Chamber and committees

I have not seen the detail of the campaign that Patrick Harvie refers to, but I will look at that.

I have profound and fundamental objections to the principles underpinning the UK Government’s system of immigration and asylum but also to many of the practical aspects of that, not least the provision of inadequate accommodation for asylum seekers in the city of Glasgow. This Government has raised those concerns directly with the Home Office on many, many occasions and has often been met with indifference to them, but we will continue to raise them.

The provision of accommodation is an important right for anyone, but particularly where children are concerned. Just before the election, this Parliament took a unanimous decision to incorporate the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child into domestic law. That is being challenged in court by the UK Government, and the issue that we are discussing perhaps brings into sharp focus why the UK Government is seeking to challenge that, because it does not want the decisions that it is taking on things such as immigration to be subject to that kind of legal protection and scrutiny.

In my view, that is exactly why we need the UN convention to apply to everything that happens in Scotland, because the rights of a child matter whether that child was born here in Scotland or is the child of an asylum seeker. They are a child living in Scotland, and all children should have the same rights.

I understand that the Scottish Chambers of Commerce engaged in a call earlier this week—I think—with the Deputy First Minister in his new capacity of overseeing Covid recovery. I have had a number of calls during the pandemic with the organisation, and that engagement will continue.

I understand the frustration of the business community, just as I understand the frustration of every single citizen across the country as we continue to grapple with a global pandemic of an infectious virus. In the past few weeks, as we were making very good progress, we have been confronted with another new variant of the virus. Unfortunately, with the best will in the world, I cannot take away all the impacts of a virus of this nature, but we work as hard and as closely as we can to give as much notice and detail of our response as possible.

However, I am afraid that, in the interests of health and human life, it is sometimes necessary for people such as me in leadership positions to take very quick decisions because, as we know from bitter experience over the pandemic, it is often the failure to take quick and firm decisions that leads to loss of life. Anybody who is in any doubt about that had only to listen to a fraction of what Dominic Cummings described as the chaotic response of the United Kingdom Government at key moments of the pandemic. I will continue to try to take difficult decisions as well as I possibly can.

A range of different support streams are in place for business. Those will remain in place for as long as is necessary and we will, of course, continue to discuss with the different sectors of the economy what more support we can give.

We want to get Glasgow back on track as quickly as possible, but that must be done responsibly and safely. On today’s numbers, I can tell members that 464 positive cases were identified yesterday—1.8 per cent of all tests. Today, we see a reduction in hospital cases and a small reduction in intensive care unit cases. There are reasons to be optimistic but, in the interests of business and everyone else, we must continue to take careful and cautious decisions in order to get the whole country back to normality.

I say to Douglas Ross that the point that I was making in my earlier answer was about the importance of careful, cautious and responsible decision making in the face of a deadly virus. I was also pointing out, with reference to some of what we heard yesterday, what the impact and implications can be if a leader does not take careful, cautious and responsible decisions. I think that most people across the country understand the seriousness of my point, which is relevant and not deflective because we are still facing the pandemic and it remains important that we take those careful decisions.

I know how long the city of Glasgow has been under restrictions because, unlike Douglas Ross, I am a resident of the city of Glasgow, and the restrictions apply to me just as they apply to others. I know how difficult the situation is for residents and businesses across Glasgow, but I also know how dangerous it would be if we were to ease restrictions too quickly and allow a new variant of the virus—a variant that we know is spreading perhaps even more quickly than the variant that we saw at the start of the year—to take a grip again. That is why public health interventions—surge testing and accelerated vaccination—are under way across Glasgow. I said earlier in the week that we see cautious signs for optimism that those interventions are working.

We will continue to monitor that very carefully, and we will continue to discuss with businesses how, in the face of this difficult situation, we can support them to the best of our ability and with the best of the resources that we have at our disposal.

However frustrating I know that it is for business, the worst thing that somebody in my position could do for businesses and individuals would be to act in a way that would allow the virus to take over again, because that would lead to more businesses being closed and more lives being lost. Therefore, we need to continue to steer a careful course through this, and, difficult though I know that it is for everyone, that is what I will seek to do.

Yes, we will seek to put that issue on the agenda for the next joint ministerial committee, but those meetings do not exactly take place frequently, so it is important that we continue to take it up in other ways as well.

Patrick Harvie is right about the Smith commission. Discussions to devolve more powers to the Scottish Parliament in the area of immigration have not progressed. We have a UK Tory Government that is more interested in taking powers away from the Scottish Parliament than bringing powers to it. [Interruption.] That is the reality. I know that it is an uncomfortable reality for Mr Ross, but it is the reality nevertheless. I am sorry if it was not Mr Ross but one of his colleagues who shouted, “Rubbish.” However, it is a fact that the UK Government seems more interested in taking powers away.

These issues are important because they are about fundamental human rights and fundamental human dignity, and they bring into sharp focus why the powers should lie with the Scottish Parliament. Notwithstanding the many differences that we have across the chamber, I believe that the Scottish Parliament would take a much more humane approach to immigration and asylum and that we would respond more positively to the demographic challenges that we face and the need to attract more people to live and work in Scotland.

This is a good example of why we need to see those powers lie with the Scottish Parliament. As with many other things, the sooner we can get those powers out of the hands of a Tory Westminster Government, the better for everyone.

I welcome Meghan Gallacher to Parliament.

Our commitment is to transition to net zero by 2045. To help us to do that, building a circular economy by reducing, recycling and reusing resources is vital. With that and our climate change targets in mind, my party stood in the election on a commitment to review the role that incineration plays in Scotland’s waste system, and we will update Parliament on plans for that review as soon as possible. In their capacity as constituency members, my colleagues Christine McKelvie and Màiri McAllan have also been pushing for that.

However, it is worth noting that, in 2019, the whole-life carbon impact of Scotland’s household waste reached its lowest level since official recording began. We are fully committed to further accelerating progress by ending the practice of sending biodegradable municipal waste to landfill by 2025.

In the past year, teachers have done an extraordinary job in the most challenging of circumstances, and they have refocused their work to support pupils in a range of different ways.

We recognise the pressure on schools and on all teachers at all times to work in a safe, positive, respectful and supportive environment. We have already committed more than £400 million to education recovery, and we have introduced a support package for schools that includes a very important focus on mental health support for staff. That is in addition to existing guidance for local authorities and schools on managing behaviour.

We will continue to put the health and wellbeing of pupils and staff at the forefront of our recovery plans. We look forward to continuing to work constructively with stakeholders to ensure that everybody nurtures an environment in our schools that has at its core the highest quality of learning and teaching.

Education spending has risen in every single one of the past four years, and significant additional resource has been provided to local authorities in the face of Covid, supporting a range of activities including the provision of additional teachers in our schools.

Of course, I recognise the concerns of teachers and so many others after what has been the most difficult, challenging and bruising of years, when we have all had to cope with the implications of Covid in different ways. It is really important that we listen to and understand those concerns and that we respond in a variety of ways.

No teacher should have to suffer verbal or physical abuse in school, and nobody should ever accept violence becoming normalised in our schools. I am sure that the education secretary will be more than happy to discuss those concerns in more detail with the trade union concerned.

It is important that we support teachers in a range of different ways. We are doing that, and we will continue to talk to teaching unions about what more can be done to support teachers, as they do a very important job on behalf of us all.

When Murdo Fraser says that

“concerns have already been raised”,

he really means that he is desperately trying to stir up concerns of that description. He should know by now that the two things are not the same. This Government’s commitment to upgrading the A9 is clear; that commitment continues.

We will, of course, do that. I undertake to look at that issue, which was raised with me earlier this week, I think.

I will be corrected if I get wrong any of the details that pertain to England, but my understanding is that the difference is, in summary, that in Scotland we require that all tests be national health service tests, whereas in England many tests are outsourced to private companies. One of the reassurances that I can give, therefore, is about quality, because we believe that the NHS provides quality assurance. To be blunt, I say that I am not sure that going down the same route on testing as England is the right thing to do, but we will review the matter and give those points consideration.

More generally, I do not want—nobody wants it—the requirements for testing and quarantine to be in place any longer than is necessary. However, those protections are important right now. Everybody knows about my frustration with what I might describe as the lack of robustness of United Kingdom border control in the past. They are important protections in trying to do everything that we can to minimise the risk of importing the virus. That is why it is important that everybody abides by the requirements for testing and quarantine, when they come into the country.

Anas Sarwar is right: this is not day 1 of an SNP Government; this is the beginning of a re-elected SNP’s term of government. The people of Scotland had the opportunity to pass judgment on—what did he say?—5,136 days of an SNP Government, and they re-elected it with a record number of votes. Everybody in the chamber, if they care about democracy, has to recognise that basic fact. However, I want to reach out and work together. Not long after the election, I initiated a meeting with Anas Sarwar that I thought was constructive, and I look to build on it.

On the specifics that Anas Sarwar asked about, we have already established the young person’s guarantee and we are absolutely willing to have discussions about how we build and develop it. Our first budget will set out how we will proceed with the doubling of the Scottish child payment, which is something that we all want to do as quickly as possible. On cancer, the work to remobilise our NHS is already under way. I said in my statement that we have already opened, in Dumfries and Galloway, the first of the rapid diagnostic centres that I committed to during the election, and that two more will open over the next few weeks.

All that work is under way. The Government will get on with it, whether or not the Opposition parties choose to co-operate with us. However, the door is open. Let us genuinely try to do our politics differently. Let us respect differences and debate them vigorously, but, yes, let us come together.

During the campaign, Anas Sarwar made much of wanting a different style of politics. It is now time to prove whether he is prepared to put that into action. He will find my door open and a real willingness for us all to work together.