Chamber and committees

I rise to move the motion in my name that

“Neil Gray be appointed as a junior Scottish Minister.”

First, however, I pay tribute to the minister who is departing the Scottish Government. During his four years as a member of my Government, Graeme Dey has performed excellently in very demanding roles.

In a period of minority Government, he built trust and constructive relationships with all the other parties. He worked with Parliament to adapt to the early demands of the pandemic, ensuring that members could continue to scrutinise and hold Government to account. His skills also helped to ensure that, as a minority Government, we were able to deliver on key legislation for the country.

Graeme also served as veterans minister. I know how much that meant to him, and I am sure that he will continue to be a strong advocate for our veterans from the back benches.

As transport minister, Graeme’s significant achievements will leave a lasting legacy. He has not only set out a strong plan to reduce car use to help meet climate targets, he has delivered concessionary bus travel for under-22s and laid the groundwork for Scotland’s publicly owned railway company.

Graeme leaves Government with many achievements of which to be proud. He also leaves with my very best wishes and, I am sure, the best wishes of everyone in the chamber. [Applause.]

I have asked Jenny Gilruth to take on the role of transport minister. As Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development, Jenny has worked hard and well to preserve close links with our friends in Europe during the Brexit transition period. She has also worked to maintain our international development programmes and to support the culture sector during the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.

In her new role, Jenny will play a critical part in our national efforts to become net zero by 2045. Of course, as the MSP for Mid Fife and Glenrothes, which sits between the Forth and Tay bridges, she understands very well the vital importance of our national transport infrastructure—indeed, she played a key part in securing the Levenmouth rail link for her constituents. I am sure that is a service that she is looking forward to using.

Those changes have left a vacancy in the ministerial team. I am therefore delighted to nominate Neil Gray to replace Jenny Gilruth as Minister for Culture, Europe and International Development. Neil, of course, served as an MP at Westminster for a number of years before being elected as a member of the Scottish Parliament in last May’s Scottish election. In both roles, Neil has been a long-standing supporter of Scotland’s relationship with Malawi.

More recently, as deputy convener of the Scottish National Party’s Social Justice and Fairness Commission, and then as convener of the Scottish Parliament Social Justice and Social Security Committee, Neil has proven his ability to navigate complex and often sensitive issues, ensuring that competing points of view are listened to carefully, and helping bring people together to build consensus.

Those are all skills that will serve Neil Gray well in Government. In my estimation, he is highly able, and I have no doubt that he will be a strong asset to my Government. I know that Neil cannot wait to get formally started as a minister. As he does so, I know that everyone in the chamber will wish him the very best of luck. With those comments, it gives me great pleasure to move the motion.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that Neil Gray be appointed as a junior Scottish Minister.

I think that Alex Cole-Hamilton is the only one in this chamber today who is turning his eyes away from those issues. We focus on those issues each and every day, and that will continue as we come out of this pandemic and, hopefully, enter the recovery phase. However, in the interests of democracy, we will also seek to take forward the mandate that we won less than a year ago at the Scottish Parliament election to allow the people of Scotland to choose whether to complete the powers of this Parliament to better equip us to deal with the issues that Alex Cole-Hamilton has set out, because those things are, of course, very closely related.

Let me pick up on two examples. On child poverty, we are making great strides and great efforts, chiefly through the Scottish child payment, to tackle child poverty in Scotland but, as we do that, the powers that are still held at Westminster are being used to pull in the other direction. Completing the powers of this Parliament will significantly help in our task.

Secondly, in relation to staff on the front line of our national health service, who are exhausted because of Covid and the other pressures on the NHS, one of the exacerbating factors involves staffing shortages and recruitment, which are issues that are exacerbated by Brexit, which was imposed upon Scotland against our will. Again, completing the powers of this Parliament through independence would ensure that we are in charge of our own destiny.

Our ability to ensure that Scotland addresses those issues and fulfils its potential will be enhanced by Scotland becoming independent, and I think that everybody, including Alex Cole-Hamilton, should perhaps lift their eyes and their ambition.

First, the latest data is very encouraging, but I think that anybody who has a modicum of common sense and who looked at that data would say that it calls for continued good sense and caution. That balanced approach has brought us to where we are today—in a much stronger position, and able to look forward with much more optimism.

From long experience in politics, I know that opinion polls are not everything, but sometimes they give us a useful insight into the state of public opinion. Just at the end of last week, a poll showed that two thirds, or thereabouts, of people in Scotland support the proportionate and balanced approach that the Scottish Government took before Christmas in response to omicron. I suggest that it is Douglas Ross who is out of touch with public opinion, rather than the Scottish Government.

I will take the points in turn. The first was on working from home, and why we do not just leave it to the good sense of employers and workers. I know that Douglas Ross, through no fault of his, was late, as we started a bit early. I think that he was in the chamber before I got to this point in my statement but, just in case he was not, or in case he was not listening, I will read it again:

“as part of a phased return to the office, we will again encourage employers to consider hybrid working, and we look to them to determine how best to manage the transition in consultation with workers and trade unions.”

Anyone looking at the data right now would say that a mass return to the office, from next week, with all that goes with that in travel to work and people coming together, would risk setting back that progress. It would not be responsible. That is why the Scottish Government is not going to encourage it.

Financial support payments are already being made to affected businesses in every council area. All 32 local authorities are making payments to eligible hospitality and leisure businesses. Payments are also being made by Creative Scotland and VisitScotland. I remind Douglas Ross again that that funding is available in Scotland and has not been available in the rest of the UK—something that was criticised by the Night Time Industries Association and others in England.

Finally, on face coverings in schools, which is possibly one of the issues on which we need to take the greatest care, nobody wants young people—or anybody—to wear face coverings for as long as possible, and I hope that the time is coming when doing so will not be necessary.

However, in the face of the 41 per cent increase in cases in the under-15 age group that I have reported today, anyone with a degree of responsibility who says that this is the moment to say that young people no longer need to wear face coverings is—frankly—not showing that responsibility.

We will provide advice and guidance to the corporate body, as we will to businesses more generally. This morning, Cabinet discussed the wider position and what it means for the civil service. There will be a return to hybrid working within the civil service from next week. It is not for me to decide, but I hope that the underpinning legislative arrangements and the changes that we are making will allow the Parliament to get back, if not to complete normality, to a greater degree of normality in its operations from the start of next week, or whenever the corporate body deems is appropriate.

The key message is that it is never too late to get the vaccination. People will be able to access vaccines, if they have not had their first, second, third or booster dose, well into the future. We are the most vaccinated part of the UK for all those doses, but there are still too many people in Scotland who are eligible but have not been vaccinated. The message is this: please come forward for vaccination. The facilities are there, the capacity is there and the vaccinators are there.

I set out in my statement some of the steps that we are taking, for example to send scheduled appointments to those in the 18 to 59-year-old age group who have not had boosters yet. We will not give up on trying to get vaccine to every last person in Scotland, if that is at all possible.

This is important. It is vital that people like me show integrity and accuracy when we cite statistics. Sometimes we get it wrong and make mistakes, and it is important that we recognise that. For somebody to accuse me of twisting data—when a cursory glance at what I was citing last week would have shown that it was accurate—and to report that to the chief statistician was, I think, uncalled for. There is also a more substantive point here: I do not believe that the comparison between Scotland and England is the one that we should focus on. The comparison that we should focus on is the one between how Scotland is doing now compared with how we were doing at the start of the omicron wave and how we might have been doing now had we not taken the sensible and proportionate steps that we have.

For reasons that I cannot fathom, because I cannot understand the politics of this other than its pure political opportunism, Opposition members have tried to suggest—and to say that the data suggests—that the restrictions in Scotland made no difference. It is good that we have the confirmation that the data that I cited in response to those claims last week was accurate and that the actions that the Government and, more importantly, the public have taken have got Scotland into a much stronger position than we would otherwise have been in. If we could all put party politics aside for a moment, in the midst of a global pandemic, we might all find that that is something to warmly welcome.

Douglas Ross is shouting “When?” from a sedentary position in an almost childlike fashion, forgetting that we face an unpredictable virus and that it is important not to pluck dates out of mid-air, but to take those decisions responsibly. That is why the approach of this Government has such overwhelming support from the Scottish people.

Obviously, throughout the pandemic, a range of emergency provisions were put in place, including for people who required dental care and treatment. More recently, we have been supporting dentists to recover and get back to normal so that they can do the range of procedures that they did ordinarily before the pandemic, and that support will continue to be given, including through appropriate investment.

The point about emergency funding is one that we make more widely. We are not completely out of the pandemic yet, but much of the consequential funding for Covid and Covid recovery is not continuing, which has knock-on impacts on our budget. Within that, though, we continue to support dentists and others in the national health service to the very best of our ability.

I agree that connectivity is vital for the prospects of our economy. It is also important for many other reasons, including family and personal reasons. However, we also have to recognise—as I am sure that Pauline McNeill does—that international travel, particularly in the face of new variants of the virus, still poses one of the biggest risks in terms of transmission. This is always going to be a difficult issue.

The pandemic has been incredibly difficult for Scotland’s airports and aviation sector, and the travel industry more widely. We continued with rates relief for the aviation sector longer than other parts of the UK. Scotland is not unique in this; many countries across the world are still managing travel restrictions as part of managing the virus.

We are in a much better place now. The changes to requirements that I have outlined today, which come into force shortly, will significantly help international travel return to a degree of normality. I think that we can look forward, at this stage, to greater normality around international travel for family connections, business and holidays, which will help the airport sector with the process of recovery. However, we will continue to engage with the sector about how we can support it more widely to recover as quickly as possible from what I absolutely accept has been a torrid time.

At this stage, as protective measures ease and as we head into spring, there are very good grounds for being optimistic that we are again on the cusp of a calmer phase of the pandemic. We can all help to ensure that the waters remain calm by taking the sensible steps that we know help to stem transmission.

First, please get fully vaccinated as soon as you can. Secondly, continue to take care when socialising. We are no longer suggesting a limit for the number of households who meet indoors, but, for the rest of this month, try to limit as far as you can the size of indoor gatherings that you have, and please take a lateral flow test before you go, every time.

Finally, please take the other precautions that we know make a difference. Keep windows open when meeting indoors. Continue to work from home for now, but talk to your employer about a return to hybrid working from the start of next month. Wear a face covering on public transport, in shops and when moving about in hospitality. Please follow all advice on hygiene. Those measures are making a difference, so please stick with them to protect yourself, others and the national health service.