Chamber and committees

You say that you have a small team. Is it about working on organisational change as opposed to geographical change, or is it a bit of both?

As far as the carbon budgets are concerned, there will be a lot to do over the next five years.

It gives us a steer. Thank you.

My questions go back to reporting. The first, which is for Cornilius Chikwama, is about section 36 reports. If the Government misses a target now, it has to issue a section 36 report about how it will get back on target. I guess that, when we move to a five-year cycle instead of annual targets, officially a section 36 report should come out only every five years if a target is missed. Could something else be put in place so that, if we are slipping from those targets, we can get more regular reporting on how we will get back on track? Maybe you would like to reflect on that and come back to the committee.

I return to the point that was made earlier about organisational targets and geographical targets. We have 32 local authorities, of which 17 have set geographical targets and 26 have their own organisational targets. If we look ahead to carbon budgeting, what needs to be put in place? What help do local authorities need to have such targets in place? Some local authorities’ targets are more ambitious than the national targets and some are less ambitious. How do we get all the targets flowing down to local authorities in the correct way? Alison, do you want to have a stab at answering that first?

How will the funding go to local authorities to ensure that they have plans in place that can feed into the national plans? Do you feel that the funding is in place now? Are we ready to do that?

My question is on the same theme of clarity. We are talking about a 75 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030. Claudia, when you talk about organisational emissions, are you talking only about Aberdeenshire? Who will be responsible for the geographical emissions from Aberdeenshire? Will you play a part in that? Will it be part of your carbon budget or do you see it as part of the Scottish Government budget? Where are the dividing lines?

Will the minister take an intervention?

We are here to debate Scotland’s priorities, but it is clear that the SNP has no idea what the priorities of the Scottish people are. Time after time, we have watched ministers announce new policies, legislation and vanity projects, only to be forced into a U-turn when they discover that they have their sums wrong. The reintroduction of peak fares on ScotRail and the scrapping of the commitment to free school meals are the latest examples.

This Government continues putting taxpayers’ money down the drain with unnecessary and unwanted independence papers that even Humza Yousaf admitted no one reads, while failing to provide some of the most basic public services or to deliver on repeated promises made during its time in power.

If we were to ask the people who live and work in the north-east of Scotland for their priority, I am sure that they would tell us that it is to finally see this Government deliver on what it has continually promised and consistently failed to deliver for the region. It promised to dual the A96, but that has still not been done. It promised to dual the A90 north of Ellon by 2025, but there is still nothing. It made a promise eight years ago to spend £200 million to cut rail journey times between the north-east and the central belt by 20 minutes, but not a second has come off journey times and barely any of the money that was promised has been committed to make that vital improvement for the people of the north-east. There is a list of broken promises by this devolved Government.

The Labour Government is no better. Its honeymoon period has resulted in the callous decision to rip away the winter fuel payment from those who have worked for their entire lives and contributed to this country. Simultaneously, it has handed over inflation-busting pay rises to its union paymasters.

Sadly, it appears that this failing devolved Government is meekly following suit. Across Scotland, communities are no stranger to the cold. Indeed, Braemar, in the north-east, holds the record, jointly, for the coldest temperature in the UK—a chilling -27° in 1982. However, across the north-east of Scotland, more than 128,000 pensioners are having their winter fuel payments snatched from them. This winter, pensioners the length and breadth of the country are going to freeze in their homes thanks to the decisions that have been made by the parties opposite. Let us be clear that those are political decisions by the Labour and SNP Governments, which reveal their true colours and what they view as priorities.

How about prioritising our energy industry? How about prioritising the thousands of oil and gas workers who are facing a future of uncertainty and the inevitable job losses that are resulting from the hostility of this devolved Government and the extremists whom they invited into Bute house? Meanwhile, we have a Labour Government that has placed the likes of Ed Miliband in charge of our energy security—a man who seems intent on destroying the north-east of Scotland. Both parties have insisted on prioritising the premature decline of our oil and gas industry, slamming our region with increased taxation without a single thought for the economy of the north-east or the impact that their economically and environmentally illiterate positions will have on thousands of families across the region.

There we have it. We know that the £33 million of Bew money has been taken, and there is no timetable for when that money will be returned to our farmers.

The Scottish people know that strong public services have to be paid for. We need a thriving economy and an environment that increases opportunities for employment and we need a Government and policies that will help that economy to grow, yet in Scotland, we have a Government that, since using devolved income tax powers, cost the country over half a billion pounds in lost revenue in 2022-23 alone. We can couple that with the £2.7 billion over the course of this parliamentary session that has been wasted on botched schemes such as the failed ferry fiasco. Money is tight, but only because of the SNP’s financial incompetence.