Chamber and committees

I should probably have said at the outset that I am a member of the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, as is Ms McNair, so you will have to put up with questions from us in the coming weeks. It is an important demonstration of the synergy between the two inquiries.

In looking at the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee examined the definition of “solicitor” and how we can ensure that people get access to appropriate legal advice. Have you any sense of whether women who are leaving violent and abusive relationships are going to the right places to get support? We know about the work that is done with partners such as Scottish Women’s Aid to direct people to the right places, but are there any examples of people having been given poor advice or having been unable to access a solicitor to get legal recourse?

Okay. That has been very useful.

To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on its own reported assessment that its target of delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032 is at risk. (S6O-04639)

I am very pleased to be able to contribute to the debate. I thank my friend Michael Marra for securing debating time on this important topic and for the way that he opened the debate by outlining issues that many members from across the chamber will recognise from their constituencies and regions. It is important that we take this time to discuss those issues and to hold the Government and local authorities to account for a lack of action to deal with them or to move things forward.

At the outset of my remarks, I declare an interest as a former employee of Enable Scotland and a former education convener in a local authority. It is in those guises that I approach the debate, as well as being a member for the West Scotland region who has had representation from many parents, children and young people with a learning disability or additional support needs who are struggling right now. I have been reflecting on Stuart McMillan’s comments. He gave a very good speech, and he has carried out his own survey work.

I am reminded that, back in 2016, Enable Scotland produced an important report called “#IncludED in the Main?!”, which looked at inclusion across education and childcare. It laid out 22 recommendations for the Government at that time, which encouraged it to think about how young people with additional support needs could be better included in the school day, the supports that are required in relation to wraparound childcare and how children with ASN could be included in activities such as sport, drama and all the other things that we would want all of our young people to be able to access. There were clear recommendations about how we need to support mainstream provision better to ensure that it can be more inclusive and that we have specialist provision.

Since that 2016 report, we have moved backwards on many of the issues that were outlined. That is a matter of great regret, and the Government needs to take it very seriously. It was clear in the work that was done by Enable Scotland that when parents were asked about their experience, they used words such as “battle” to describe their daily experience of getting provision for their child or young person. They talked about the anxiety and dread—which we have already heard about from colleagues—around accessing the support that they need during the summer holidays or other holiday periods. I am concerned that we have not addressed many of the recommendations in the report.

I approach the issue as a former convener of the education committee at East Renfrewshire Council. In East Renfrewshire, we were very fortunate to have excellent provision at the Isobel Mair school in Newton Mearns. I pay tribute to the school for all the excellent work that goes on there. I am sure that members recognise the excellent provision that is available in many communities.

However, because of significant cuts to council budgets over many years, funding decisions have meant that many opportunities for childcare and support have been reduced. For example, in my time in the council, we had to take decisions to reduce the extended school day and the summer holiday programme. None of us wanted to do that, but we were forced into that position by the inadequate funding from the Government. The Government needs to take cognisance of that and of its decisions—[Interruption.] I think that the minister is saying something from a sedentary position. I hope that she will address that point in her summing up, because it is important.

It is clear that there is a will among members across the chamber to get this right and provide adequate support not only so that the children and young people have a rich experience, but to support their parents, who are experiencing stress and anxiety and, as we have heard in the debate, are having to make choices about their working life that are detrimental to our wider economy in Scotland.

It is important that the Government offers its response today and that we, as a Parliament, take the issue seriously, do not forget it and continue to work to ensure that solutions are in place.

Today, on the 80th anniversary of VE day, we paused to reflect on all those from our communities who gave their lives in the course of the second world war, for the freedom and liberation of Europe and for the peace and security of us all.

The war memorials in our towns and villages are etched with the names of those who fell—on land, at sea and in the air—and who made the ultimate sacrifice for the things that we value so much.

Today, I am also thinking of those who suffered so much and who lost their lives here in Scotland and in the communities that I represent across West Scotland. I am thinking of the terrible toll that the blitz took on communities in Clydebank, Greenock and so many other industrial towns across the west coast. The scars run deep in those communities, even to this day—whether they be scars in the minds of people who survived, physical scars or the scars that were inflicted on the landscape, which would never look the same again.

Many of us have brought personal stories and we have heard very eloquent ones. Those stories are important. Many of us have loved ones who lived through and perhaps served in the war.

I have been thinking a lot about my grandmother, who would have been 95 if she were still alive. She did not live to see me be elected to the Scottish Parliament. When she passed, she left me a painting of Craighead in Barrhead, where she was born and where she grew up. It sits in my office upstairs. I was thinking about that painting today, because it shows the house from which my grandmother experienced the second world war. She would tell us stories frequently about the blackout, rationing, carrying your gas mask to school, and the work that she did for the local co-operative society in her teenage years during the war. I was also thinking about how she would have left that close in Craighead on VE day to join the celebrations in the community of Barrhead. I remember the sense of relief and joy that she expressed that war in Europe had finally come to an end.

There is something else important that I have been thinking today about my gran and her generation. We have heard it articulated already in speeches. My gran’s generation—the generation who lived through the war—not only gifted us freedom and security but went on to gift us so much more of the things that we value in this country today. They are the generation who rebuilt this country from the ashes and rubble of war. They are the generation who turned their shoulder to the wheel, having faced the storm. Under the reforming Labour Government of Clement Attlee, they gifted us institutions such as the NHS and the welfare state, new towns and access to education.

They did it in their own ways, washing floors or putting bricks and mortar together. They fed children and helped the ill and disabled. In doing that, they also gave us something more fundamental. They gave us values that endure to this day: the values of standing with and helping our neighbours, of hard work and dedication, of keeping calm and carrying on and of never giving in.

This evening, I will join people in my community of Neilston as we light a beacon for peace. When we do so, I will think of all those who gave their lives and those who gave so much of the life that they had after the war to building this country. I will think of my gran and all those people who stood with her, whom we remember today, on VE day.

He has done it again!

Delivering more affordable homes is a vital component of tackling the tragedy of there being 10,000 homeless children in Scotland. No matter how much the First Minister would like the Labour Party to

“move on and find something else to talk about or to moan about”,—[Official Report, 6 May 2025; c 29.]

which I noticed that he doubled down on at First Minister’s question time today, when he told us to stop “whinging”, we will continue to hold the Government to account for that failure and to advocate for action to help those 10,000 homeless children.

On accountability, given that the affordable housing supply programme risk register, obtained by Scottish Labour through a freedom of information request, shows that staffing, financial and commercial risks are all so high that the 110,000 target is at risk, what is the Scottish Government doing to address those risks—or does the cabinet secretary, like the First Minister, think that we should all just move on from the issue?

Over the past two years, Scotland has had the lowest wage growth of any region or nation in the United Kingdom. The Deputy First Minister talks about increasing incomes and security, but what in the programme for government will address that?

Will the member take an intervention?

I in no way meant to make the Deputy First Minister feel old, because she certainly is not, but the reality is that she has experienced those 18 years and has supported her party through that time, so she must take some ownership of that.

Coming on to the subject of wages, I note that, when I intervened on the Deputy First Minister, she was unable to answer the point about Scotland having lower wage growth than the rest of the UK. That has to be faced up to; the figures are based on her Government’s figures, which show that wage growth here has not kept pace with that in the other nations and regions in the United Kingdom. There is serious concern on that front.