Chamber and committees

Unfortunately, Labour still wants us to have one hand tied behind our back on these issues.

Although I take full responsibility for performance across all of these things in Scotland, the reality in terms of the national health service in Scotland is that, whatever the challenges we face, thanks to the dedication of those who are working in our national health service, it is performing better than its counterpart in England, where the Conservatives are in power, and better than its counterpart in Wales, where Labour is in government.

We will continue to address these challenges, we will continue to take the steps that are necessary to do so, and we will continue to ask the Scottish people to put their trust in us to do exactly that.

I share that frustration. While we use our powers and deploy our resources to try to lift people out of poverty, the UK Government takes actions that push people into poverty. That is not a sustainable, sensible or morally defensible position. The UK Government now seems to want to increase the bonuses that are paid to bankers, while further eroding the incomes of those who are on universal credit. That is utterly indefensible.

We are showing what we can do with the limited welfare powers that we have—the Scottish child payment is the leading example of that. As long as so many such powers and levers lie with a UK Government that is acting in the way that this one is, our efforts will continue to be undermined. That is why it is so important that we get all such powers into this Parliament’s hands as soon as possible.

Your Majesties, Presiding Officer, members of Parliament and honoured guests, it is my solemn duty, and my honour, to move the motion of condolence on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth. For people across our country, this is a time of profound sorrow. While the nation’s grief is for our Queen, the royal family’s is for their beloved mother, grandmother and great grandmother. Today, on behalf of the Parliament and people of Scotland, I offer my heartfelt condolences to Your Majesties, and to the Duke of Rothesay, the Princess Royal, the Earls of Inverness and Forfar, and to all members of Her Majesty’s wider family.

When Queen Victoria died in 1901, Arthur Balfour led tributes in the House of Commons. He commented that the grief of the country was in part because they were marking the end of an epoch,

“the beginning of which stretches beyond the memory ... of any individual whom I am now addressing”.—[Official Report, House of Commons, 25 January 1901; Vol 89, c 19-20.]

Those words are just as true for us today. Most of us do not remember life without the Queen. When, as Princess Elizabeth, she gave a radio broadcast from South Africa on her 21st birthday, she was addressing an empire that still included India. When she became monarch, Winston Churchill was Prime Minister. In an ever-changing and often turbulent world, Her Majesty has been our constant. She has been the anchor of our nation.

Our personal recollections are often intertwined with memories of her reign. I was nine years old when I first saw the Queen. She visited Irvine, my home town, in July 1979 to open the Magnum leisure centre. With my mum, I was one of hundreds lining the streets. By luck, we ended up close to her car as it passed by. Nine-year-old me was absolutely convinced that I had caught her eye. That nine-year-old could not have imagined, more than 35 years later, being in the front passenger seat of another car, this time with the Queen at the wheel, driving through the Balmoral estate.

In recent days, other leaders have shared stories from Balmoral, of barbecues cooked by Prince Philip as the Queen laid the table. These are memories that I treasure, too—special times in what was clearly their happy place. I did, however, experience one rather tense moment at Balmoral. My husband and I were with the Queen before dinner when the drawing room light started to flicker. To my great alarm—he was, after all, in the presence of Her Majesty—my husband suddenly leaped up and darted across the floor. Peter had spotted the cause of the flickering light: one of the Queen’s young corgis, a beautiful pup called Sandy, was eating through a lamp switch. Thankfully, tragedy was averted and Sandy emerged unscathed, though not before a stern ticking off from his mistress.

Just like all my predecessors as First Minister and all Prime Ministers, I deeply valued the time that I spent alone with the Queen. Her words of wisdom, counsel and humour will stay in my heart for the rest of my life.

However, the memory that I cherish most is not from Balmoral or from audiences at Holyrood. It is from 2015, when the Queen opened the Borders railway. I spent the journey from Edinburgh to Tweedbank with just her and Prince Philip, enjoying their recollections of times spent in Scotland. That would have been special on any day; that it was also the day when the Queen became our longest-reigning monarch, allowing me to observe closely how quietly reflective she was about that historic milestone, made it much more so. It was one of the great privileges of my life.

What was obvious then—and on every occasion when she graced us with her presence—was the Queen’s genuine love of Scotland. Indeed, her first official visit was here in Scotland when she opened the Aberdeen sailors home in October 1944. In the decades since, the Queen has been intrinsic to the story of modern Scotland. From the opening of the Forties oil pipeline to the Forth bridge and, later, the Queensferry crossing, the Borders railway and the hosting of three Commonwealth games, she was present at so many of our iconic moments.

She was also a true and steadfast friend of this Parliament. On the day when we reconvened in 1999, she allowed the title “Queen Elizabeth, Queen of Scots” to be used. She also presented us with our treasured mace. Its words—wisdom, justice, compassion and integrity—describe values that were personified by the Queen throughout her entire life. Even as her health declined, Her Majesty inspired us with an unfaltering dedication to public service.

In his address on Friday, the King recalled his mother’s words on her 21st birthday:

“my whole life, whether it be long or short, shall be devoted to your service”.

For 75 years, Queen Elizabeth more than fulfilled that vow. She performed her duties with dedication, wisdom and a profound sense of service. She set an exceptional example to all of us.

Our nation is in mourning today for a Queen whose loss we have not yet begun to come to terms with. We are deeply honoured by the presence today of His Majesty King Charles III and the Queen Consort. Your Majesty, we stand ready to support you as you continue your own life of service and as you build on the extraordinary legacy of your beloved mother, our Queen. Queen Elizabeth, Queen of Scots. We are grateful for her life. May she now rest in peace.

I move,

That the Parliament expresses its deepest regret and grief at the death of Her Majesty The Queen; conveys its sincere condolences to His Majesty The King and other members of the Royal Family in their bereavement; affirms the great affection and esteem in which Her Majesty was held, and expresses gratitude for her life of exceptional public service and her long and close association with Scotland and the Scottish people.

What Douglas Ross has just said about Covid money being directed to Ferguson’s is simply not true, and he should take the opportunity to reflect on that and withdraw what he said. That misunderstanding came from the name of a budget line. It did not reflect how money had been allocated. If I am wrong on that—[Interruption.] Media sources have already corrected that, so perhaps Douglas Ross will want to reflect further.

On the issues around ferries, I have made clear on many occasions my regret at the cost overrun. That is why it is important that we continue to focus on completing the ferries. However, even if we took Douglas Ross at his word about £250 million—which, of course, would not be in one year—it would still leave the rest of the £1.7 billion by which our budget has been eroded because of inflation soaring out of control under the UK Government. It would still leave us with the unbudgeted £700 million that we have had to allocate for higher pay deals because of the soaring inflation that is being presided over by the UK Government.

We will continue to make the hard decisions to get support to where it is needed most. One of the pressures on all construction projects right now is inflation, which the UK Government is failing to get under control. We will continue to focus on ensuring that the ferries are now completed on the revised budget and timeline.

I have not had the opportunity to look at all the evidence that Derek Mackay gave to the committee. I will take the opportunity to do that as soon as I am able to and then, I am sure, Douglas Ross will come back and ask me more about it.

Douglas Ross keeps quoting CMAL and saying that its view is that the ferries will never be in service, so let me quote what the chief executive of CMAL, Kevin Hobbs, said in June:

“There is not much now which is standing in the way of both of them being delivered. There are a lot of detractors out there saying rather spurious things about them, but we’ve always had a view that both would be finished.”

I would not suggest that the

“detractors out there saying rather spurious things”

was a reference to Douglas Ross. Others, of course, might reach that conclusion.

We will engage on that basis, and I am sure that the Deputy First Minister will be happy to have open discussions with any party about how we meet that challenge, as long as the starting point for any discussion is an acceptance of the reality that, if we want to spend more on anything this year—as, I think, all of us do—that money must be found elsewhere in our budget.

With regard to Anas Sarwar’s suggestions, we will consider everything in good faith. However, taking bus fares as an example, I point out that about half of the Scottish population—nobody under 22 or over 60—already do not pay for bus travel. That is a sign of how we are using the powers of this Parliament. On increasing money, I know that Labour called for an increase in the tenant hardship fund, but we have doubled the fuel insecurity fund and have committed to increasing the budget for discretionary housing payments. Further, we are extending free school meals beyond the limits set by any other Government in the United Kingdom, and, once the extensions that were announced earlier this week take effect, the Scottish child payment will deliver £1,300 in support for every eligible child under the age of 16. Again, that does not exist anywhere else in the UK. We are using our powers and we will continue to do so.

I will share some reflections by someone who is well known to Anas Sarwar:

“this week’s programme for government, announced by the First Minister, was a creative and coherent response to the poverty pandemic we are all facing ... Credit where it’s due. The SNP have been upfront in explaining what’s happening to the public finances and the principles underpinning their decisions.”

Those are comments by Kezia Dugdale, one of Anas Sarwar’s predecessors as Scottish Labour leader.

I thank Sarah Boyack for raising that issue. Obviously, I am very well aware of the E coli outbreaks, and I share her concern about them. Public Health Scotland will not only monitor the situation but take or advise on all appropriate steps.

On the particular issue of contradictory information that Sarah Boyack raised, if she can make that available to my office or to the office of the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, I would be very happy to give an undertaking to look into it as quickly as possible and to come back to her with more detail once I have had the opportunity to do so.

I will not repeat all of my first answer about the processes that are under way to deliver exactly such clarity. I certainly share Fergus Ewing’s concerns about safety, which is of paramount importance to the Government.

As Fergus Ewing knows, procurement is a complex process that involves many rules that must be adhered to. I assure him that the work to determine the most suitable procurement option on the A9 is on-going and that an update will be provided when the work is completed.

On the A96 from Inverness to Nairn and the Nairn bypass, we need to complete the statutory approval process before setting a firm programme for delivery. However, we are continuing to progress the preparation stages, with a view to completing the process as quickly as possible.

There is no change to what we set out in the Bute house agreement. In my answers to Fergus Ewing, I have already given detail on the processes that are under way.

The impacts of the cost of living crisis are being felt by all households and there is a disproportionate impact on people on the lowest incomes, which can, of course, include tenants. Therefore, as announced this week, we will introduce emergency legislation to deliver a moratorium on evictions and a rent freeze until at least 31 March next year.

We are also extending the tenant grant fund and investing an additional £5 million in discretionary housing payments, increasing our total financial support to over £88 million for housing support that mitigates United Kingdom Government policies such as the bedroom tax, the benefit cap and the local housing allowance.

This Parliament does not yet have the levers that we desperately need to respond fully to the cost of living crisis. Therefore, we will also continue to urge the UK Government to comprehensively and urgently take the actions needed to combat it.