Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the interim update from the Equalities and Human Rights Commission on the practical implications of the recent UK Supreme Court judgment in For Women Scotland v The Scottish Ministers. (S6T-02484)

It is agreed unanimously. Thank you.

I thank the committee for allowing me to speak. It is important that I support this very important petition. Unwanted sexual choking and non-fatal strangulation in cases of domestic abuse is pervasive among women, particularly women under the age of 40. I would like the committee to note the incredible work that Fiona and Germain Drouet are doing, through their charity EmilyTest, to stop violence against women in educational institutions. Fiona Drouet is here today, at the committee, to stress the importance of this. The committee knows how important the matter is and that she is tracking the petition very closely.

Non-fatal strangulation must be a stand-alone offence. Historically, aggravators have not been applied consistently, and, without the creation of that offence, nothing is likely to change despite any attempts that might be made to educate. Having a legislative add-on would actually minimise the severity and the seriousness of this particular crime, not only for victims and survivors, but for perpetrators. The cabinet secretary references the Criminal Justice Modernisation and Abusive Behaviour Reviews (Scotland) Bill as a potential legislative vehicle. However, thus far, the Scottish Government has made no commitment to amend the bill in accordance with the petition.

I am sure that I speak on behalf of Fiona Drouet in thanking the committee for taking the matter seriously, for having this discussion a month after the last discussion of the petition and for recommending—as you have just said, convener—that the petition be referred to the Criminal Justice Committee, which I think is the right place for it.

It is absolutely clear to the committee that we must tackle this pernicious problem before more lives are irreparably damaged and lost. The lives and safety of young women and girls depend on it, so I thank the committee for recommending that the Criminal Justice Committee take evidence and progress the petition.

Scotland’s public bodies are, by definition, an extension of the Scottish Government. Last week, the Supreme Court exposed the Scottish Government’s fallacy, but the SNP’s reckless ideology has become embedded, like Japanese knotweed, in our public institutions.

While this smacks of asking an arsonist to extinguish the fire, will the cabinet secretary secure written assurances from all the Government’s public bodies that they will put in place policies complying with the Supreme Court ruling within three months of her meeting with the EHRC?

I, too, thank Douglas Lumsden for securing time for this important debate on NHS Grampian.

Healthcare in the north-east is in crisis as a result of years of chronic underfunding of NHS Grampian by the SNP Government. The health board is financially crippled. The situation is so desperate that it has had to take out a £67.5 million loan from the Scottish Government, bringing the total debt that it owes to £92.2 million. There are huge questions about how that debt will be serviced, given that the health board is already trying to make eye-watering savings. It is almost impossible—how can it pay a debt when it cannot make ends meet?

The reality is that NHS Grampian has been short-changed by more than £260 million—a quarter of a billion pounds—since the SNP got into power. The SNP Government’s parity formula is not worth the paper that it is written on.

That underfunding has resulted in the erosion of community hospitals, closed in-patient facilities and the end of night-time minor injuries units. It also means that NHS Grampian has the lowest bed base in Scotland.

All that has created substantial pressures on hospitals, GPs and the Scottish Ambulance Service, with crews queuing for hours just to get in the door of Aberdeen royal infirmary—a symptom of a system that is stretched beyond its limits.

That is why a critical incident was declared at ARI last November, when patients were diverted from the hospital because the capacity simply was not there. On that day, a dedicated ambulance crew saved the lives of a couple. The crew decided that, if they went to NHS Grampian, the couple probably would not have had their lives saved. The ambulance was diverted—it was blue-lighted all the way through to Dundee and NHS Tayside, double or triple the distance.

Upwards of 3,000 patients in the NHS Grampian area have been languishing on waiting lists for more than two years. The health board’s cancer waiting times are the worst in Scotland, with more than 40 per cent of patients waiting longer than two months to receive their first treatment after being referred. That means lives not just put on hold but put at risk, because we know the pivotal importance of early intervention. It is a ticking time bomb.

Despite the brilliant efforts of NHS staff, NHS Grampian received red ratings for nearly two thirds of its key targets between October and December 2024.

I rarely agree with Kevin Stewart, but, as my colleagues have said, he was spot on when he rightly pointed out that the national treatment centre for Grampian is on ice. The Baird family hospital and the ANCHOR projects have been beset by problems, delays and design issues. What is the SNP Government’s response? To carry out a patchwork of short-term fixes and make empty promises. It is no wonder that Audit Scotland has highlighted the lack of a strategic vision, and that NHS workers are sounding the alarm.

The SNP has failed the north-east. It has failed our NHS. Today, Neil Gray must apologise for the harsh financial conditions that his Government have created for NHS Grampian. My constituents, and the constituents of other MSPs who are speaking on their behalf, deserve better than this.

Monica Lennon talked about the importance of air, land and water quality. Does she agree that it is difficult to see how we can plan, and start to implement, an infrastructure or a project without a proper, thorough and independent environmental impact assessment?

Will I get the time back, Presiding Officer?

It is absolutely disgraceful. All the groups that I have mentioned are watching this debate to hear the defence of the SNP Government. They are looking to see who is in the chamber today. It is disgraceful.

I am not sure what Monica Lennon is referring to. We are talking about the Aarhus convention, the human rights of individuals and access to justice.

The communities have not been consulted properly on the different options. It is a case of the wrong kit in the wrong place. The move would leave local democracy in tatters and the affected communities, in effect, disenfranchised from decision making on such projects. They are being drowned in jargon, overwhelmed by costs and, in effect, blocked from challenging decisions that could have irreversible impacts on their local environment and quality of life. That is not what the Aarhus convention promises.

Finally, and in response to Monica Lennon’s question, I point out that that is why the Scottish Conservatives would guarantee that local communities would be able to halt electricity infrastructure projects if they would not meet local needs. We need to press pause. There is still time to do the right thing in line with the principles of the Aarhus convention.

I thought that I was hearing an SNP party-political broadcast from the previous speaker, but it is good to know that the SNP is concerned about the environment.

Scotland has failed to comply with the Aarhus convention—that is clear. In failing to comply, the SNP has betrayed the principles of environmental justice. That matters, because plans are being rolled out to industrialise the north-east of Scotland with huge substations, a proliferation of battery storage, monster pylons and hundreds of kilometres of overhead lines. In the affected communities, that sprawling energy infrastructure is already having a devastating impact on hundreds of families.

Constituents from Angus to Aberdeenshire and beyond see the industrialisation of their homeland. Their land and their livelihoods are about to be destroyed, and they feel absolutely powerless to do anything about it. They also have valid concerns about the health implications of the infrastructure, which have not been explored and allayed because full independent environmental impact assessments have not been done. Wildlife, wheat fields and carrot and potato fields are about to be decimated. Communities are about to be disempowered by the very people they hoped would represent them. The SNP is numb to their plight.

Campaigners from Save Our Mearns, Angus Pylon Action Group, Deeside Against Pylons, the Leylodge against industrialisation group, the Stop Tealing Industrialisation Group, the Echt and Dunecht against pylons group, the Buchan and Formartine opposed to big energy group, Kyle of Sutherland, Dunbeath and Berriedale groups, Communities B4 Power Companies and other groups have mobilised to fight the plans. However, their monopoly provider, which has a contract to deliver, is bulldozing ahead. [Interruption.]

Presiding Officer, there are conversations going on in the chamber. I know that SNP members do not want to hear this, but I say to them that they should please listen. It is also disrespectful to talk when somebody else is speaking.

Giving evidence to the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, the Law Society of Scotland laid bare what non-compliance with the Aarhus convention means in practice:

“Developers may be well funded and there will be Government representation, but community groups or individuals may appear on their own or may have a solicitor appear for them. There is often a mismatch in what you might call the equality of arms.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 12 November 2024; c 13.]

This is inequality of arms. Communities are powerless to do anything as their homeland is destroyed.

I would like members to hear the voice of one of my constituents, who said this morning:

“The Scottish Government has ignored the Aarhus convention for over a decade ... What is happening now is nothing short of criminal, causing mental health issues and environmental vandalism.

That is what it is—environmental vandalism.

As my colleague has said, campaigners in Galloway raised more than £26,000 towards the costs of a lawyer and an energy expert to unsuccessfully challenge pylon plans. I think that Labour said today that it would like to have more local planning, but the problem is that the Scottish Government is overriding local planning decisions. Communities should not need to crowdfund just to have their voices heard. It is like David and Goliath, and it is clear which side the SNP Government has taken. The SNP in Holyrood and the Labour Government in Westminster want to remove the right to a public inquiry.