Companies that are putting on shows in two years need to know that they will have the money. Let us come together and support the Labour motion, and let us have a refreshed strategy—

I thank the minister for advance notice of her statement. We in Scottish Labour also send our condolences to the families who have lost a loved one. The floods have had a devastating impact on people’s homes, on businesses and on farming communities.

I also thank the emergency services and communities for coming together to support people in their time of need. I welcome the fact that the Bellwin scheme has been activated to support local authorities, given the scale of the damage that has been caused, but lessons must be learned urgently.

The Brechin scheme was built only seven years ago and was designed to deal with a one-in-200-years incident. We urgently need to understand why it failed to protect the communities that it was designed to serve. That will be critical to planning for new infrastructure. Can the cabinet secretary say what the timescale is for publishing an analysis of why the damage was so severe? What work is being done to review existing and planned flood prevention infrastructure? What will be done to accelerate flood resilience to support communities, businesses and farmers?

Finally, I agree that the climate crisis will lead to more extreme and unpredictable weather. How will we make sure that all our transport infrastructure—road and rail—is resilient and equipped to deal with the more extreme weather that we will face?

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to reduce retail crime. (S6O-02628)

I congratulate Maggie Chapman on securing the debate and on her speech.

As others have said, this summer, we saw the impact of climate change right across Europe—we have discussed that in previous debates. Temperatures across southern Europe reached 40°C, and that is now being discussed as the kind of temperature level that we might experience in the future. In the middle east, the temperature reached 50°C, and countries in east Asia have been experiencing very high temperatures for a long time. However, I think that this summer brought things home to us.

Colleagues and constituents will have had horrendous experiences over the past few weeks. Two weeks ago, we had a month’s rain in 24 hours, which saw our railway industry come to a halt, and, this afternoon, we discussed the impact of storm Babet. However, countries such as Bangladesh and Pakistan have experienced major and damaging floods for years. This is not new to them. We woke up to it when we saw the scale of the flood in Pakistan last year, which impacted 33 million people. The scale of that is hard for us to imagine but, when we start looking at the issue, we see that Bangladesh had floods more than a decade ago that had a massive impact on the country. We have been waking up to the issue slowly. For countries in sub-Saharan Africa, and in east Africa in particular, drought has a massive impact on their capacity to grow food and access clean drinking water, which leads to vulnerability to diseases.

We have to be up front that the climate emergency has been here for a long time but that we have not reached the stage at which we have begun to deliver the support that we need to.

I was going to talk about two key areas in which we need to act, but Maurice Golden has made me add another. First, we need to work together to deliver on our own climate targets. There is a leadership issue in that regard. The fact that the industrial revolution started in central Scotland is something that we can be proud of, although we should not necessarily be proud of the climate emissions. We need to think that through in relation to our homes and buildings, transport and land. The leadership that we could provide by meeting our own radical targets would be important.

Secondly, on the points that Maurice Golden made about a circular economy, we have had cross-party groups and briefings, and we have a bill in front of us. It is about thinking about how we take responsibility and do not simply use our waste more wisely but create less in the first place by reusing, repairing and remaking. We need to do more in relation to those difficult angles.

The third issue is what everybody has been talking about today, which is leading on climate justice, loss and damage. Two years ago, we started debating the issue in the cross-party group on international development, and we heard incredibly powerful evidence from different countries about the impact that climate change was having at that time. They came up with clear and specific asks for us in order to see progress at COP26. We heard from Maggie Chapman and Nicola Sturgeon today about the leadership role that we played as a country in making the recommendations, but we have not seen the progress that we would want to. At COP27, we agreed the principle, but we have not seen the action that we need in advance of COP28.

I thank SCIAF and Oxfam for the briefings that they sent in advance of today’s debate. Both were incredibly useful. In looking at what loss and damage mean in practice, we have to look at the impact on countries that need the funding now, particularly low-income and middle-income countries. The money needs to be accessible to communities in the global south so that they can decide how it is spent. It also needs to be restorative and in the form of grants, not loans. That issue has come up in the cross-party group on international development. There is a huge impact on the health and education services of low-income countries that have massive debts that they are not able to pay off. It is crucial to see loss and damage funding as investment and grants and to use subsidiarity principles underpinned by human rights.

The information from SCIAF about the impact of climate change included the point that, according to United Nations statistics, women and children are 14 times more likely to die in a disaster than men and that, with every disaster, women’s rights and progress are threatened. It is a now issue, with impacts right across the world.

The last point that I will make is that we need an efficient and effective response through loss and damage funding. We need to provide not only a rapid response but long-term support. We can be proud of the UK’s Disasters Emergency Committee, and we can see that members of the public are happy to donate. People who have cash are willing to make donations, but the challenge is that we need long-term support. We need support not only for charities but for countries in order that they can make the investment that will protect people from future climate disasters. We need to give them the resource to invest, adapt and tackle the challenge, which is a now issue.

We know that we will have more and more extreme weather events such as droughts, floods and cyclones, and that low-income countries will be most impacted. We have a duty and a responsibility, so coming together today is not only symbolic but important.

The latest survey of more than 7,500 shop workers by the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers found that incidents of violence, threats and abuse had doubled since 2016. That shows the challenging reality that retailers and their workers face daily.

The Scottish Grocers Federation has approached the Scottish Government to fund a renewal of its Don’t Put Up With It campaign, which encourages retailers to take a zero-tolerance approach by reporting all offences. Will the minister support that request from the federation?

In closing the debate for Scottish Labour, I feel as if I have gone back in time, because this is exactly the same debate as the one we had last year about the proposed cuts to the Creative Scotland budget that would have had a huge impact on a sector that was facing a perfect storm.

Our motion is absolutely clear, so it is so good to hear members across the chamber accepting that the creative sector makes a huge contribution to the Scottish economy, because culture is part of who we are as a country. The Edinburgh festivals have an impact in my region. They also have a global reach and create jobs and opportunities for people to access culture on their doorsteps, but many people who live in our area still find it hard to afford to go to the festivals. We have to make our culture affordable across the country.

Scottish Labour has worked hard with the sector, because the challenge of uncertain annual funding has had huge impacts on it. Putting on cultural events needs long-term planning and commitment to be successful—not in-year budget cuts and vague promises. Last year, the evidence sessions at the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee were powerful. John Leighton summed it up by saying that the challenge was to

“keep the lights on and doors open”.—[Official Report, Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee, 29 September 2022; c 25.]

It is therefore absolutely heartbreaking to hear the evidence that has been given at committee this year and which Neil Bibby quoted in his speech. The evidence is powerful, because the sector is facing the same challenges and has been worried that it will get more cuts. Organisations such as Culture Counts and the trade unions have done a fantastic job of standing up for their members and our communities by making the case for investing in culture.

It is important that the SNP Government does not just talk about culture. Warm words will not cut it; we need to see the evidence. That is why we have asked again and again when the £100 million will be allocated and how it will be spent. We have had two years in which cuts have been proposed in the budget, and we have potential U-turns. That is the last thing that our culture sector needs.

If you are going to give us the detail as to exactly how you are going to spend it even in this year’s budget, that would be a step forward.

Again, that does not clarify the issue of this year’s budget, at all. The creative organisations are waiting, and are praying that they will get the resources.

In Edinburgh—as Alex Cole-Hamilton and Foysol Choudhury mentioned—we have a fundraising campaign by the Filmhouse team. They have two weeks—[Interruption.]

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. My system is still attempting to connect to the digital voting platform. I would have voted yes.

That is an excellent point, and it came across at the event last night. Young people are actually very well organised and one thing that struck me is their ability to access data through digital connectivity. That is something that they are increasingly using, so it would be good if schools could match that approach.

One of the things that has been discussed a lot today is that the transition from being in the armed services to returning to civilian life is not always easy or straightforward, and a lot more needs to be done to support our veterans and, as Mr Whitfield has just commented, their families, too, because those years in service can come at a personal cost to people’s health and wellbeing. It is more important than ever that the collaborative partnerships that are referenced in the Scottish Government’s motion today are actually put into place between the public sector, the private sector and the third sector to ensure that the veterans and armed forces community get the best possible support and access to services.

Supporting health and wellbeing is essential, and the transition to new lives needs housing to be in the right place and employment opportunities to be made available. Those were key issues on which there was agreement across the chamber today, which I think is important.

There were also many comments about the excellent work that is done by local organisations. I thought that Paul Sweeney’s points about the helping heroes project in Glasgow, which does fantastic work, were particularly important, but other organisations across the country are doing similar work. As Ivan McKee noted, Whitefoord house, which is across the road from the Parliament, is run by the Scottish Veterans Housing Association and has supported and provided homes for veterans for decades.

Sight Scotland, in my region, also does important work. Its new lawn bowling team competed in the vision impairment bowling Scotland league, with matches taking place all over Scotland, and its newly created charity team took part in its first league match recently at the Jessfield bowling club in Portobello in Edinburgh. Members might not think that that is important, but when we read some of the briefings by groups such as Sight Scotland, we understand the critical importance of the associated social and cultural connections for veterans, with visits and opportunities for people to take up new life experiences and inclusive activities. That also applies to the work that is done to enable digital connectivity in order to access new skills or relearn vital life skills, particularly for those who have lost their sight through their service.

Another issue that came up several times today was the important work of the Scottish Veterans Commissioner, and her contribution on health and wellbeing, employment and skills is welcome. I want to repeat the comments that have been made by others about the two areas where she felt that more progress is urgently needed. As Paul Sweeney commented, there is slow progress on delivering mental health and wellbeing support, and I hope that the Scottish Government will pick up on that, because veterans might have experienced what for us would be unimaginable pressures, and they need to be supported. Willie Rennie also made some insightful comments about the importance of support.

Before I close, I want to comment on the homelessness prevention pathway for veterans. It was produced last year, but, as the commissioner said, little has been achieved to date, and progress in implementing that much-needed pathway is slow, with no clear milestones or timelines provided. That has been raised by several colleagues across the chamber. I say to the minister that dedicated housing needs investment, and the issue is important.