I do, convener.

I will not be supporting this SSI today, because of my party’s long-standing opposition to allowing prisoners to vote, regardless of the circumstances of their incarceration. Individuals who are imprisoned as a result of breaking the law should not be able to vote, and I would extend that view to prisoners in the general population, not just those in mental hospitals.

I would also remind the committee of a number of cases of prisoners convicted of serious offences being given relatively lenient sentences due to the soft-touch justice guidance implemented by the Scottish National Party. As a result of that, we might be allowing individuals convicted of such serious offences to participate in our democracy.

The capacity of individuals detained on mental health grounds needs to be considered, too. Indeed, the Royal College of Psychiatrists in Scotland has said that

“voting rights should not be contingent on additional, specific assessments of capacity”.

At the very least, the committee should be given more detail on how capacity to vote will be assessed.

We have frequently been told that we need to allow prisoners to vote in order to comply with the ECHR. I think that, at this point, my position on the ECHR will be clear to the committee, but it is also worth highlighting the fact that the convention itself does not require prisoners currently serving custodial sentences to be given the vote, as is the case in Scotland. In England and Wales, a compromise was made, whereby prisoners released on temporary licence were permitted to vote, yet the SNP made no attempt to reach such a compromise here.

In summary, I do not think that the public elected any of us to enfranchise prisoners, and we do not need to agree to this SSI to comply with the ECHR. For those reasons, I will be voting against it today.

I am pleased to speak in support of the motion that was lodged by Jamie Greene on fixing Scotland’s ferry fiasco.

For too long, Scotland’s islands and coastal communities have been treated as an afterthought by the SNP Government. Lifeline ferries are not a luxury or a seasonal extra—they are essential infrastructure. They are the arteries that keep island and coastal economies alive, by connecting people to work, education, healthcare and family.

However, Scotland’s ferry fiasco has been going on since 2014. The two vessels at the heart of the scandal—the MV Glen Sannox and the MV Glen Rosa—were originally budgeted to cost £97 million. Their combined cost has now reached almost £500 million, and both were meant to be in service in 2018-19. Instead, islanders have endured years of delay, disruption and uncertainty.

The MV Glen Sannox finally entered service in January 2025, and it has already required multiple periods of repair. The MV Glen Rosa has been delayed again, with delivery pushed back to the very end of 2026. The most recent delay alone has added another £12.5 million to the cost of completing the vessels, with the total cost since nationalisation of the yard now standing at £197.5 million.

What do islanders hear from ministers? They hear that the Government is carefully assessing the information that is provided, and that the situation is a source of great frustration. However, frustration is not accountability, and careful assessment is not delivery. Not one minister has resigned or taken responsibility. That is why my amendment explicitly notes that the combined cost of the Glen Sannox and Glen Rosa has reached almost £500 million. Taxpayers deserve to know how that was allowed to happen and how ministers will ensure that it never happens again.

Yesterday, the Scottish Government announced four direct awards to Ferguson Marine, a programme to upgrade the yard and an intention to return it to the private sector. If that is the strategy, ministers must clearly outline how those new vessels will be delivered on time and on budget. Warm words and press releases will not rebuild public trust.

Meanwhile, CalMac has spent more than £260 million over 11 years maintaining an ageing fleet. In 2024-25 alone, upkeep costs reached £50.1 million—double what they were just two years earlier. The average age of a CalMac lifeline vessel is now more than 25 years. In 1974, the typical ferry was just 13 years old. That is not progress; it is managed decline. Communities such as Dunoon and Ardrossan have faced repeated disruption, yet many local businesses are not eligible for compensation under the islands business resilience fund, despite clearly being affected. That is unfair and must be rectified.

In what I would describe as a very timely announcement yesterday, the Government has also set out its intention to purchase Ardrossan harbour. If that deal proceeds, ministers must provide regular updates on when the purchase will be completed and when the long-overdue upgrade will be delivered, because communities deserve clarity and certainty, not continued speculation.

In Ardrossan, the MV Caledonian Isles was out of action for 20 months for repairs costing nearly £12 million. On Arran, the MV Alfred has been chartered at a cost that has already reached £35 million, which is more than double what it cost Pentland Ferries to build the vessel.

I will not, Mr Gibson, as I have very limited time and quite a significant amount to carry on with.

That figure will rise further now that the charter has been extended. That is not strategic fleet management; it is short-term crisis management.

Island and coastal communities have experienced repeated timetable changes, cancelled sailings and the absence of a real resilience vessel when breakdowns occur. Public services, local businesses, tourism and supply chains have all been hindered by that mismanagement.

The question is simple. How will the Scottish Government hold the ferry service providers to account to ensure that they deliver for island and coastal communities? Islanders and taxpayers deserve transparency and competence, and they deserve better than this.

Let me be clear: no one in the chamber doubts the dedication of workers at Ferguson Marine or the crews operating our ferry services. They are doing their utmost in extremely difficult circumstances. The failure here is not theirs. It lies with ministers, who have presided over years of delay, poor oversight and a lack of forward planning.

What Scotland needs now is a credible long-term strategy. We need a rolling 30-year plan for ferries and ports infrastructure, so that no community is ever left again without a viable lifeline service.

In conclusion, it is time to stop Scotland’s ferry fiasco. It is time to restore trust.

I move amendment S6M-20957.2, to insert at end:

“; notes that the combined costs of the MV Glen Sannox and MV Glen Rosa has reached almost £500 million; acknowledges the Scottish Government’s announcements of four direct awards to Ferguson Marine, a programme to upgrade the yard, and the intention to return the yard to the private sector; urges ministers to outline how these new vessels will be delivered on time and on budget; notes the Scottish Government’s plan to purchase Ardrossan Harbour, and urges ministers to regularly update communities on when the purchase and upgrade of the harbour will be completed; further notes that the cost to charter the MV Alfred has reached £35 million, more than double the cost for Pentland Ferries to build the vessel, and that this cost will increase now that the charter has been extended; recognises that the public services and local economies of island and coastal communities have been hindered by the Scottish Government’s mismanagement of the ferry network through repeated timetable changes, cancelled sailings and the lack of a resilience vessel, and calls on the Scottish Government to outline how it will hold ferry service providers to account to ensure that they deliver for island and coastal communities.”

I thank the Deputy First Minister for advance sight of her statement. I welcome the announcement that the Scottish Government intends to return Ferguson Marine to the private sector

“when the time is right”.

Securing international contracts is the best way to ensure that shipbuilding remains on the Clyde. That being said, while the yard remains in public hands, it should be expected that it will provide value for money for taxpayers and deliver for our island and coastal communities.

What engagement has the Deputy First Minister had with the board of Ferguson Marine on the MV Glen Rosa? Does she envisage any delays and cost increases before the latest promised delivery date for the vessel, which is the end of this year?

Secondly, given the long-standing issues with the construction of the MV Glen Sannox and the MV Glen Rosa at Ferguson Marine, what guarantees has the Deputy First Minister had from the yard that the four new vessels will be delivered on time and on budget?

I thank the cabinet secretary for the advance copy of her statement. I welcome her remarks regarding community involvement with decision making and on the investment in Port Ellen, which is vital for whisky distilleries on Islay, which were grateful for that.

I recognise the commercial sensitivity regarding the purchase of the port of Ardrossan, but residents of the town of Ardrossan and businesses on Arran were promised that years ago. Can the cabinet secretary provide timelines for when the Scottish Government expects the harbour to be upgraded? How much has been budgeted for that?

I am also quite interested in what is not in your statement, cabinet secretary. Could we get an update on the MV Glen Rosa, and could you provide more details on when the MV Glen Sannox is expected to return to full service and not go in for yet more repairs? With the announcement that the charter for the MV Alfred will be extended yet again, does the cabinet secretary think that that is value for money, considering that taxpayers have spent more money to hire that ferry than it cost Pentland to build it?

Thank you, Presiding Officer—I thought that you had forgotten about me.

Under the SNP, Scotland’s prisons have become warehouses for addiction. The committee’s inquiry lays bare a system that is overcrowded, understaffed and completely out of control. Drugs are rife, alcohol dependency is ignored, and lives are being lost behind bars at an alarming rate.

If Ms Constance does not mind, I will not. I am a last-minute addition to the speakers list. Perhaps I will give way as I get through my speech; I am only four lines into it.

Let us be clear: prison should be a place of punishment, but it must also be a place of recovery. Right now, it is neither. The facts are damning. More than a third of prisoners now admit to using illegal drugs in custody. One in four say that their drug use started or increased inside prison, and the number of drone drops has exploded, rising from just six incidents to more than 70 in three years. Nearly 15,000 drug recoveries have been recorded. That is not harm reduction; it is institutional failure.

That breeding ground, in combination with a lack of vital rehabilitation services, means that prisoners are not set up properly for release and are not given the best chance at kickstarting their new life. Instead, they are more likely to relapse and reoffend as the right support is not available.

Alcohol misuse is being treated as an afterthought. Around 5,000 people enter custody every year with an alcohol dependency yet, last year, only 167 were referred for treatment. That is not a gap in provision; it is a collapse in basic care. Is it any wonder that deaths in custody are soaring? There have been 64 deaths in Scottish prisons in a single year, which is a 60 per cent increase. Researchers have identified repeated, preventable failures, such as missed cell checks, health concerns being dismissed as drug seeking, and mental health crises being ignored until it is far too late.

It is not just about drugs; it is about control. Overcrowding and staff shortages have allowed the prison drugs market to adapt faster than the system that is meant to stop it. Potent synthetic drugs such as spice are driving violence, psychosis and medical emergencies, which is putting prisoners and staff at serious risk. While the chaos unfolds, SNP ministers talk about compassion but deliver complacency. They fund programmes but do not track outcomes. They announce pathways to rehab but cannot say whether people recover. Since 2022, just 48 people have completed a 12-week residential rehab placement through the prison to rehab protocol. That is not a solution; it is tokenism.

The Government is obsessed with managing addiction, not ending it. We see that in our communities, and now we see it in our prisons. Instead of expanding access to meaningful, structured rehabilitation, the SNP has allowed prisons to become holding pens for people with complex addictions, releasing them back into society no safer, no healthier and no more hopeful than they were when they entered. That is failing victims; it is failing communities; and it is failing prisoners.

The Scottish Conservatives believe in something different. We believe that recovery, not just survival, must be the goal. We will continue to argue for the right to recovery, including access to residential rehabilitation for those who need it who are in custody and on release. Without treatment, stability and proper support, the cycle of addiction, crime and custody will never be broken. The committee’s inquiry should be a wake-up call. Ministers must stop pretending that the crisis is under control. They must restore order in prisons, properly resource staff, clamp down on supply and, crucially, guarantee access to treatment that actually works. Prisons should not be places where addiction festers; they should be places where lives turn around. Until the Government understands that, the drugs crisis inside and outside prison walls will continue on its watch. Enough excuses—the Government must start delivering recovery.

16:43

::Figures that were released last year revealed that there were up to nine incidents of antisocial behaviour on Lothian Buses in Edinburgh a day, with smashed windows and assaults on drivers the most predominant incidents.

In addition to the suspension of concessionary bus travel, which the cabinet secretary mentioned in her original response, can you outline how you and the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs are working with Police Scotland and the bus companies to ensure that such incidents are quickly responded to and that offenders feel the full force of the law?

::Thank you, Presiding Officer—I thought that you had forgotten about me.

Under the SNP, Scotland’s prisons have become warehouses for addiction. The committee’s inquiry lays bare a system that is overcrowded, understaffed and completely out of control. Drugs are rife, alcohol dependency is ignored, and lives are being lost behind bars at an alarming rate.