Chamber and committees

As per our position in the previous debate, the Scottish Greens believe in progressive taxation as a way to pool our collective resources and invest in the things that matter to all of us. An important principle of modern democracy is that voters should be able to see how their Governments are spending money; there should be transparency and accountability.

We know that, since 2019, at least £8 million of Scottish Enterprise grants have been awarded to companies that are involved in arms dealing and manufacturing. We also know that a number of those businesses have directly supplied weapons and military equipment to Israel during its assault on Gaza. Genocide, war crimes and more than 60,000 people killed—I hope that we would all agree that our Government should not be spending money to support those things.

Although I recognise that the Scottish Government does not provide grants for the manufacture of munitions, there is not a moral difference between supplying money to build bombs versus supplying money to build a bomb factory or a training facility to train bomb makers.

The principled point is very simple: if a company has profited from the sale of arms and weapons to countries that are complicit in war crimes and genocide, then it should not receive—[Interruption.] I will take interventions in my closing speech. Such a company should not receive public money from the Scottish Government.

In 2019, the Scottish Greens secured a commitment from the Scottish Government that all Scottish public bodies would conduct human rights checks on companies, including arms companies, prior to funding them. In November 2023, The Ferret revealed that, despite Scottish Enterprise having conducted 199 human rights checks, not a single firm had failed them, even though some have armed states that have been widely accused of war crimes, including Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Amnesty International has called the current human rights due diligence process “inadequate” and states that it

“is failing to ensure that Scotland upholds its international obligations.”

Still, to this day, no company has failed Scottish Enterprise’s human rights due diligence checks.

The content of Craig Hoy’s opening speech was spectacularly Trumpian. Not only does he want to implement something like DOGE—the US Department of Government Efficiency—to get rid of imaginary waste, but he wants to ban diversity, equality and inclusion and remove support for trans kids and adults. That is a heck of a track record to go on, given the success of the Trump regime in America, which has seen the largest protests ever against such policies. Good on the Scottish Conservatives for picking up on some popular policies there.

It is not at all clear to me that corporations such as BAE Systems, Raytheon and Leonardo, which are raking in billions, need the money. They have their own deep pockets. Why take money away from projects that would benefit us in Scotland? That is money that is not being spent on our NHS or on developing wealth for our communities in Scotland. Every bit of public money comes with choices, and the Scottish Government should choose to spend that money wisely and on matters that improve things in Scotland.

Mr Mountain will have heard my opening speech, which neither mentioned Ukraine nor condemned arms sales to Ukraine. What it condemned was public money being used to fund companies that are selling arms to countries that are committing war crimes. I know that Mr Mountain is an ethical person and that he would not condone war crimes. I would not support companies that are profiting from creating war crimes with public money.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My apologies. My system was not updating. I would have voted no.

To ask the Scottish Government what its plans are for bringing the requisite regulations—

Will the minister give an update on the timescale for that? The issue of heat networks is a fully devolved matter, so why do we need to wait for the UK Government? The development of heat networks was legislated for in 2021, and we are still waiting for the related secondary legislation. Will the minister give us a clear timeline for when the Scottish Government intends to complete that work?

Expanding free school meals is one way to build the fairer, greener country that we know Scotland can be. However, children in Scotland will still be forced into poverty thanks to a Labour Government that is balancing the books on the backs of the poorest while the wealthiest grow ever richer.

The United Kingdom Government could have scrapped the cruel two-child benefit cap this week, but it did not. Scotland is tired of mitigating Westminster’s mistakes. Does the First Minister agree that now is the time to demand that Keir Starmer set out exactly what conditions he believes need to be met to trigger an independence referendum for Scotland, so that we can get out of this unequal union?

Kids cannot learn if they are hungry. That is why the Greens campaigned for universal free school meals for primary 4 and 5 kids and for the expansion to primary 6 and 7 kids whose families receive the Scottish child payment. It is why we brought the next phase of roll-out to secondary 1, 2 and 3 kids who receive the SCP to the budget negotiations. In August, thousands more high school kids in Aberdeen, Glasgow, Fife, Moray, North Ayrshire, South Lanarkshire, Shetland and the Western Isles will now get free school meals. Does the First Minister agree that the programme must be expanded to all council areas as soon as possible to ensure that no kid goes hungry in school?

My sincere apologies, Deputy Presiding Officer.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further details of its plans for bringing forward the requisite regulations to fully implement the Heat Networks (Scotland) Act 2021, including the special rights and powers that the act foresees for heat network developers. (S6O-04799)