Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to implement the anti-racist curriculum principles, which were published in June. (S6O-02612)

Is the Scottish Government doing anything to protect the under-18s? The vaping industry is targeting youngsters, as well as non-smokers, with all these flavours, but I do not know whether the Government is doing anything about that.

You are right, convener—we need to find somebody else or some other organisations, because ASH will just agree with the Scottish Government. There might well be other organisations; indeed, we could have a round-table discussion with community organisations, too.

We should certainly ask for a breakdown of what other actions are planned.

I would be interested to know which officials were involved. My point goes back to you, convener: we need a clear map of where everything went wrong and how much money was spent on the inquiries.

Data protection and privacy could be affected as well. We see quite a lot of stuff online. People post footage of cyclists and people in private cars. What measures will the police or the law take to protect them?

It looks like we had more cabinet secretaries and ministers than work done on the project. I do not want to repeat what my colleagues have asked, but is there a possibility that we can get a map of all the promises that were made and which ones have been completed and not completed? Can we also get a map of how many cabinet secretaries and ministers we had during that period? It is difficult for people like us who are new to the committee. I am sure that it will be clear for us to see when the project was promised and how much money was spent on the inquiries rather than the work.

Scottish Labour believes that the interests of the people of Scotland are best served when both the Scottish and UK Governments work together in co-operation. The Scottish Government has continually made relations with the UK Government strained, instead of finding consensus. When the two Governments cannot reach agreement on anything, the people of Scotland are the ones who suffer.

With regard to the internal market act, the two Governments must seek to work together. The UK Government must find a better way to regulate the market, which does not undermine devolution. [Interruption.]

I want to make some progress.

Labour is the party of devolution. We legislated for and enacted it and we will continue to advocate for and protect it when we are next in government. The UK Conservative Government continues to undermine devolution. As many members have outlined, over the past five years, it has repeatedly undermined and discarded the Sewel convention.

Unfortunately, the UK Government’s internal market act is no different. As the minister rightly outlined in his opening speech, that was made abundantly clear when, although the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd withheld consent, the UK Government went ahead and passed the act regardless.

As Willie Rennie pointed out, this debate is about respecting the Scottish Parliament’s authority. As Neil Bibby outlined, the powers of devolution were established in 1998 by the then UK Labour Government. The internal market act tramples on devolution. It undermines the Scottish Parliament’s authority and allows the lowest regulatory standard under one Administration to be the rule for all. It provides the potential for UK ministers to ignore or override legislation in devolved areas in Scotland, but decisions on devolved policies should be made in Scotland.

Donald Cameron was right to say that the Scottish Parliament is one of the most powerful devolved legislatures in the world, yet the UK Government continues to seek to undermine and roll back this Parliament’s powers. The internal market act does just that.

The UK Government must develop a better way to maintain common standards and safeguards—a way that does not undermine devolution in Scotland or any democratic decisions across all the devolved legislatures in the UK. As Keith Brown mentioned, that approach must not try to strike down powers from the Scottish Parliament, which more than 70 per cent of the electorate voted for in 1997.

As part of the party of devolution, Scottish Labour seeks to further strengthen devolution—not to undermine or weaken it. Scottish Labour would like Scotland to be strengthened as part of a modern and changed United Kingdom.

As my colleague Martin Whitfield outlined, we would like power in Scotland to be based as near as possible to the place in which it is exercised. We would like power to be restored to the hands of local authorities and communities. That is why the next UK Government will transform Westminster and abolish the outdated House of Lords. It will transfer power out of Westminster and into local authorities, so that regions can better control the issues that impact them most.

Yes. A rule that allows for the lowest regularity standard in one Parliament to be the standard of all disregards devolution and the authority of other legislative bodies across the board.

Scottish Labour is focused on strengthening devolution and on being the change that Scotland needs: a fresh start.