Chamber and committees

Many people in this country are right now on the brink because of benefit cuts and tax rises that are being imposed by the Conservative Government at Westminster and because of its complete failure to respond appropriately or accordingly.

Let me address the points on ScotRail first. What I guarantee is that, when the Scottish Government takes ownership of ScotRail, we will operate a timetable that is reflective of the usage of the railways by passengers. That is about the real-world running of a railway that is fit for purpose.

Secondly, we will continue to ensure that we have affordable rail fares—we will take action to ensure that they are affordable. Let me remind Douglas Ross that rail fares right now are, I think, 20 per cent cheaper on average in Scotland than they are in the rest of the United Kingdom. I would suggest that that is a good foundation on which to build.

Let me turn to the workplace parking levy. I remind Douglas Ross that it gives a discretionary power to local authorities. They do not have to use it if they do not want to or if they do not think that it reflects their local circumstances. Of course, I would remind Douglas Ross that, in the Tories’ last local government manifesto—although I grant that this was before he was leader of the Scottish Conservatives—they said:

“We need to empower councils and give them a renewed sense of meaning and purpose.”

We are giving discretionary powers to local authorities and what do we have? The Scottish Conservatives opposing it and moaning about it.

The second point is that the workplace parking levy is simply giving local authorities in Scotland a power that local authorities in England have had for a decade and more, which is allowed to them by the Conservative Government. Not for the first time, there is a deep hypocrisy at the heart of Douglas Ross’s question.

Lastly, here we are again. All parties across the chamber are, rightly, signed up to our climate change objectives and our net zero ambition, and we need to get people out of cars. We need to get people on to public transport, which is why public ownership of the railways is a good thing and why free bus travel for under-22s, which has been introduced by this SNP-Green Government, is a good thing. We will not just set the targets but take the action to help meet those targets, and we will leave Douglas Ross and his colleagues whining as usual on the sidelines.

Violence and abuse against women and girls is abhorrent and unacceptable. Football, of course, has a very special place in our society, which is why it is vital that football authorities and clubs ensure that they and their players are positive role models for children and adults across the country.

Scottish Government officials have recently discussed these issues with the Scottish Football Association, which has advised that it has safeguarding policies and guidance in place for players and coaches. Scottish Women’s Football also has comprehensive policies in place. The Minister for Public Health, Women’s Health and Sport will meet the football authorities in the near future to discuss what further steps they could take to support women and girls in the sport more generally.

I think that Val McDermid’s proposal merits further consideration. In the interests of full transparency, I should mention that Val McDermid is a friend of mine. Notwithstanding that, I think that she has said many sensible things on the issue.

Football clubs have a particular responsibility that reflects their special place within our society. A bit like being a politician, but for different reasons, being a footballer is not an ordinary job. People look up to footballers—that is perhaps not always true of politicians—and there is a responsibility on football clubs to make sure that those who play for them are role models for the wee boys and the wee girls who look up to them and see them as heroes. That is an important responsibility, and I think that the football authorities perhaps need to reflect on recent events and ask the question about whether the current rules and regulations are sufficient.

Of course, there is a deeper culture in our society, which is reflected in football. We need to tackle misogyny. Right now, Helena Kennedy is looking at the issue for the Scottish Government. She is due to report relatively soon, and we will reflect carefully on all of that. That is a more general response, but it obviously has particular questions for football.

Comment has been made, including around my comments on the matter, about the fact that when the player in question signed for Clyde, the same outrage was not expressed. It is the case that there are things that went uncommented on in past years that are now called out. That is progress, and it shows us that there is less of a tolerance for misogyny and less of a tolerance for violence against women, but there is not yet zero tolerance, and it is zero tolerance that we have a responsibility to achieve.

That is a really important point, so I am grateful to Ross Greer for giving me the opportunity to underline it. The requirement to wear face coverings in classrooms will be removed from the end of February, but any young person or indeed any member of staff who feels safer wearing a face covering and would prefer to continue to wear one should absolutely be fully supported in doing so.

In all the decisions that are we are taking right now, it is important that we balance the understandable and perfectly legitimate desire to get back to normal with understanding that those who are more clinically vulnerable have a real sense of anxiety. We need to consider their needs and concerns as well, so that is a really important point, and I am glad to have the opportunity to underline and emphasise it.

The Scottish Government is committed to reducing the number of people delayed in hospital. In October, the health secretary announced an investment of £300 million to help address winter pressures. That included £40 million to support alternative interim care arrangements and £62 million to enhance care at home. Part of that funding is being used to rapidly scale up hospital at home services, first and foremost to provide better care but also to help alleviate pressures on acute services.

There have been significant recent developments, with new services launched in Ayrshire and Arran and in Greater Glasgow and Clyde. We have also recently launched the discharge without delay programme, backed by £5 million, to help local health and social care partnerships improve discharge planning arrangements in the longer term.

I do believe that the actions that we are taking are the right ones, but we are not complacent and we will continue to take whatever steps we can to address the issue. In fact, the health secretary, senior officials and I will have a session this afternoon to look at progress on the issue and what further steps we need to take.

It is worth noting that the average number of beds occupied by people whose discharge was delayed in 2020-21 reduced by 34 per cent on the previous year, but that is still too high. This is a whole-system challenge and we are very focused on addressing it. It requires steps to be taken across the whole health and care system. The longer-term work to establish a national care service is also important in this context.

This line of questioning by Anas Sarwar is incredible. It is serious, and I will come to its serious point about the cost of living crisis in a second.

He asked me about a windfall levy on oil and gas companies last week, and I have made it clear that I have no objection to that. I said again yesterday that companies that see rising profits should contribute more, but it is for the United Kingdom Government to come forward with proposals on the matter.

Anas Sarwar is asking me about something that, regrettably, I have no power to do. Rather than ask me about things that I lack the power to do, he should join me in seeking those powers for the Parliament, so that we can actually do those things as opposed to just talking about them.

It is not the case that the Government has not taken action. We have taken a range of measures to help people in poverty. We set up the Scottish child payment and recently announced plans to double it, and we have already taken action to help people with the cost of winter and rising fuel costs.

Although the matter is still to be finalised, we believe that last week’s announcements from the Chancellor of the Exchequer will not deliver any net increase to what we already expected to have in the Scottish Government’s budget. Despite that situation, the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy will, this afternoon, set out further plans to help those who are struggling with the rising cost of energy, and we will continue to do everything that we can to help.

Looking to the future, would it not be better if more of those powers lay in the hands of the Scottish Government and the Scottish Parliament instead of their being left to Westminster, in the hands of Conservative Governments?

This is an issue around cabling that was installed by FMEL contractors in late 2018 and early 2019, prior to the shipyard coming into public ownership. The Government and the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy will be working closely with the yard to ensure that the problem is rectified as quickly and as cost effectively as possible. The finance secretary will, of course, keep the Parliament fully updated.

Both rail fares and water charges are, on average, lower in Scotland than they are elsewhere in the UK.

Let us go back to the point about votes on budgets and the use of our budget. It is only a few weeks since we had the stage 1 vote in this Parliament on next year’s budget. It is a budget that includes plans and the money to double the Scottish child payment, which will be game changing in helping to lift children out of poverty. However, Scottish Labour voted against the budget that will double the Scottish child payment. It will be interesting to see whether Labour members vote for or against the budget at its final stage, this afternoon. If they vote against it or fail to support it, they will be voting against the doubling of the Scottish child payment. [Interruption.] Anas Sarwar is telling me that that is not how it works, but I am afraid that it is. If he wants money for a child payment to lift people out of poverty, he has to vote for it in the budget. That is exactly how it works.

The support in Scotland for people in poverty exceeds the support for people in other parts of the UK, including, in many respects, in Wales, where Labour is in government. We do everything that is within our power and resources to help, and that will continue.

Labour will lack credibility on the issue for as long as it teams up with the Tories to keep vital powers over benefits and energy in the hands of Conservatives at Westminster instead of arguing for the powers to lie here, where we can use them to do more to help the most vulnerable people in our society.

From what I know about it, which I am sure is the same as what everybody else knows about it, that incident was absolutely appalling and sickening.

In Scotland, we have one of the most robust animal welfare frameworks anywhere in the world, and we continue to strengthen and develop the measures that are in place to protect animals and enable effective enforcement action. The Animal Health and Welfare (Scotland) Act 2006 provides sufficient powers to take enforcement action in a case such as that, and to remove animals from abusive keepers.