Chamber and committees

Yes, I do. I think that it is misleading to cite hours in that way, because there will always be hours of unpaid work in the system that have not been done, but they will be done. Obviously, Covid has had an impact on that.

Ultimately, sentencing is a matter for courts, but community payback orders are a credible community sentence that make individuals pay back to the community while being punished for the crime that they have committed. Therefore, I have confidence in my policy on community sentencing, and we continue to work with the justice sector to ensure recovery from the Covid impacts.

Yes, I am very happy to take this opportunity to congratulate Poland and the Polish people on their national constitution day. I recently had the opportunity to meet the Polish ambassador in London, and I expressed directly to him the gratitude that many people feel to Poland for the help that it is giving to Ukraine, particularly the help that Poland is giving to people from Ukraine who have been displaced. We wish Poland and the Polish people well.

We will do everything possible to ensure that social care workers are treated fairly. There is, of course, a difference, as Jackie Baillie is well aware—and I think that she referenced it. Government is not the direct employer of many social care workers, as they are employed either by local councils or by private operators, so the situation is not as straightforward as it is with the NHS.

However, after councils are re-elected tomorrow, I will ensure that there is engagement with councils and with COSLA to see whether we can take forward an agreement that ensures that social care workers are treated fairly in what are really difficult times for everyone.

I very much agree with the sentiments of the question and I agree with the member on the importance of sport generally, and the importance of ensuring that people with disabilities are able to fully participate in sport, if that is their wish, and physical activity.

In my original answer, I spoke about the funding that we have made available, and I am very happy, in the light of this question, to look at what further action we can take to try to support the recovery of sport in general, and disability sport in particular, from the impact of Covid. I will ask the minister to write to the member in due course with further details of that consideration.

We want to support Highland businesses and we will continue to work with HIE to make sure that we can deliver on its priorities. In light of the question’s having been asked, I will look at the particular issue in more detail and am happy to get back to the member in due course.

Operational matters are for the chief constable, and I am sure that he will pay attention to this exchange. I recognise that these issues can be sensitive and controversial. However, it is important to note that where Police Scotland provides support and training to police forces in other parts of the world, it is about enhancing human rights and ensuring that, in parts of the world where such an approach has not always been taken, police forces are trained in taking a human rights approach to policing. I recognise the concerns that can be addressed. The chief constable is independent of the Government, but I will ask him to write to the member in more detail about the particular issues.

Let me say categorically that I stand by what I said on the radio the other morning 100 per cent. Jim McColl is many things, but he is not a disinterested and objective observer on these matters. Perhaps that is something that we should bear in mind.

Let us look at the two key points that Jim McColl was taking issue with. First, he seemed to claim that I said that there were 400 people employed in the yard back in 2015. I did not say that, as the transcript will show. I said that 400 people are currently employed there, earning a wage and supporting their families, who would not be in employment today had the contract not been awarded. That is just a matter of fact.

Secondly, Jim McColl said that the yard would not have been in jeopardy and would not have potentially closed had the contract not been awarded. That was not tested, of course, so that can only be a matter of opinion. However, I tell members this: if Jim McColl is seriously arguing that he would have continued to invest his money in a yard that had no major contracts, all I can say is that that is not the Jim McColl I know.

People can make up their own minds, but what I know is that the decisions that the Government took have ensured that the shipyard is still open and operating today, focusing on delivering the ferries, and that, today, there are 400 people working in the yard, earning a wage and supporting their families, as I said. For all that the delays and overruns with the ferries are deeply regrettable, I do not regret the fact that there are 400 people employed in the shipyard today.

Of course, BiFab is also still open and employing people.

There are challenges with A and E services across the whole of the United Kingdom, Europe and the rest of the world, but A and E services in Scotland have been the best performing of all four nations in the UK for six years.

Recorded crime is at one of the lowest levels since 1974 and is down 41 per cent since the Government took office. Over the long term, we have seen a 36 per cent reduction in police-recorded non-sexual violent crime since the Government took office. Homicide cases are at their lowest level since comparable records began back in 1976. The numbers of those who experience crime are down and are lower than the numbers in other parts of the UK.

On education, 1,000 school building projects have been completed since the Government took office. When we took office, only 61 per cent of schools were in a good or satisfactory condition, but that figure is over 90 per cent today.

Council tax is lower for people in Scotland than it is for people in other parts of the UK, and we have lower income tax for the majority.

We have free prescriptions. Free personal and nursing care has been extended. We have the Scottish child payment and other new benefits including the carers allowance supplement and the young carer grant. We have the baby box. The amount of early years education and childcare has trebled since the Government took office and has doubled in my time as First Minister. More staff are working in our national health service than in any other part of the UK, and we have more general practitioners per head of population.

I can go on, if Douglas Ross wants me to. One hundred thousand affordable homes have been built, and yes, crime rates are down. What have we had in 12 years of Tory Government at Westminster? We have had Brexit and austerity, and poverty has increased; we have seen pension cuts, tax increases and—worst of all—we have had Boris Johnson.

Tory and Labour were propping each other up in Aberdeen the last time I looked, and in North Lanarkshire, but let us get back to the issue: £259 million pounds of investment was pledged and secured by this Government to turn drug deaths around.

The other issue that Douglas Ross mentioned was council budgets. In this financial year, the Scottish Government budget—this comes from the Scottish Fiscal Commission—was cut by Westminster by 5 per cent in real terms, but due to the decisions taken by this Government the total funding package for local councils is up by 6 per cent in real terms. That is the difference between the SNP and the Tories.

We know that Douglas Ross is desperate and scraping the bottom of the barrel when he starts talking about sex surveys in schools. The fact is—and I suspect that this has been well noticed across Scotland during this election—that Douglas Ross has spent far more time standing up for Boris Johnson than he has standing up for the interests of people in Scotland. When it looked as if the Tories were actually going to get rid of Boris Johnson, Douglas Ross bravely called for his resignation, but when that changed Douglas Ross allowed himself to be hauled into line, and he has just become the cheerleader in chief for Boris Johnson. No consistency, no principle, no resolve and no backbone—that is Douglas Ross. He is not a leader; he is just a follower.

Is it that they do not understand or that they do not care? To be honest, it is probably both those things. I do not think that they understand at all—I think that they are deeply out of touch—but we know from callous Tory policies down the years that they do not care that much about people who are struggling. Their actions and words in recent weeks show that they do not understand, and their failure to act shows that they do not care nearly enough. We have heard various UK Government ministers admit that, and I am shocked, as many people are, that they think that it is okay to describe supporting families who face hardship as throwing money at people or, even worse, as “silly”.

There is a desperate and pressing need to act now to support households who are acutely feeling cost of living pressures every single day. The UK Government could act: it could cut VAT on fuel bills; it could tax all companies—not only energy companies—on excess profits; it could increase benefits, as we have done where we have been able to; and it could reinstate the £20 that was cut from universal credit. It could and should do all those things, but what is not and should not be an option is for the UK Government to sit with its head in the sand and take no action to support households who are in so much need at this time.