The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 928 contributions
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
We should keep the petition open and write to the Scottish Government to ask whether conditions that could be the result of Covid-19 vaccination side effects are being monitored in order to assess whether those with such illnesses are presenting differently.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
In 2019, the High Court of Bangladesh conferred legal personhood on the Turag River and, by extension, all rivers in Bangladesh. In the light of that, and in the light of what Mr Sweeney has said, I think that we should keep the petition open. It would be good to write to the Glasgow city region to seek its views on the actions that are called for in the petition and to get information on the work that is being done to deliver the Clyde mission.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
I was thinking about the time that we have left.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
Can we also write to Police Scotland? If the evidence shows that they have the wrong address, should the person not be given a chance to explain that before the arrest has been made, because that is totally unfair?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
I think that we should write to the minister.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
I am sure that, like me, colleagues are getting emails from people who have long Covid. Can we invite the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to come before us and give evidence?
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
Can we also write to NHS Scotland and ask how it is treating Covid-19? I had a round-table meeting in which I was told that people with Covid-19 are not being treated as patients or given priority, even though they have reservations about their illness.
Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
We should keep the petition open and write to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to highlight the evidence that the committee has received, and seek an update on any discussions that the cabinet secretary has had with the chief scientific officer about commissioning or supporting research into the impact of diseases that lead to sudden cardiac death in Scotland.
We could also ask what consideration the Scottish Government has given to commissioning a pilot study on voluntary screening, including details of any engagement that it has had with organisations such as the British Heart Foundation, Cardiac Risk in the Young, and Chest Heart & Stroke Scotland on that particular ask of the petition.
Given what the petitioner highlighted in their submission about the Italian screening programme, I wonder whether the Italian consulate would be able provide a briefing or some research on that programme, which has reduced SCD by almost 90 per cent.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
I have a lot to get through.
I repeat my remark that, if we want to have growth, we need investment in infrastructure, and the Scottish Government should show ambition and use the power that it has in those areas.
Regardless of recent news in England, we also have to be clear that the Labour Government in Westminster values Scotland and has invested in Scotland, and it has made it clear that it intends to continue to do so. To secure the future of the site and retrain workers, £200 million has been invested in Grangemouth. There has also been more than £125 million for GB Energy, creating jobs with offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen, and the national wealth fund, which meets our strategic goal by de-risking private investment, has just made its first investment in Scotland. Both the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology and the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, have said that Glasgow could be an AI growth zone. On a smaller scale, North Edinburgh Arts is receiving money from the community ownership fund, creating a community hub that will contain council services, spaces for artists and cafes. Today, of course, ministers rejected an English bid to change the definition of single malt whisky. Those are not the actions of a Government that considers Scotland to be “an afterthought”. When that investment in Scotland was put to a vote in the UK budget, the SNP voted against it.
However, Government investment alone is not enough to deliver economic growth. Our planning system must be reformed to expedite the progress of applications and get businesses building, not waiting. The Scottish Government’s investor panel was clear that unacceptable delays in the planning system are making investment more uncertain and increasing costs, contributing to the perception that Scotland is simply not open for business. Issues with planning contribute to the housing emergency, which is eating away at the disposable income of the public, who are spending more and more of their salary renting or saving rather than boosting other areas of our economy.
Finally, I will touch on another issue that was raised by the investor panel. The current landscape for attracting private investors is cluttered with various Government agencies that have different roles and funds. Our investment agencies should be easy to access and involve businesses in strategy and decision making, with a pipeline of projects ready for private investment.
Ultimately, members will repeat Scotland’s strengths, and we are right to be proud of our advantages, but we need to see those strengths put to work and deliver economic growth because, regardless of any recent UK Government moves, Scotland has lagged behind the rest of the UK in growth for 10 years.
The Scottish Government should be focusing on tackling the issues that we face rather than bickering with a UK Labour Government that is interested in investing in and collaborating with Scotland.
Meeting of the Parliament
Meeting date: 5 March 2025
Foysol Choudhury
To ask the Scottish Government what resources it has allocated to projects in the Edinburgh and south-east Scotland city region deal, including transport projects. (S6O-04384)