Chamber and committees

Will the cabinet secretary explain why, prior to the UK election, the Scottish Government chose to cut the fuel insecurity fund for households and repeatedly cut energy efficiency budgets, resulting in two thirds of houses in Scotland falling below the recommended energy efficiency standards? It would also be useful for people to understand why her SNP colleagues in Westminster failed to vote for the Great British Energy Bill, which will deliver lower energy bills in the longer term and provide investment to make the change that we so badly need.

It is a privilege to open for Scottish Labour in this debate.

There are days when we will always remember where we were, and events that live long in the memory. For most of us, for the people of Europe and, not least, for Ukrainians, 24 February 2022 will be one of those days. The return of full-scale war to the European continent rocked the foundations of international norms and brought destruction and terror to a country that has only ever sought to exercise its free will and defend its sovereignty.

In beginning our debate this afternoon, it is important that we recognise that, for all the disagreements that we have in this chamber on a day-to-day basis, and for all the disagreements that we have seen in the United Kingdom Parliament on many issues, on this subject we have seen a common sense of purpose and unity across the Parliament. I would extend that to the unity of purpose that we have seen across Scotland.

I am very pleased to see that the new UK Labour Government has continued the strong support for Ukraine that we saw from the previous UK Government. Both the Prime Minister and the Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, were at the United Nations Security Council yesterday, and their comments showed the continuing strength of support and the role that the United Kingdom plays in the international community in galvanising support for Ukraine and standing up to the aggression of Vladimir Putin. That aggression, if unchallenged, sends signals to other malign actors that borders can be drawn by force. That was a very important contribution yesterday.

That is why I think that our continued support for Ukraine is so important. It has been an early priority of the new UK Government, and it has always been a priority of the Scottish Government. We must all continue to engage our allies and friends across Europe and beyond on the collaborative efforts to deliver enhanced assistance for Ukraine. The bravery of Ukrainian citizens and soldiers in the early days of the war, when the survival of Ukraine seemed uncertain, and now, in the face of continued Russian aggression, is inspiring. They need us to continue to offer our support. It is critical that they receive the resource and the training that they need to continue to defend their homeland now.

Over the past few weeks and days, the required discussions have taken place on new packages of artillery, air defence, armoured vehicles, the speeding up of deliveries and the commitment of £3 billion a year in military aid for as long as it takes, as critical elements demonstrating that Ukraine can and will outlast the aggression of Putin. It is the least that we owe to those who are not only justly defending themselves and standing up for democracy and the rules-based international order but defending many of us against threats.

In the face of such colossal human suffering on our doorstep, we must continue to provide all the support that we can, not only to fight against that terror machine that is the Russian Government and establishment but to hold open a door for those people who have been forced to flee their homeland.

As the cabinet secretary and Meghan Gallacher have already done, I pay tribute to the organisations, local authorities and members of the public across Scotland who have welcomed displaced Ukrainians into their homes, communities and hearts. Time and again, people have stepped up to support those refugees who come seeking safety from persecution, violence, and conflict, whether from Ukraine or elsewhere around the globe. They represent the very best of us. Their empathy and generosity of spirit as well as practical support to the nearly 214,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in the UK, including the 155,400 who came through the homes for Ukraine programme, have not gone unnoticed and will not be forgotten.

As I was preparing for the debate, I thought about the Irish proverb “Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine”, which means “We live in one another’s shelter”. That is a very apt reflection on the plight of those Ukrainians who could, in another time and place, be any of us. We must keep that thought at the heart of our discussions.

I restate to those Ukrainians who are with us here that Scotland will remain their home, that they will have a welcome here for as long as they need and that support will be provided. We on these benches are always ready to work with the Scottish Government where necessary to continue to adapt and enhance that support, and I am sure that I speak for all parties in the chamber who want to continue to collaborate with the Government on that support. I hope that the spirit of partnership continues in the interactions between the UK Government and the Scottish Government, too.

As part of that support, I am delighted that we continue to have a cross-party group on Ukraine, which discusses all these issues and works with the Ukrainian consul general and Ukrainian organisations across the country to keep these issues alive on the agenda.

I was also pleased to see some recently elected Scottish Labour colleagues in Westminster travel to Ukraine to see first hand the destruction that has been wrought and to consider the support that is needed. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to those former MPs and MPs of all parties who have taken part in that experience and have always stood up for Ukraine.

I pay tribute in particular to Stewart McDonald, who is the former Scottish National Party member for Glasgow South. He has taken a keen interest and has worked across the House of Commons in order to keep the issues alive and to stand up to the Russian aggression. It is important that we recognise that.

In demonstrating our solidarity with, and standing beside, Ukrainian people, and in order to ensure that there is a strong welcome for those who must flee, we must continue to always have it in the forefront of our minds that they have made the ultimate sacrifices for their country’s survival and freedom. Together, for as long as it takes, we will stand to ensure that Putin and his aggression do not win and that Ukraine is victorious.

Undoubtedly, this is an important issue. I am sure that, after 17 years, another working group will be widely welcomed.

It is clear that making work pay and accelerating the just transition will also be vital components of reducing bills. To do that, significant investment in renewables needs to come from the whole of the UK working together. GB energy, which will be headquartered in Aberdeen, will play a crucial role in bringing down bills and delivering energy security. Recently, Scottish National Party MPs failed to vote for GB energy. Will the First Minister confirm that a publicly owned energy generation company, based in Aberdeen, will have the support of the Government? What work is he doing in his renewed constructive relationship with UK ministers to move those issues forward?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to a recent report from the Scottish Health Equity Research Unit, which highlights that “Core outcomes related to inequalities and health are not improving significantly and some are getting worse”. (S6O-03747)

The report follows from a series of reports published by the Poverty and Inequality Commission earlier this year. Among the comments of the anti-poverty groups that responded to the programme for government were those of Save the Children, which said that there is

“nothing in this programme for government that truly shifts the dial on child poverty.”

It is also concerning that the SHERU report itself says:

“A lack of publicly available data of sufficient quality makes it very difficult for us to assess whether policies are working or not.”

Given that the Government has had to be reminded of the importance of accuracy in the model that it uses to measure progress on child poverty, and given that eradicating such poverty is the First Minister’s and the Government’s number 1 priority, is it not extremely concerning that an independent report seems to suggest that the Government does not know what is having an impact and what is not?

To ask the Scottish Government, in light of its pre-budget fiscal update on 3 September, what the potential impact will be of its “review and reprofile of recruitment” at Social Security Scotland on the agency’s provision of front-line services to clients. (S6O-03704)

The cabinet secretary will recognise that the most recent workforce statistics have shown that, following the growth of staffing in Social Security Scotland, those figures have largely stabilised at approximately 3,800. We also know that, despite that, there have been on-going issues with service provision, long processing times, long call waiting times and complexities in the system. Those issues have been well debated in the chamber. Will the cabinet secretary confirm that the decision will not have a detrimental impact on the progress that is being made?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My app froze. I just want to check that my “yes” vote was recorded.

Human rights organisations such as the Scottish Human Rights Commission, Amnesty and the Human Rights Consortium have described the Government’s abandonment of human rights legislation during this session of Parliament as “disappointing”, “unjustifiable” and “a breach of trust”. That is coupled with the apparent abandonment of the Learning Disabilities, Autism and Neurodivergence Bill and with decisions such as the one to reprofile £10 million of money for changing places toilets. What does the First Minister think that that says to disabled people? What does he think it says more widely to people whose human rights are often most at risk? What will his Government do about that?

The cabinet secretary and I debated issues around child poverty five or six times in the chamber pre-election, and each time that we did so, I made it clear that the financial decisions and ruinous policies of the Conservative Party have led to an exacerbation of poverty. That is what the new Labour Government, eight weeks in, is going to set about beginning to fix.

We have to fix the foundations of our economy, and ensure that—crucially—work pays. That is why one of the first actions that the Labour Government took was to instruct the Low Pay Commission to look at how we make the national minimum wage a living wage, and at how we implement a new deal for working people that will create security at work and ensure that zero-hours contracts are gone and people do not have to worry about working two or three insecure jobs.

We already know—and, crucially, the organisations that the cabinet secretary referenced would agree—that in-work poverty is a serious issue that we need to deal with if we are to address child poverty. She made a point about the role of the social security system at UK level. We now have a child poverty task force at UK level that is considering reform of universal credit, which does not work and needs fundamental reform. That is the work that Labour has undertaken, within just eight weeks of forming the UK Government.

However, as I have said, the SNP has had 17 years. Quite frankly, the numbers that I have read out illustrate 17 years of failure on many of those policies. Reading the programme for government, we have a sense that there is no new thinking and very little imagination. We have seen the broken promises that have been made, which members across the chamber have already referenced.

It is not just the Labour Party that has formed such an analysis of the Government’s work on those issues. Indeed, the Scottish Government’s own Poverty and Inequality Commission has said that progress to reach the legally binding targets that were agreed by all parties in the chamber has been

“slow or not evident at all”

and that

“without immediate and significant action, the Scottish Government will not meet the 2030 targets”.

Therefore, much more needs to happen to drive our progress towards those targets. In their speeches, members will outline much of that in more detail, but it is clear that we need to have more funding and support for local authorities to ensure that they can deliver at local level on tackling poverty and inequality for children and young people. We need to ensure that we continue to move forward on early learning and childcare. I do not think that the reannouncement of reannouncements on pilot funding will be enough to move the dial in that area.

Alongside the work that the UK Government is doing on wages and on secure work, we need to ensure that more people in Scotland can get into work. In particular, we need to support the work that is being done across the third sector, in very difficult circumstances. Just this morning, the Social Justice and Social Security Committee heard about the challenges that exist in the third sector, and I urge the cabinet secretary to read that evidence. We must ensure that the excellent work that is being done, in particular to help women to return to the workplace, is being well supported and well funded.

More of the same is not going to cut it. This morning I was surprised to hear the Deputy First Minister on “Good Morning Scotland” saying, of the programme for government in relation to child poverty:

“It does not always take brand-new initiatives. Sometimes it is just about focusing on the things that are working really well.”

It would be useful if the cabinet secretary could explain what could have been working so well when 30,000 more children have been living in poverty over that 17-year period.