 companies arranged in 12 layers across at least five jurisdictions, including several offshore territories, and that tax avoidance and profit shifting were central to its operations in a model that is known as financialisation. There are clearly significant issues in the sector, although Alex Cole-Hamilton may be thinking of a slightly different example.

The report that would come to the Parliament would be about improving transparency and scrutiny and would look at issues such as who owns the sector, how it is being operated and whether it is being operated in the public interest. We know that any failure in the sector affects our constituents. Southern Cross is a good example of the distress that is caused when a care home goes bust or ceases to operate, and the difficulties that that causes those who rely on that service and their families.

The amendments in this group are geared towards transparency, scrutiny and bringing to the fore some of the issues that Alex Cole Hamilton has brought to the chamber today. We know that there is a range of providers within the sector, from small family-owned businesses and third sector organisations to the multinationals and offshore trusts that I have spoken about.

As Paul Sweeney knows, it is our money that is being spent on paying for those services, and the Parliament must take an interest in that.

The purpose of my amendments in the group and of the discussions that I have had with the minister is to ensure that accurate information is regularly provided to the Parliament so that we can understand what is happening in the sector, debate the issues and make public policy decisions on that basis. I hope that Parliament will feel able to support the amendments today.

I move amendment 74.

The member makes an incredibly important point. The challenges of Covid demonstrated the importance of having an enforceable right to information. During Covid we saw that providers in the care sector, which care for some of our most vulnerable people, followed very different rules depending on whether ownership was in the public sector or elsewhere. We found that the families of those who were in care homes run by local authorities were able to access information but that it simply was not possible to get information from homes owned by private sector companies.

That is one reason why there is such a body of opinion in favour of extending freedom of information to cover the care sector. However, ministers have thus far refused to use their section 5 powers under the act.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what it is doing to address violence in schools. (S6O-04755)

I agree that no young person aged under 18 should be in prison. However, we need to ensure that there are adequate numbers of places in secure units for justice referrals. In recent decades, we have seen a change in the profile of young people in secure units. For example, there are now larger numbers of young women in such units for non-judicial disposals, such as concern about self-harming. What work is the cabinet secretary doing across Government to ensure that an adequate number of the 78 places are available for justice referrals?

In a survey conducted among teachers by the NASUWT trade union, eight in 10 respondents said that they had been threatened with a weapon by a pupil in the previous 12 months, and 37 per cent said that they had been assaulted with a weapon. The cabinet secretary has said that the Government is working on guidance. Does she think that the action plan is working? What role does she believe that the police should have in addressing the issue? We are often told that schools are discouraged from contacting the police, even in serious cases.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what impact the national strategy for economic transformation is having on the economy of the West Scotland region. (S6O-04678)

North Ayrshire has the lowest job density in Scotland. Does the minister believe that the Scottish Government is doing enough to prioritise North Ayrshire, given those poor job density levels? What more can be done to encourage investment and well-paid jobs in the area?

To ask the Scottish Government what further action it can take to increase the stock of accessible housing. (S6O-04636)

A constituent in Irvine has been waiting for housing with wheelchair access since May 2022. Another constituent in Ardrossan, who also has serious health conditions, has been informed that they will have to wait 12 years, even though they are sleeping on the sofa and the lack of a downstairs toilet means that they have to use a commode. As the cabinet secretary knows, this is a Scotland-wide problem. What more can the Scottish Government do to increase the stock of accessible housing across Scotland? Does the cabinet secretary think that there is consistency of provision in different local authorities?