Chamber and committees

It is a bizarre proposal that Mr Carlaw puts to me. Clearly, no country should be committing war crimes. A country needing to defend itself from an illegal invasion, such as that of Russia, is a different matter to what the UK Government is currently doing, which is being complicit in a genocide that is being committed by Israel. We need to call that out when we see it. The UK should not be supplying weapons, munitions or intelligence to countries that are committing war crimes. That should go without saying.

I will take interventions during my closing speech.

The Scottish Government offered to review Scottish Enterprise’s human rights checks. While that has been going on, 10,000 more people have been killed in Gaza. The Scottish Government needs to urgently report on that review and provide Scottish Enterprise with a clear direction on the use of public funds, to ensure that Scotland meets its international obligations.

Many of these companies, which supposedly need Government support, are reporting huge profits, with BAE Systems reporting £3 billion-worth of profits last year alone. It is not at all clear that the megacorporations that rake in that kind of profit need our public money. BAE Systems, Raytheon and Leonardo have all received grants from Scottish Enterprise. BAE Systems is already the biggest arms company in Europe, and Raytheon is the second biggest in the world.

Every pound of public money needs to be spent carefully to ensure the maximum return on that investment. We need to make sure that public money goes to building wealth in Scotland and tackling our biggest challenges: stopping the climate catastrophe and eliminating child poverty. We need to make sure that it does not go into the pockets of multinational megacorporation arms dealers—I cannot believe that I have to say that.

Scottish public money would be better spent on supporting small businesses, co-operative businesses, social enterprises and rural businesses. Scotland’s small clean energy, nature restoration and organic food businesses would have made good use of that money, not to mention our NHS, trains and ferries.

Every pound of public money that is spent on the arms industry is a pound that is spent on misery, death and suffering. Scotland deserves better.

I move amendment S6M-17981.2, to leave out from “recognises” to end and insert:

“notes with concern that, despite the Scottish Government’s policy that public funds to the defence industry should focus on diversification, at least £8 million of Scottish Enterprise grants have been awarded to companies involved in arms dealing and manufacturing since 2019; further notes that a number of these businesses have directly supplied weapons and military equipment to Israel during its assault on Gaza; understands that, despite this, still no company has failed Scottish Enterprise human rights due diligence checks, and calls, therefore, on the Scottish Government to urgently report on its promised review of Scottish Enterprise’s human rights checks before the summer recess and to provide Scottish Enterprise with a clear direction on the use of public funds to ensure that Scotland meets its international obligations.”

My apologies to fellow members for not taking interventions during my opening speech. I just wanted to get my remarks on the record, and I will be very happy to take interventions during my closing speech.

In response to Edward Mountain, I say that there is complete coherence in my remarks. I fully support my previous remarks on Ukraine and its fight against an oppressor in Russia’s illegal war. That does not send a mixed message on how we use public funding.

I am aware of the Laffer curve. I am also aware of where it has been discredited and where it applies. It applies specifically to income taxes and not to the kind of taxes that the Scottish Greens advocate, such as land value tax and wealth taxation.

Our society is extremely wealthy. There is no shortage of money. It is just that it is concentrated in the hands of a few very wealthy people.

For a bit of fun, when preparing for this debate, I put this question into an artificial intelligence chat interface:

“Between lower house prices, free tuition, baby boxes, free prescriptions, free bus travel for under 22s, free eye tests, and free social care is a person earning £100,000 a year in Scotland better off than a person living in England, even with Scotland’s different income tax regime?”

Its conclusion was:

“If you’re single, child-free, and healthy, England may offer better net income. But if you have a family, children in education, or elderly relatives needing care”—

which is most of us—

“Scotland’s public services can provide significant non-cash value that may outweigh the tax difference.” [Interruption.]

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?

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)

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?