Chamber and committees

Last week, it was reported that Dundee City Council did not apply for levelling up funds, despite its being considered a high-priority area. Will the minister join me in calling on Dundee City Council to put its politics aside and work with the UK Government so that residents of Dundee do not miss out on a vital funding stream?

Will the member take an intervention?

To ask the Scottish Government what legal advice it has received on introducing the proposed referendum bill on Scottish independence. (S6O-00744)

Once again, we hear of vast sums of taxpayers’ money being wasted on planning for another divisive independence referendum, despite the fact that no section 30 agreement is in place with the United Kingdom Government. This devolved Government cannot even share with us whether it has been told that this non-section 30 independence referendum is legal. Once again, the Scottish Parliament is being left in the dark about what advice the Government has had or how much it is spending on it.

The Government spends more on hiring civil servants to plan a referendum than on raising attainment for pupils in Aberdeen. When will the cabinet secretary get his priorities right and start focusing on the day job?

I am interested in the advances in digital, because, as we all know, the R100 scheme, which is managed completely by the Scottish Government, is years behind schedule. What does the member think of that?

No rail improvements for the north-east of Scotland were mentioned today, and no mention was made of re-laying the Formartine to Buchan line or of the promised 20-minute reduction in journey times between Aberdeen and the central belt. Have those projects hit the buffers?

I received the following message from a constituent with a child in fifth year at school:

“The impact of face masks on hearing impaired pupils has been catastrophic and disproportionately affects them. Face masks not only take away their vital method of communication—lip reading and facial expression—it also reduces sound and distorts normal speech which as hearing people we all take for granted.

The whole impact of wearing face masks in schools for these pupils will not be felt for years to come when the life chances of hearing impaired pupils will be less than their hearing peers and yet again they fall further behind and are disadvantaged.

Every single day this policy is in place, it’s taking away future hopes, dreams and friendships of hearing impaired pupils.”

What is the First Minister’s message to that parent?

Fifteen years.

I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I am still a councillor at Aberdeen City Council.

It has been an interesting debate. I note that a similar debate happened in the House of Commons this week on a similar motion from Labour. I want to focus initially on the proposal in Labour’s motion that a windfall tax be imposed on the oil and gas industry. It is sad to see Labour now being so disconnected from the north-east. It has a significant history in the city of Aberdeen, but it seems to have turned its back on the region, just like the SNP has. It is now completely disconnected from the energy industry and its workers. A windfall tax on the industry would impact those workers most severely.

We cannot simply change a tax regime with a flick of the pen—that is unfair on our industries and causes instability and uncertainty in the marketplace. When investment is under threat, those companies fail to create jobs and invest in the north-east. It is my constituents who will suffer; it is the 100,000 Scots who are directly employed by the energy sector who will suffer; and it is their cost of living that will be affected when they have uncertainty about their employment. The SNP-Green coalition is threatening their jobs in the north-east, and now the Labour Party has joined in and is doing the same.

This week, my colleague Andrew Bowie made the point in the House of Commons that

“oil and gas prices fluctuate wildly. Gas may be sitting at near record prices today and oil may be sitting at $88 a barrel right now ... but tomorrow that might all change. It is grossly incompetent, naive, inept ... and totally ignorant to base a policy around the price of oil and gas.”—[Official Report, House of Commons, 1 February 2022; Vol 708, c225.]

He is absolutely correct.

To turn to other matters, the cost of living crisis that we face is probably the biggest issue that we have to deal with as we recover from the pandemic. The SNP-Green amendment is nothing if not predictable. It takes no responsibility and offers nothing new. “Give us more powers,” it says. The SNP and Greens do not need more powers in order to fund local government correctly; they just need to value it and treat it as a partner. As Finlay Carson pointed out, there is a huge risk of increased council tax bills, due to the real-terms cut of £251 million to local government. That will be a real burden to families across Scotland, and that is entirely the fault of the devolved Government. I hope that the devolved Government will pass on in full to our local authorities all the consequentials from the UK Government’s announcement today of a reduction in council tax bills in England. They do not need more powers in order to invest in our future workforce and give the people in it the skills to have a well-paid job and improve our economy’s productivity.

More and increased taxes are not going to solve the cost of living crisis. Increases to the living wage, raising the personal allowance, reducing unemployment and creating well-paid jobs will do that. We have heard today that the UK Government is taking action. The Scottish Government needs to do that, too, as Jackie Baillie pointed out in her contribution.

We have heard other interesting contributions. We heard from Christine Grahame, who said that there was no debt in Norway; that has since been corrected by Kenny Gibson. Once again, the SNP has somehow moved a debate on the cost of living back to the topic of independence. I have news for Christine Grahame: if she thinks that things are bad now, independence would bring austerity max, which would affect the poorest in our society.

We also heard from Stuart McMillan, who brought up the issue of spending being wasted. The £700,000 that is being spent on civil service planning for an independence referendum is money that is wasted. What about the rusting ferries with painted-on windows? Surely that is another huge waste of money.

In conclusion, Presiding Officer, I support the amendment that has been lodged by Liz Smith—to build our economy, increase employment, support the north-east, and recover from the pandemic.

Will the member give way?