Chamber and committees

I am a bit worried about the word “intent”. That the intent is to publish the framework at the end of March does not mean that it will be published then.

Like many other members in the chamber, I was shocked and dismayed when I woke this morning to discover the overnight change in the situation in Ukraine. Filling our television screens, on every channel, were images of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their homes, Russian tanks crossing the border into Ukraine, bombers streaming over Ukrainian cities and children crying in the streets. Those are scenes that we have not seen in Europe for a generation; they are sights that sadden and dismay and which I had hoped that we would never have to witness again.

The situation is continually evolving and, as I came out of committee, I was met with the news that Putin’s missiles were falling on residential areas that are home to innocent civilians, who did not ask for this war.

In what can only be described as a chilling statement last night, the Russian President warned us away from involvement in Ukraine. However, if he thinks that his threats will put us off, he is mistaken. If anything, they make Ukraine’s allies more determined than ever. We saw that in the unified international response last night, with the UK imposing a range of strict sanctions that target the Russian Government and its supporters and are already doing a considerable amount of damage to the Russian economy.

I think the member knows that we will be putting in more sanctions. There is also a bill going through, so that the Parliament can investigate things further—I think that the member might be aware of that.

It is not often that we agree on things in this chamber, but, today, we stand firm in a show of unity to our friends in Ukraine.

The links between our two countries are deep and long-standing. Ukrainians first arrived in Scotland in the 1750s, many studying at the universities in Glasgow and Edinburgh. Following them came a wave of their countrymen, fleeing the oppression of the Russian empire, just as Ukrainians are doing today. Many of those refugees arrived on Lothian Coal Company ships, settling in Midlothian, Ayrshire, Lanarkshire and Glasgow.

This conflict will only displace more people. Some estimate that it could displace up to 5 million people, which would be the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the 1990s. We must offer them our support, just as we did in the 1940s, when Ukrainian members of the Polish armed forces came to Scotland. Some eventually stayed and made their home here.

What can we do this time? That question has been asked many times already, and there is an answer. We can supply aid, whether financial or medical, and we could use the Scottish Government’s humanitarian emergency fund to help. People displaced by the conflict will require warm winter clothing and medicines. They will need food, sleeping bags, shelter and all the other things that are needed to survive the cold. Scotland can play a role in support of the UK’s overall effort.

We must take care not to forget that this is Putin’s war and not that of the Russian people. This morning, I was contacted by a young Russian man who is currently in a city in Russia. He told me:

“The people of Russia do not approve of what is currently happening in Ukraine. We do not want to live behind an iron curtain for the next 20 years trying to re-establish diplomatic relationships with the West and restore our economy. It is hard to imagine what is happening in Ukraine right now, but it is also not easy to wake up and be on the side of the aggressors in a military conflict. But this is what we now have due to the ambitions of one man who wants to restore the borders of the Soviet Union. Western countries can affect what is happening. The safety and future wellbeing of the Ukrainian and Russian peoples are worth the effort.”

His view is shared by hundreds of thousands of people across Russia who are sick of the propaganda, the nuclear sabre rattling and the rigged elections. Instead, they just want democracy—something that we take for granted. They are the Russians who we see bravely filling the streets of Moscow to protest, despite the threat of beatings, imprisonment or worse. People of that young man’s generation are the only ones who are capable of bringing about meaningful change in Russia in a revolution without bloodshed. However, for them to do so, they need our continued support.

In the Prime Minister’s statement earlier today, he had a clear message for the Ukrainians, which deserves repeating. He said:

“we are on your side.”

To that, I add: we will support you. Together, we will defeat Putin.

The £2 million that was announced last week for the events sector is welcome, but the fact that it covers all events in Scotland means that independent music festivals might be short changed. It has been suggested that festivals are caught between the events and culture funding streams, with neither quite fitting the bill. Will the First Minister consider creating a dedicated fund for Scottish music festivals, to encourage festivals, artists and audiences back to Scotland?

The Auditor General touched on my first questions in his opening statement. Paragraphs 8 and 9 of the report state:

“SEPA commissioned independent reviews of the cyber-attack so that it, and the wider public sector, could learn lessons.”

The reviews concluded

“that SEPA had a high level of cyber security maturity, but further improvements could be made”.

They also

“made 44 recommendations for SEPA”

to take forward

“to enhance processes and controls in relation to information security.”

Given that SEPA was found to have a high level of security maturity, 44 recommendations seems to be a lot. How likely is it that other public sector organisations that are also considered to have a high level of security maturity are at risk from a similar cyberattack? Have all the recommendations been passed over, and is SEPA taking action on them?

Good morning, Auditor General. The committee has seen a lot of reports, but this is probably one of the most damning. Your comments in the report that

“The Scottish Government has not provided the necessary leadership for progress”

and

“Current arrangements are unlikely to achieve the ambitions for skills alignment at the pace required”

raise a lot of concern. The report states that the

“intended benefits of skills alignment ... have not been realised and the opportunity for more efficient and effective investment has been missed.”

I appreciate that this might be hard to quantify, but do you have any information on what the largely failed project has cost the public purse or, indeed, on what the opportunity costs have been as a result of the catalogue of errors outlined in the report?

I think that you are right—the issue is the lost opportunity to bring benefits.

The report highlights that, although the Scottish Government made a commitment to skills alignment, there was a complete absence of strategic intent or a performance management framework to measure progress. Why were those fundamental elements not put in place? To what extent has that led to the significant lack of progress in skills alignment that is highlighted in your report?

Thank you. I was going to ask about progress, but you have already answered my question.

That brings me to my final question. The audit report takes us up to the end of November 2021. It is obvious that more Government involvement is needed. The Auditor General said that the Government welcomed the report and that it intends to issue further letters of guidance. Are we aware of any actions that the Government has actually taken since the report was completed?

You have covered some of the issues that I wanted to touch on in my next questions. In 2021, the now disbanded skills alignment assurance group was tasked with agreeing a definition of “skills alignment”. That was just three years after the Scottish Government, SDS and the SFC agreed a road map for skills alignment. Is the lack of a shared definition of skills alignment indicative of a lack of a wider shared vision across the Scottish Government, SDS and the SFC? More important, how confident are you that a shared vision can ever be achieved?