Chamber and committees

I am, convener, but I do not appear to be on screen. Can you hear me?

I thank the witnesses for an interesting discussion so far. Under theme 3, we will try to pull together a lot of what we have been discussing. Many of the themes that we are interested in have already been touched on.

Ruth Boyle spoke about long-term structural solutions and, under this theme, we want to focus on longer-term approaches. In recent times, we have lived through national emergencies—the Covid pandemic and the cost of living crisis—so we are interested in how we can restructure and look across the board at policy interventions that could make a long-term difference in protecting people, particularly disabled people, people living with long-term conditions and unpaid carers, and in allowing them to absorb shocks when they come. The committee is also interested in your views on any implications that the design of Scottish social security benefits has for carers and disabled people.

We expect inflation to increase, and prices are still high. What are the implications of that on how Governments should support people during a cost of living crisis that is not abating any time soon?

I am pleased to have the opportunity to contribute to this extremely important and timely debate and to speak in support of the motion in the name of my colleague Michael Marra.

As we have heard from the opening speakers across the chamber, we face two huge crises in Scotland. There is the cost of living crisis, which has been created in part by the Conservatives’ reckless attitude to the economy, and there is the crisis across the NHS in Scotland, which is widely seen and felt. In fact, the crisis is not just in our NHS but across all our public services.

The reality is that Scotland is being failed by two Governments—a Tory Government that has become morally bankrupt, has not taken the action that is required to support and protect people and has contributed to economic recklessness that has driven our economy over a cliff edge, and an SNP Government in Scotland that has grown bloated and out of touch and is now mired in internal party scandals.

Why is that important? It is important because the people of Scotland are being left behind. I will read out a quote:

“I already have days where there is no gas or electricity in the property, and we already skip meals and go without basic items. I am worried that this is going to happen more often and on a lot more days of the month.”

That testimony is the painful reality that is felt by thousands of Scots every day. New research by the Trussell Trust has revealed that the need for food banks in Scotland has reached its highest ever level. Parents are skipping meals to ensure that they can feed their children.

However, that issue did not arise solely from a cost of living crisis. The Trussell Trust has concluded that

“neither the Covid pandemic nor the cost-of-living crisis are the key drivers of need for food banks.”

I think that we all know that they are symptomatic of wider issues including the wide and deep, endemic poverty that pervades in Scotland, which has not been sufficiently addressed across our communities.

Indeed, people who were already in poverty have been pushed to the margins. They are being ignored by both Governments—the one at Westminster and the one at Holyrood. The Joseph Rowntree Foundation has found that 460,000 people in Scotland are now living in very deep poverty. That figure has increased significantly over the past two decades.

Presiding Officer,

“making poverty history in Scotland will be the core of everything our Government does.”—[Official Report, 31 January 2008; c 5744.]

Those were the words of the then Deputy First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, in 2008. Of course, every member in the chamber should share the aspiration of making poverty history, but it is one thing to say it and another to focus all the Government’s attention and resources on doing something to make it a reality.

After 16 years, the level of child poverty remains the same as it was when the Government came to power. It has had 16 years with access to the levers of power to make fundamental change, but the reality is that, since entering government in 2007, the SNP has failed to address the issues in a serious and substantive manner. That is why we are seeing these issues. Of course, as we have heard, that is also against the backdrop of a Conservative Government at a UK level that has made matters worse.

The reality is that we need change. We need a Labour Government at a UK level that will invest in a meaningful windfall tax, take action on the cost of living and support families across the country. We also need change with a Labour Government here at Holyrood that will reprioritise and move away from waste and Government bloat, finding the triggers and levers and using them to make a difference.

Next week, we will participate in the poverty summit that was announced by the First Minister. We welcome any action to address poverty. However, let us be clear that there have been many summits and this is yet another one. It must not be another talking shop. Despite all its encouraging and positive rhetoric and all its photo ops, the SNP has failed over the past 16 years to use the powers of this Parliament effectively—the Parliament that we created—to make tackling poverty a top policy priority. After 16 years, people need less talk and more action from this Government.

Will the member take an intervention?

My question is quite a direct question that reflects something that Catherine Salmond suggested in her opening contribution on potential modelling around the local democracy network. As politicians, we often find that network helpful if we want to tell a story, but not so often if we are trying to avoid a story. What is your vision of how that might work? Is it about focus on recruiting more women into journalism and drilling that down to the local level like the democracy network and ensuring that we can cover grass-roots sports clubs and events?

Good morning and welcome to the 14th meeting of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee in 2023. We have received apologies from Stephanie Callaghan; James Dornan is joining us remotely as a substitute.

The first item on our agenda is to choose a new convener, the procedure for which is explained in paper 1 for the meeting. Parliament has agreed that only members of the Scottish National Party are eligible for nomination as convener of this committee, so I invite members of that party to nominate one of their number for the post.

Eilidh Doyle would have contended that. I will quote her verbatim:

“I was always getting asked when I was retiring and how long I was going to go on. None of my male counterparts was asked those questions.”—[Official Report, Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, 18 April 2023, c 37.]

She felt that it is a very gendered experience.

There might therefore be models for the Government to consider how we might do some of that, whether at the reserved or devolved level.

Do members agree to choose Clare Haughey as our convener?

Members indicated agreement.

I congratulate Clare Haughey on her appointment as convener of this committee. I will now vacate the chair and pass over to Clare. In order to make that as seamless as possible, we will briefly suspend.