Chamber and committees

Just for your peace of mind, I suppose.

Thank you.

I have previously raised with the cabinet secretary my constituents’ concerns about the declining quality of patient care at some general practices in Aberdeen. He has given a commitment that his officials will determine improvement plans for practices to put in place, but I am yet to receive an update from him. I seek confirmation that that will be forthcoming.

Will the minister give way?

Why are the member’s expectations of and ambitions for our health service so low?

Will I get the time back, Presiding Officer?

I am delighted to have the opportunity to speak in the debate because, in the wake of COP27, many campaigners are concerned about the lack of significant progress internationally towards achieving net zero and environmental targets. Today’s debate is a welcome opportunity for the Scottish Government to set out what it hopes to emerge from the upcoming coastal states negotiations.

There is much in the Government’s motion that we support, including the points about the need to improve opportunities for Scotland’s fishing industry and to ensure the sustainable management of fish stocks in the long term.

However, today’s debate also allows us to assess the progress that we are making in Scotland in delivering a more sustainable fishing industry. As my colleague Colin Smyth has outlined, there is still much progress to be made by the Scottish Government.

Scottish Labour’s five tests set out clear objectives on sustainability, fair quota distribution and support for socially, economically and environmentally beneficial fisheries. I urge the Scottish Government to work towards achieving those objectives, because, for too long, Scotland’s seas have been in a state of decline, which must be reversed. While targets are missed and pledges remain unfulfilled, we will not deliver the marine recovery that is vital.

Why is it so important that we reverse the decline of our seas and promote marine recovery? That is clearly important to Scotland’s rural and coastal communities, which greatly rely on the fishing industry for jobs and for their local economies. By redistributing quotas, we can ensure that everyone in our coastal communities reaps the benefits of our national resource. By tying quota access to fisheries that provide local fair work and use low-impact measures, we can restore our marine environment while strengthening our coastal communities. All of that will contribute to repopulation and the preservation of an important part of our cultural heritage.

I am sorry, but I do not have the time to take an intervention.

If we fail to grasp the opportunity to use existing mechanisms such as quotas to support Scottish fishers, it is coastal communities that will pay the price for our political inaction. Just as Scotland’s mining communities suffered serious economic hardship that still scars us today, the loss of fishing jobs and opportunities has been, and will continue to be, devastating for our coastal communities.

However, it is not just coastal communities that need to be concerned about the decline of our seas; it is all of us. The impacts of failing to address issues such as quota allocation, support for more sustainable fishing methods and the landing of catches abroad will be felt across Scotland. Whether it is the harm that certain fishing methods cause to our marine environment, the loss of fish for food supplies or the break-up of our coastal communities, the responsibility falls on us all to ensure that Scotland’s fishing industry is supported and sustainable, because, without such an industry, we will not reverse the decline of Scotland’s seas or deliver marine recovery.

I have spoken about the need for Scotland to have a fishing industry that is supported and sustainable, and the Scottish Government must address a number of issues to make that a reality.

Scotland’s fishers currently find themselves locked in competition due to the lack of spatial planning. Poor spatial planning is fatally undermining the future prospects of many fisheries and is causing significant harm to the marine environment. The lack of planning means that poorly regulated scallop dredging is damaging marine habitats, while bottom trawling in concentrations of juvenile fish is leading to the killing of the next generation of fish stocks. I ask the cabinet secretary, in her closing speech, to address Marine Scotland’s delivery of the 2015 national marine plan.

There is a requirement under the national marine plan for regional marine plans to be developed, but, as yet, there does not seem to be a single such plan in place for any of Scotland’s inshore waters. Without coherent regional marine planning, conflicts between fishers and other marine stakeholders will continue, which will hamper attempts to protect the marine environment and ensure the future prospects of many fisheries, so I ask the cabinet secretary to update members on the progress that is being made towards delivering regional marine plans.

Along with many other industries, inshore fisheries will have to transition to more sustainable practices in the wake of the climate and nature crises. There will be costs to the transition, whether from adopting lower-impact fishing gears or from growing competition for space due to the creation of highly protected marine areas, and those costs will be prohibitive for many inshore fisheries. I hope that the cabinet secretary will be able to provide some detail on the conditions that will be attached to any financial support that the Scottish Government will make available, because public funds must be tied to local job creation, fair work principles and sustainable practices.

We need to halt and reverse biodiversity loss, and we need to do that in a way that protects and increases employment opportunities in the sector. We can do both, because, since the UK left the common fisheries policy, the Scottish Government has assumed full responsibility for the management of Scotland’s fisheries. If the Scottish Government addresses the issues that I have set out, it can support the fishing industry into a sustainable and long-term future. The alternative is economic hardship for many communities across Scotland and further damage to our marine environment, which nobody in this Parliament wants to see.

We will never reverse rural depopulation without tackling the centuries-old inequality of land ownership in Scotland. Instead of promoting carbon offsetting for a wealthy elite, is it not time for the Scottish Government to introduce a land cap so that our natural resources will work for the many, not the few?

I refer members to my entry in the register of interests, and I thank my comrade Katy Clark for securing this important debate.

As a former rep for the University and College Union—the UCU—I know all too well what struggles the staff in higher education are facing. For years, those workers have been undervalued as the UK and Scottish Governments have allowed low pay, casualisation and poor working conditions to become rife across the sector. Therefore, I stand with those workers as they take industrial action and join them in their calls for a real pay rise after years of below-inflation wage rises; for an end to precarious contracts, which lead to poor working conditions and dangerously high workloads; and for pensions that allow them to have dignity in retirement, rather than pensions that have been cut to the bone.

As I mentioned, prior to my election, I was a UCU rep. A particular issue that members faced then, which they still face now, was the increasing casualisation of work in higher education. I would like to share some testimony from a UCU member at the University of Dundee that highlights the human impact of casualisation. I will read out their words:

“I have been teaching at universities in the UK for 5 years, teaching English and academic skills to students who want to come and study in the UK.

In that time, I have been on more than 10 temporary contracts—all of them either part-time or fractional.

Most of my students will pay more for their Masters course than I will make in a year. It is just not possible to plan a life under these conditions.

It’s nearly impossible to get a mortgage because temporary contracts are seen as too risky by the bank.

You cannot afford to pay for further training and qualifications because your pay is so low.

Starting a family seems impossible when you don’t know if you will have a contract this semester, or if you might need to move to another city for work.

When I got my first job at a university I was excited because I thought I had ‘made it’.

Now, I would not recommend the HE sector to anyone who wants to start a family or build a stable life of any kind.

I plan to retrain and leave the sector at the next opportunity, and I know I’m not alone.”

The UCU member whose testimony I have shared is not alone. The issues that they face reflect the systemic challenges that university staff face. As we have heard, at the University of Dundee senior management are pushing through pension cuts without holding meaningful negotiations with the affected workers or their trade union representatives in Unite, Unison and the UCU. The Scottish Government has refused to engage, despite the fact that it has often emphasised the importance of fair work. The First Minister, the education ministers and even their officials all failed to meet a delegation of workers and their Unite representatives in Parliament just two weeks ago.