If it is brief. Will I get the time back?

I thank the member for that acknowledgement. It is definitely a practical way to create jobs, lower bills and deliver on climate ambitions.

What I was going to say was that I did not anticipate the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body-appointed commissioners review and the conclusions that it came to. I have been absolutely clear from the start that my proposals for a commissioner were not about appointing an advocacy commissioner. In the responses to my consultation and to that of the Scottish Government, there was strong support for having someone who is independent, who can provide guidance to help to implement wellbeing and sustainable development principles and, crucially, who will have the investigatory powers that would be used to hold public sector bodies to account. In the view of many stakeholders, our Parliament needs the capacity to make sure that that happens.

The work of our committees is vital, but colleagues need to reflect on the challenge that we face in the capacity of our committees to carry out the work that was called for in the 2021 election. It also begs the question whether the Scottish Government has been performing that oversight role effectively to date, especially given the failure of the national performance framework to deliver as intended.

The sustainable development goals are meant to be delivered by 2030. There is a real danger that short-termism and the lack of the joined-up thinking that is needed to push wellbeing and sustainable development up the agenda will mean that we miss out on the investment that we need to make now to support future generations. We have the experience of Wales, where the legislation was passed a decade ago and which is now being served by its second future generations commissioner. It is inspiring to hear about the success of its work, the culture shift that it has delivered and its five ways of working.

When the Scottish Government decided not to proceed with its bill, although I was absolutely delighted that the Deputy First Minister said that she would be prepared to work with me constructively on my bill, I did not anticipate that the minister would say that he was not going to support it. I was deeply disappointed by that. We are here today after the Social Justice and Social Security Committee’s extensive consideration of the proposals in my bill. Notwithstanding my disappointment, there are some incredibly helpful recommendations in its report, and I hope that the Scottish Government will respond to them positively and with clarity.

The committee recognises the importance of policy coherence, and my view is that guidance is needed to embed wellbeing and sustainable development in policy making. The committee also questions the Scottish Government on oversight and the measurement of the implementation of national outcomes. I thought that it was significant that the committee specifically asked the Scottish Government to clarify, if there was not to be a commissioner, who would provide guidance, support and oversight, but there was no clear answer in the minister’s response to the committee.

The committee noted the evidence that, in the absence of clear statutory directives linked to a shared long-term national vision, there is no accountability. If the Scottish Government will not back my bill, will it consider strengthening the duties in the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015?

As Carnegie UK also stressed, a point was raised in extensive evidence to the Finance and Public Administration Committee about the need to reform the national performance framework so that it works. Will the Scottish Government commit to that, as well as to the committee’s recommendation that it should set a time period to evaluate the impact of a revised national performance framework on the delivery of wellbeing and sustainable development outcomes? The national performance framework is being reviewed, so we do not have the answers in front of us.

I hope that the issues raised in the committee report, which the Scottish Government has not yet given clear commitments to act on, will be reflected in the legacy papers that committees prepare in the final few weeks of the current parliamentary session. What can be done now, without waiting for future legislation? Which committee in the next session of Parliament will be responsible for delivering the wellbeing and sustainable development goals? How will the SPCB deliver the accountability and oversight that we have, for years, consulted on, supported and campaigned for? We urgently need answers to those questions, because we cannot let Scotland fall behind.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees to the general principles of the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill.

14:34

Does the member accept that it would be possible to establish memorandums of understanding with existing commissioners so that there is no overlap? For example, I discussed with the Auditor General that overlap and a waste of public money can be avoided by having constructive conversations at the start, just as took place in the case of the Welsh commissioner.

Will the reformed national performance framework enable measurement against national outcomes, wellbeing principles and sustainable development goals? Will it include best-value audits so that there are ways to monitor implementation and ensure that the reformed NPF does not fail as the previous one has failed?

Stakeholders have made some helpful, proportionate and well-crafted comments about the issue of procurement. There is the capacity to amend the bill as it goes from stage 1 to stages 2 and 3. I am keen to engage with stakeholders between stages 1 and 2 because I think that we could resolve some of those issues. Does the member agree?

Will the member take an intervention?

Other countries are implementing future generations legislation and there is a danger that we will fall behind. The School of International Futures has been sharing best practice globally, and it is time for us to act. As Clare Adamson correctly observed, the Christie commission recommended action—to prevent, not cure; to invest now, to save; and to keep people well and healthy.

However, we are still not delivering the joined-up thinking and action needed. It is not just about climate change; it is about broad, intersectional issues such as poverty and inequality and how those issues interact. Fifteen years on from the Christie commission, we are not getting that joined-up thinking to address wellbeing and sustainable development goals. As I said in my opening speech, we should be delivering the SDGs by 2030—that is less than five years away. We need on-going leadership and accountability, which are not happening. We cannot keep kicking the can down the road.

During the periods of consultation for my bill and for the Government’s proposed bill, I met several ministers, but they have all moved on, either to different responsibilities in the Parliament or from being ministers. Professor Colin Reid noted in his briefing to the committee that before our Parliament was established, it was recommended that there should be action on sustainable development. When I was appointed to Donald Dewar’s Cabinet, I set up a cross-ministerial working group on sustainable development—but I cannot tell you how long it lasted, because I did not last very long as a minister.

I reflect on the fact that, when ministers change, when there are reshuffles and when people move around the committees, we do not get on-going scrutiny. That is one reason why a full-time commissioner would be important: to be accountable to the Parliament and to our committees, and to have that head space and on-going responsibility. We need to make sure that future Parliaments continue to prioritise the issue. That needs strong leadership and accountability.

We need to think about how we hold the Scottish Government to account on the issue. Our public sector bodies need effective guidance and advice. They are under huge pressure, and they need clarity on how to translate wellbeing and sustainable development into culture change, new priorities and the investment that we need.

The national performance framework was established in 2009 and was refreshed in 2018. In his follow-up evidence to the committee, Max French noted that, in his research, he

“could not locate a single national policy in Scotland that the NPF has significantly impacted”.

He also noted that the evidence from Wales was that the Welsh wellbeing framework

“was far more systematically integrated in decision making than the NPF was in Scotland.”

There are lessons to be learned in that regard.

The need for action that generated support for my member’s bill and the Scottish Government’s initial bill proposal will not go away. I am very grateful to the committee for coming up with so many constructive recommendations. We need to get on and implement them.

One observation that the committee made was that it did not want to create

“confusion, duplication and additional complexity”,

but given the number of times sustainable development has been referred to in various pieces of legislation that have been passed since the Parliament was established, I think that the definition in my bill would provide clarity and guidance.

Patrick Harvie made a clever and constructive set of comments about the establishment of a future generations commissioner. He said that we could agree to the bill at stage 1 and then include in it a commencement date for the provisions on a commissioner that would enable us to link that with the review of the national performance framework. However, I do not think that that is going to happen this evening.

Comments have been made about the situation in Wales. It has been evidenced that a change of culture has been delivered in Welsh public bodies as a result of the ability of the Future Generations Commissioner for Wales to hold people to account.

We are coming to the end of the parliamentary session, and we need to think about not only the current population of Scotland but our legacy to future generations. That is a key ambition of the stakeholders that I have been working with, such as Carnegie, Scotland’s International Development Alliance, Oxfam and the Wellbeing Economy Alliance, as well as a host of other organisations and individuals.

I still strongly believe that my bill should be progressed to stage 2. It is not long, and it could be strengthened to pick up on the points that have been made in the chamber and in the evidence. We do not want to fall behind other legislatures.

I know that there will not be enough support across the chamber for my bill to be agreed to at stage 1, so I will finish on this point. I strongly support the committee’s recommendation that consideration be given to a session 7 committee that would have responsibility for future generations, sustainable development and intergenerational equity. That is really important. The question of how the SPCB will deliver the accountability and oversight that those who were consulted supported also needs to be considered. We need answers to those questions.

I will finish by thanking colleagues for their positive comments. I am not standing for election again in May, but I can tell members now that I will not stop campaigning. If the bill is not agreed to at stage 1 tonight, I will still give my views when we finally get the national performance framework consultation, and, in doing so, I will pick up on the fantastic contributions that we have had in support of my bill. The issues are not going away.

Does the member agree that additional resources would be required? If he read the evidence from Audit Scotland, he will remember that it said that having extra duties to implement some of the measures in my bill would require more resources and could divert Audit Scotland from its existing work.

You need to plan ahead; you cannot just do it.

No—it is just a reflection. The Deputy First Minister mentioned some projects, and I have just mentioned the fact that we have not heard anything about the Berwick bank project and the potential for building the turbines in Scotland—in Leith.