Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer, because I want to take the opportunity to thank everybody who works in CalMac for the excellent service that they provide to the travelling public.

The recommendations of the LGBTI inclusive education working group were published in November 2019 and accepted in full by the Scottish Government. The LGBT inclusive education implementation group has made good progress in delivering on the recommendations. The implementation group has, in partnership with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, promoted effective delivery of LGBT-inclusive education in all Scottish schools and engaged with young people to seek their views and experiences.

The lgbteducation.scot website is an important resource that contains a toolkit of inclusive education resources and a basic awareness e-learning course for education staff on LGBT-inclusive education. The implementation group plans to deliver the remaining recommendations by the end of the next academic year.

I agree with much of the sentiment of the question and that we have a duty to act urgently—I will come back to what the Government is doing in a moment—but we also have a duty to act legally, otherwise what we do will not benefit tenants in the way that we intend it to.

Through the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, we already have the strongest tenancy protections of anywhere in the United Kingdom. Landlords are already under a number of limitations, and we are committed to introducing a housing bill that will further strengthen existing rights by improving rent adjudication and setting out the framework for the delivery of new rent controls. It is important that we get that right, because if we do not, and a legal challenge were successful, we would not be helping tenants in the way that I accept that Mercedes Villalba wants to.

On what we are doing now, this Government is investing almost £3 billion this year in helping people with the cost of living. That includes £83 million for discretionary housing payments, which supports the mitigation of the bedroom tax and helps with wider housing costs. That investment is a really important tool that is used to safeguard tenancies.

We continue to lead the way in the UK on protecting the rights of and supporting tenants. Of course, if we did not have to mitigate things such as the bedroom tax, and we had more powers to deal with these issues and the root causes of the cost of living crisis, rather than the powers remaining—as the Labour member seems to want them to—in the hands of Conservative Governments in Westminster, this Parliament would be able to do so much more.

The other point that we should recognise is that police officers—like nurses, doctors, and everybody else across Scotland—are suffering from the cost of living crisis, which has been exacerbated by a Conservative Government.

Let me return to the important issues—[Interruption.] I think that anybody can compare the public sector pay offers that are being made in Scotland with those that are being made by the Conservatives, and can draw conclusions about the higher value that we attach to public sector workers here, but let me return to the detail of the questions.

I do not expect any police officer or any public sector worker to congratulate the Government; the gratitude and congratulations are entirely from the Government to those who are working hard across our country. However, Douglas Ross is asking me about the value and the priority that we attach to policing. Therefore, it is entirely appropriate and, indeed, necessary for me to point out the facts. We have a higher number of police officers in Scotland than when this Government took office. Three hundred new officers are about to be recruited, from next month. We are increasing the budget for the police, and police officers, generally speaking, are paid more in Scotland than they are elsewhere in the UK.

There is a pay negotiation under way. I fully expect the Scottish Police Federation, or any trade union or professional organisation, to stand up for its members during a pay negotiation. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Veterans met the Scottish Police Federation, either earlier this week or last week, and there was a constructive discussion. I hope that all sides will continue to work together constructively to ensure that a fair and affordable pay increase can be agreed for our police officers. Our police officers deserve that, and we will continue to value them and give policing the priority that it deserves.

I thank Maggie Chapman for that question. As is demonstrated in the actions that we take, this Government will always seek to use our devolved powers to the full to support asylum seekers, wherever and whenever we can.

Asylum and immigration are reserved matters, so we have raised a variety of issues directly with the UK Government on our real and growing concerns over the accommodation and treatment of asylum seekers. That includes accommodation and appropriate support, as well as adequate funding to public services.

We have repeatedly requested detail of any investigation that is undertaken by the Home Office following deaths in asylum accommodation in Glasgow, and we have requested an update on the status of recommendations in an internal Home Office report on asylum accommodation during the pandemic. The report appeared in the media in April, but has not yet been made public.

We have not yet received any approach to participate in the inquiry that is led by Baroness Kennedy, but should we do so we will, of course, respond positively and appropriately.

Abuse of any worker, including gamekeepers and other rural workers, is totally unacceptable. The Scottish Government has no plans at this stage to establish a specific task force on that issue. However, we are committed to engaging with gamekeepers and other land managers on the issues that they face.

The Minister for Environment and Land Reform, alongside Scottish Government officials, regularly meets land management stakeholders, including organisations that directly represent gamekeepers. I expect that engagement, including discussions on specific issues relating to gamekeeping, to continue now and as we move forward with tackling the biodiversity and climate emergencies.

We fully understand the frustrations encountered by passengers during disruptions and therefore remain committed to on-going support for vital lifeline services. Since 2018, we have made £14.5 million of funding available for upgrades on the CalMac Ferries vessels through the introduction of the ferries resilience fund. That has helped primarily to replace obsolete systems and reduce the likelihood of breakdown on older vessels. We are also committed to investing a further £580 million in the infrastructure investment plan.

Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd has been tasked with finding suitable additional second-hand tonnage for use on both ferry networks. That has led, for example, to the successful introduction of the MV Loch Frisa on the Mull route.

Overall, since 2007, this Government has invested more than £2 billion in the Clyde and Hebrides ferry service, the northern isles ferry service and ferry infrastructure.

I agree whole-heartedly with the member’s points about the importance of rural workers to our rural communities and to the health, wellbeing and prosperity of our country overall. I made many of those points personally when I had the pleasure of attending the Royal Highland Show at the end of last week.

I said in my opening answer that the Government has no plans to establish a specific gamekeeping task force. However, in the interests of trying to get consensus here, given that the issue has been raised and a renewed request has been made, I will ask the environment minister to consider whether such a task force might have a part to play, and I will revert to the member in due course. Notwithstanding what any decision on that might be, however, I ask the member to accept that we absolutely prioritise on-going engagement with land management stakeholders, including gamekeepers. That engagement will continue, and we will continue to respond to concerns that are raised and work to resolve them. I will also ask the environment minister to meet the member to update her on these matters.

The issue is important. We might disagree on the exact structures and formats through which we will resolve the issues, but I hope that there will be complete unity around the fact that we need to resolve them and support those who work in our rural communities.

I think that it is perhaps Anas Sarwar who has lost a bit of focus over the last period, because, first, he seems to forget that, during the period that he is talking about, there have been three further waves of a pandemic and we have seen staff absences impacting on—[Interruption.] Staff absences have been impacting on the performance of the national health service.

Secondly, Anas Sarwar talks about tools for the national health service, so I will focus a bit on the tools that this Government is providing to the NHS. NHS staffing is up by just under 30,000 whole-time equivalents—23.5 per cent—to a record high under this Government. We have higher staffing per head than in NHS England, record funding for our national health service, the best-performing—although there are still challenges—accident and emergency service anywhere in the United Kingdom for six years running, and higher spend per head than anywhere else in the UK. Those are the tools that we are giving our front-line staff, and, as is the case with police officers, in Scotland we are paying front-line staff more than those in England and Wales are paid.

Thirdly, I will address Anas Sarwar’s political point. He wants to back up the Conservatives on this point; I want to free Scotland from the Conservatives. The worst thing that could ever happen to our NHS is continuing to have Conservative Governments cutting the budget of this Government and this Parliament—[Interruption.]

Important though Sue Webber’s question on residential rehab is, it does not take account of the recent investments and developments in that sphere. We are providing additional funding of £250 million over this session of the Parliament in part to support residential rehab. We are working with alcohol and drug partnerships across Scotland to develop clearer and more consistent pathways into and from rehab because we know that people with problem drug or alcohol use often have other needs. Therefore, we have allocated £20 million of additional funding for residential rehab, £5 million of which is being channelled directly to ADPs to support pathways and placements.