Chamber and committees

As we go into this festive season, many people are finding life more difficult than at any time that most of us can remember. We have to be very aware of that. The cost of living crisis is hurting many individuals, families and businesses right across the country.

The Scottish Government is doing, and will continue to do, everything that we can to help people to deal with that. As has been set out many times in the chamber, we are investing around £3 billion this year on initiatives and measures that will help people with the cost of living. We have taken new initiatives, such as the Scottish child payment, for example. I have personally convened summits with the energy companies and advice agencies to ensure that we are doing as much as possible.

It is true to say that many of the root causes of what we are dealing with right now lie outwith the powers of this Government. If we had full control over the tax and benefits system and the regulation of the energy sector, it is undoubtedly the case that we would be able to do much more, in a more coherent and joined-up way, to help people not just to deal with the consequences of the crisis but to deal much better with the root causes, too.

Some of the elements of our proceedings this week have reflected badly on the Conservative Party. I recognise that people have different and sincerely held views on the bill. Notwithstanding that, what we saw from the Conservative Party were deliberate attempts to filibuster, delay and frustrate the decision-making process. Neither yesterday nor the day before were we timetabled to go beyond midnight, or anything like it. The reasons why proceedings took so long were the filibustering and other actions of the Conservative Party.

Beyond that, Presiding Officer, as you well know, I am not responsible for policing the public gallery. I support those who do that difficult and important job, but that is not a matter for me. I believe that, no matter what our different views on that legislation or any matter might be, all of us should always treat the Parliament with respect and allow it to do its work properly. Perhaps the Conservative Party might want to reflect on that over the recess.

Energy that is generated from solar can, without a shadow of a doubt, make a very significant contribution to both the decarbonisation of our energy supply and the just transition that we need to make to a net zero emissions society by 2045.

I can tell the Parliament that our draft energy strategy and just transition plan will be published very early in January, when we return from the recess, and it will contain a clear vision for the future development of solar energy. That will include the action that the Scottish Government is taking to remove barriers to solar deployment. Through the consultation, we will seek views and evidence on whether, or at what level, a deployment ambition should be set.

It is vital that we ensure that any deployment ambition is appropriate and stretching but also achievable. I encourage all stakeholders to engage with the draft vision and the consultation process.

I know that Fergus Ewing will have listened very carefully to what I said. Without going further before we publish the consultation, I clearly indicated, in talking about consulting on whether, or at what level, we set a deployment ambition, that I recognise that there is an importance attached to targets, both for the reason that he set out and for other reasons, not least to do with activating the supply chain and benefiting the economy. That is why we already have targets for offshore and onshore wind and hydrogen, for example. I hope that Fergus Ewing will take that comment positively.

The final thing that I will say, which he has already alluded to, concerns the reason for consulting. It is important—I go back to the previous question here—not just that we set a target but that we make sure that it is both stretching and achievable. The consultation is an important part of the process, which is why I encourage all those with an interest to take part in it.

—that was the wording in our manifesto, and I stand by it completely.

Pre-pandemic, the poverty-related attainment gap was closing. The negative impact of the pandemic cannot be ignored—in Scotland or elsewhere. In fact, the Department for Education south of the border said of the attainment gap that

“disruption to learning during the ... pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils”,

so the situation is not unique to Scotland.

However, what we actually see in the statistics that have been published this week is that recovery is now under way and we are starting to see improvements again. The percentage of pupils achieving the expected levels in 2021-22, which is the period that the latest statistics cover, is higher than that for the previous year for all primary school ages. In fact, we see the largest single-year increase in primary school literacy and numeracy since data collection began. There are also signs that the attainment gap is again narrowing, with the biggest single-year decrease in the gap in primary school literacy levels—again, since records began.

That is the progress that we are making. Was it interrupted by Covid? Of course it was—and that was the case in countries across the world. However, we continue to make progress and, of course, we remain committed to driving it further.

We also see progress in exam results, which show the gap between attainment levels in the least deprived and most deprived areas narrowing from the level in 2019, which was the pre-pandemic year, of course. In the past few days, we have also had the university applications end-of-cycle data, which shows that a record number of 18-year-old Scots have secured university places this year. The number of 18-year-olds from the most deprived areas securing places has also increased—by 31 per cent—since 2019. Again, that is a record high, which demonstrates the progress that we are making on closing the attainment gap and widening access.

Absolutely—I stand by them 100 per cent. Few things—if anything is—are more important than the opportunities that we give our children and young people. Of course, to be accurate, when we talk about the attainment gap, we should say the “poverty-related attainment gap”, because poverty drives it. One of the measures of our commitment to tackling that is that we are putting money into the pockets of the poorest families in the country, which we are doing at the same time as Douglas Ross’s party takes money out of their pockets.

I will go back to the specifics. First, I do, and did, accept the premise of Douglas Ross’s first question. I then went on to give the precise language that we used, so that there was no dubiety.

Secondly, if Douglas Ross likes accuracy, he should perhaps start to practice it. I did not say that the target for 2026 had been met. I said—and backed it up with lots of evidence—that progress is being made.

Thirdly, I did not use Covid as a shield; rather, I cited evidence of the impact of Covid, in the same way that the Department for Education south of the border did, when it said:

“disruption to learning during the ... pandemic has had a greater impact on disadvantaged pupils.”

If Douglas Ross does not want to take the word of a Government that is run by his own party, perhaps he will take that of the chief executive officer of the Education Endowment Foundation, who said:

“The findings add to a heavy body of evidence telling us that socio-economic inequality in education—already entrenched before the pandemic—has grown.”

Again, I say that we see progress in narrowing of the attainment gap: we see it in the figures that were published this week, in exam results and in access to university. It is not yet “Job done”, which is why I stand by everything that I said. It is one of the most important things that the Government is doing, which is why we will continue to take the action that we are taking to achieve it.

We are taking decisive action to widen access to and maintain the affordability of public transport, particularly during the current cost of living crisis. Up to 2.3 million people in Scotland are now able to access free bus travel through the schemes for older and disabled people and for those aged under 22. Since we launched the under-22s scheme in January, more than 35.6 million journeys have been made, which have provided access to jobs, education and leisure activities and enabled younger people to develop sustainable travel habits early in life.

We have frozen rail fares until at least March next year and, likewise, we have intervened to hold fares in the northern isles ferry network at current levels until the end of March next year.

Again, we are getting the same response from the Conservatives at the mention of poverty. I say to the Scottish Conservatives that, no matter how uncomfortable it makes them, the Government and my party in Parliament will never stop talking about the scourge of poverty—particularly child poverty—and our determination to tackle and eradicate it.

The actions that we are taking—chief among them the Scottish child payment—are lowering the cost of raising a child in Scotland, which is positive, and we will continue to look for all possible ways to do that.

In response to the question on what the UK Government could most usefully do, it is to emulate the example of the Scottish Government and introduce its own equivalent of the Scottish child payment.

I will undertake to ensure that discussions take place directly with the sector. The Government will, of course, liaise with the sector regularly on a range of issues. I will ensure that specific conversations take place about the pressures that they are facing, in common with other parts of the voluntary and statutory sectors as well as the national health service, which are all dealing with the impact of increased inflation and energy costs.

Our budget this afternoon will very much have at its heart our determination to help sectors that are delivering those front-line services across the country as much as we possibly can. I will ensure that officials and ministers liaise with the hospice sector to see what more support we might be able to provide.

First, I am happy to consider meeting the trade union. I am not sure whether I have yet received the letter that Katy Clark refers to—I have seen it talked about in the media. Although the matter is not within my responsibility—it is a reserved matter—I would be happy to consider anything that I can do to encourage Royal Mail to resolve the dispute in the interests of postal workers across the country.

My approach to industrial disputes is simple: it is always to get round the table to try to find resolution. That is why, although I acknowledge the many concerns that I know that national health service workers continue to have about the pay deal that is on offer in Scotland, the approach that I and this Government take to these kinds of disputes is what has resulted in Scotland being the only part of the United Kingdom today that does not have strikes in its NHS. So, yes, I will always look to see what I can do to bring resolution to such disputes.