Chamber and committees

I met the minister’s predecessor to discuss the issue in the early days of the parliamentary session, when we began the cross-party group. On the issues that the minister rightly outlines relating to needing a fund that works and is prepared, and engaging on it, all of that work could have been done. We have been at this since the beginning of the parliamentary session. If the minister’s commitment is to have it done by the end of the session, why has it taken so long to get to this point, when a lot of the groundwork could have been done by now?

As convener of the cross-party group on changing places toilets, I am delighted to participate in this evening’s debate. I thank Jeremy Balfour not just for securing the debate on his motion but for the work that he does more widely with the CPG and in Parliament to keep these issues at the forefront, as is vital.

The cross-party group was established to keep focus on an important issue. This evening, we have heard about how important the issue is to people who rely on changing places toilets, and to their families and carers. The group was largely inspired by the campaigners and by the people whose lived experience was the often patchy provision across Scotland.

What inspires me most when the cross-party group meets is our hearing not just about the experiences of many people in trying to attend hospital appointments or to get to the various supports that they need, but about the experiences of families with young children who have complex needs, who want, as all members would, to live spontaneously—for example, to go on holiday, take day trips or just go to the shops. The lack of facilities is a real challenge to living with the spontaneity that everyone deserves in their everyday life.

I pay tribute to some of the people in the cross-party group—in particular, to Angela Dulley, who has been a driving force; to PAMIS, via which secretariat support for Angela has been received; and to all the individuals and organisations who have come together and pushed issues forward.

I never thought, when I became a parliamentarian, that I would spend time looking at toilets and at potential sites for them, but that is what I now do. I must say that I have become something of a geek when it comes to what is required to make a toilet a bona fide changing places toilet. I have been delighted to see many community organisations and local authorities taking the active steps that are needed to put them in place—in particular, in Rouken Glen park in my constituency, which has allowed people to use the park more freely.

In addition, I recently visited Tyndrum—which was spoken about by Evelyn Tweed and is in her constituency—to meet Sarah Heward and the campaign team there, who are bringing together local businesses and community organisations to provide a vital facility. However, what was interesting about my visit to Tyndrum is the challenge that remains when it comes to levering in the funding that we have been speaking about—£10 million—for communities across Scotland to begin to plug gaps. Communities, local organisations, community councils and businesses are willing to put in funding themselves and to attract funding from other organisations. However, support from Government could make a crucial difference as enabling funding or as the last piece of funding to allow a project to be delivered for a community and people more widely who wish to use a facility. What is coming across loud and clear from the cross-party group and from campaigners across Scotland is that we need a sense of urgency about that money.

We have rehearsed some of the arguments that I am sure the minister will hear tomorrow when she comes to the cross-party group. There are concerns about the length of time that it will take to get the money out the door. I appreciate that such things can take time, but campaigners would like to know what will be the criteria for getting the money. How will it be given? Who will it be given to? How will it be applied for? When will it come? That information is crucial, because if we waste more time when we do not know those things and do not deliver the money, projects will stall and will become more expensive and, crucially, we will not move forward on the agenda.

The issue is key to the lives of many of our fellow Scots: it is about a basic human right and basic decency. It is time that we got the money out the door and into communities, where it is needed.

I, too, voice my disappointment at the late sight of the statement, but I also accept what the cabinet secretary has said in mitigation.

In the six years since the beginning of the process of gender recognition reform in Scotland, Scottish Labour has striven to ensure that the relevant legislation is progressive and that it updates the system while upholding rights and protections for everyone. From the beginning, we sought to engage all parties, including the Government, raising potential issues, offering amendments and seeking repeated assurances that the legislation was secure in law. Indeed, in that regard, the cabinet secretary will recall my amendments that were dealt with this time last year and previous questions that I have raised on issues such as meetings between the Governments about the section 104 process and calls to see the Scottish Government’s legal advice.

Ultimately, I recognise that this will be a difficult day for many people. The simplification of the process of gender recognition has not moved forward, and I welcome the cabinet secretary outlining what further action the Government will take to support trans people in Scotland, which I have been keen to raise each time that we have had the opportunity to discuss the issue. I would appreciate it if the cabinet secretary could further outline how activity across Government will be co-ordinated to measure improvements, particularly in healthcare.

I recognise that many women feel that their concerns have been dismissed and that the debate has become too polarised. The cabinet secretary has essentially said that the bill will remain in limbo after the smoke from the court wrangling between the two Governments clears. I also heard what the cabinet secretary said about people’s willingness to try and work together.

Does the cabinet secretary recognise that the court has judged that the bill modifies the law as it applies to reserved matters? What analysis has the Government carried out in the light of those parts of the judgment that could form the basis for any future dialogue with the UK Government on moving the process forward?

It has been 663 days since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and it has been 3,589 days since Ukraine’s sovereignty was first violated during the illegal annexation of Crimea on 20 February 2014. It remains now, as it was then, an unacceptable and despicable act to launch such aggression on the European continent for the first time in many of our lifetimes. It remains vital, as it was then, to stand side by side with the people of Ukraine and to provide them with the support needed by those who have remained in Ukraine and those who have had no alternative but to flee from Ukraine and seek refuge elsewhere in the world.

Indeed, as we have heard already in the debate, we have welcomed into this country those who were fleeing bombs, artillery and missiles. That was the very least that we could do to demonstrate our firm solidarity with the Ukrainian people. We must continue to offer such a welcome for as long as Ukraine remains unsafe and its people are unable to return home. Those people should know that they have the option of a home in the United Kingdom and that Scotland is a safe place that is available to them with all the support that they would need.

During the debate, we have heard about the important initiatives that Parliament has carried out during the time that I outlined. I add my voice to those of colleagues from across the chamber who have spoken about the strength of the cross-party group on Ukraine, which was established just this month in the Parliament. I hope that it will be a strong vehicle that will allow all of us across the Parliament to offer solidarity and support to the people of Ukraine.

The move by the Scottish Government to establish longer-term support for Ukrainians in Scotland beyond the emergency phase is correct and necessary. It is incumbent on the Government to ensure that the voices of Ukrainians in Scotland are listened to when constructing and implementing that support, and to ensure that the programme of work is carried forward at pace, with all the appropriate resourcing that we would want.

My amendment notes and seeks to add to the Government’s motion. We applaud all ordinary Scots who have welcomed Ukrainian refugees into their homes. It is important to put that on the record in the debate and in the amended motion. When the call for help came, people across the country answered it and demonstrated the very best of us. Their on-going support should never be forgotten in this chamber or elsewhere in Scotland, because it was the ordinary people of Scotland who rose to answer that call and brought people into their homes.

As we move to a longer-term strategy to support those Ukrainians who have come to Scotland as a result of the invasion, it is important that we face up to and solve many of the challenges that are in front of that strategy. We have already heard reference from Miles Briggs to housing being one of the bigger challenges that we know exist. There is a housing emergency in Scotland, and research conducted by Heriot-Watt University for the British Red Cross has shown that Ukrainians are four times more likely to face homelessness than the wider population. That sits on top of previous research from the British Red Cross, which was published back in March, which showed that many Ukrainian refugees were living in inappropriate accommodation.

I am grateful, Presiding Officer.

I would not deny much of what Mr Brown has said about the challenges that there have been with UK support and ensuring that it is available, particularly to local authorities across the country, in a more sustainable way. However, I am coming on to discuss the fact that we have long-standing structural problems with housing in Scotland, which is compounding the issues with the opportunities and options for local authorities to provide housing more generally to those who come to our shores seeking asylum and refuge.

Although I accept some of those points, the wider one is that much of the money that has been passed down from those funds is not ring fenced. Although I appreciate that the Government would not seek to ring fence funding, it means that local authorities that are already stretched have to spread that money more thinly to ensure that they can provide more housing options across all their estates.

There are significant challenges. We will need to reflect on today’s budget. Initial analysis shows that it includes a 32 per cent reduction on housing spending. We will have to have a serious conversation about that in the broader context that I referred to in reply to Keith Brown’s intervention.

I am conscious of the time and, indeed, the consensual nature of the debate, which I think is vital, so I will conclude my remarks.

Consideration must also be given to education, healthcare and other services that allow people from Ukraine who live here in Scotland to have access to as normal a life as possible.

The Parliament must ensure that we reaffirm our supportive and welcoming attitudes to people who are fleeing war, violence and persecution, that we stand full square with Ukraine against Russian aggression, and that we advance our warm welcome by putting in place all the structures and support that are required to make that a genuinely deliverable outcome.

I move, amendment S6M-1196.1, to insert, after “home and welcome”:

“; applauds ordinary people in Scotland who have worked tirelessly to give Ukrainians fleeing conflict a warm welcome in their own homes; notes with concern that Ukrainians are four times more likely to find themselves facing homelessness than the wider population, and calls on the Scottish Government to ensure that a workable plan is fully implemented to enact long-term strategies to allow Ukrainian refugees to access vital housing, education and healthcare”.

I do not want to state the obvious, but the paper is the latest iteration of what the Scottish National Party might do in a hypothetical future and it does nothing to support Scotland’s social security system now. That system has overspent massively on information technology, has waiting times for processing claims for adult disability payment and other benefits that are through the roof and has delayed the transfer of key benefits, which has left them in the hands of the Department for Work and Pensions. Should not the Scottish Government focus on running a properly functioning system now, rather than on dealing in hypotheticals?

The Greenock Telegraph reported on Monday that Greenock police station is likely to be closed and mothballed within a matter of months. Despite reassurances that a police presence will be maintained in the area, no alternative site for the station has been proposed. Closure of the Rue End Street station could leave K division without adequate custody sites, meaning that officers must make hours-long trips to Glasgow in order to process people who are accused of crimes. That came before this morning’s news that Police Scotland has confirmed plans to close 40 buildings in the estate in the coming year, which is another demonstration of the state that the Government has let the police estate fall into.

Is the Deputy First Minister proud of the condition of the police estate, which was presided over by, among others, the current First Minister when he was justice secretary? Will she give a guarantee that a proper police station will be provided to Inverclyde to ensure that local people feel safe?

In his speech at the opening of the Parliament in 1999, Donald Dewar described the story of Scotland with vivid imagery that evoked our past. In particular, he described the richness of learning and the value of drawing out ideas. He spoke of

“The discourse of the enlightenment, when Edinburgh and Glasgow were a light held to the intellectual life of Europe”.

He spoke of a nation of poets and philosophers, of economics and science, and of reason and wit. Those are the foundations of much of our national life and our national institutions—institutions that, to this day, remain integral and command pride.

In that speech, quoting Burns, Donald Dewar also spoke about the idea

“that sense and worth ultimately prevail.”

That was understood by Tom Johnston, who set out the road to building in Scotland a more equitable education system, free of academic selection, in which everyone had the chance to learn and get on.

That was understood by Harold Wilson’s Government, which set about, with reforming zeal, putting in place the comprehensive education system and creating new universities, thereby broadening horizons for more and more people. It was understood by Donald Dewar, who recognised that the education system in Scotland is an institution that is of fundamental importance to all our lives.

We have a comprehensive school system that is powered by exceptional teachers who want the best for young people, regardless of their background. Colleges are at the heart of learning at every stage of life, and provide people with opportunities to reskill and retrain.

Our world-leading universities are curing diseases, developing technologies that previously did not exist, and continuing to lead the discourse on international affairs. They are powered by people from comprehensive schools across Scotland.

When Labour Governments are in power across the United Kingdom, education substantially improves through investment. That is clear. Children are lifted out of poverty by the investment that is made. We will grow the economy, and in growing the economy we will invest in public services.

Let us look at the record of the Labour Government here in Scotland. I outlined some of it in my opening remarks. Schools improved, things got better, teachers told us how they felt valued, and parents, crucially, had trust in their local schools. There has been a 10 per cent drop in confidence in local schools since 2011, according to the Scottish household attitudes survey. What does that say?

Scottish Labour believes in an education system that enables our country to reach its potential, that equips our young people with the skills that they will rely on throughout their life, and that responds to the needs of employers in building a high-wage and high-skilled economy—a Scotland where “sense and worth ... prevail.”

I would like to make some progress, if the member will allow me.

Governments are custodians of that institution. They are tasked, as part of the social contract, with protecting it and enhancing it—not so that it remains unchanging or unmovable, but in order to consistently build on its foundations. The immense power of this Parliament has given us a huge opportunity to do that. As Dewar also said:

“The past is part of us. But today there is a new voice in the land, the voice of a democratic Parliament. A voice to shape Scotland, a voice for the future.”

For 16 years, the SNP Government has had the opportunity to shape Scottish education. Narrowing the attainment gap was, as we have heard, the number 1 priority to ensure that the promise that we make to all young people—that the only limit is their ambition—could be better realised.

Where do we stand today? Promises have been broken and decline has been normalised. In all three subject areas that are covered by PISA, the scores of Scottish 15-year-olds declined between 2018 and 2022, with drops of 18 points in mathematics, 11 points in reading and 7 points in science. Over the decade from 2012 to 2022, the Scottish decline was equivalent to about 16 months of schooling in mathematics, eight months in reading and 18 months in science. In 2022, attainment in highers fell by 13 per cent among the most deprived quintile. That compares with a 5.9 per cent fall for the least deprived quintile. The SNP has knowingly reverted to a system that fails the poorest pupils, and the poorest 20 per cent have been affected twice as much as the richest 20 per cent.

Teachers are stretched to breaking point, with a lack of support and a lack of resource. Subject choice is narrowing in secondary schools, and universities are cutting courses. It is clear that this Government has no idea how to respond other than by spinning its way through the situation and ignoring the need for comprehensive change. What a waste.

No institution in Scotland is stronger after 16 years of SNP Government, and that makes me angry. It makes me angry for teachers and support staff who are being so badly let down and angry for parents who are worried about the future for their children—in particular, the parents of children with additional support needs. It makes me angry most of all for our young people, who are missing out on opportunities that were afforded to so many of us in the chamber.

More warm words from the cabinet secretary will not cut it. The time for warm words is over. It is clear that the Government cannot fix the problem that it has created, so it is beyond time for change, and it is beyond time for us to act on the countless recommendations that have been made in previous years.