Chamber and committees

We all have fond memories of the Commonwealth games in 2014, which were a marvellous spectacle, but it is important that everyone who is considering and discussing the issue is aware that the proposal that is being brought forward would not replicate the Commonwealth games of 2014, but would be a significantly reduced proposition in comparison.

There are also practical issues about the length of the preparatory time for the games. We had seven years to prepare for 2014, but there is just short of two years to prepare for any games in 2026. There are, of course, significant financial issues and Mr Whittle knows the pressures on the public purse at this time.

Discussions are under way with Commonwealth Games Scotland. The Government is engaging in good faith and will continue to do so.

It is important that we look at all the detail that is relevant in this area. For example, in the programme for government that I announced last Wednesday, we set out our investment programme for a just transition fund in the north-east and in Moray, and we set out our plans to significantly enhance the Scotland’s capacity to generate renewable energy. We have made formidable progress on the decarbonisation of electricity since this Government came to power and achieved significant improvements in that process. The programme for government includes material about the restoration of 10,000 hectares of degraded peatland and the creation of 10,000 hectares of woodlands. A variety of other measures in the programme for government also support our work on climate change.

I want to be crystal clear to Mr Harvie that the Government is absolutely committed to the journey that we have to take on climate. That commitment has underpinned our activities since we came to office in 2007, and it will underpin our activities in the years to come.

The transition has to be made, and it has to made fairly for all communities involved. That is the approach that the Scottish Government will take.

In his last weeks in office as Conservative leader, Douglas Ross really is plumbing the depths in the questions that he puts in Parliament today. His interpretation of the document is, I think, a vindication of that comment.

Douglas Ross knows full well the way in which the Scottish Government’s finances operate. If we suffer a cut of £160 million in our budget courtesy of the Labour Government, we have to respond to that, and we have to act accordingly.

I need no lessons from Douglas Ross about mitigating decisions of the United Kingdom Government, because the Scottish Government is currently mitigating a series of decisions that were taken by Douglas Ross and his colleagues on an on-going basis on the bedroom tax and other measures. We picked up the pieces because of the odious decisions that were taken by the Conservative Government in London, so I will take no lessons from Douglas Ross on that point.

Douglas Ross says to me that there are choices. Of course there are choices. If we followed the Conservatives on what they have said about tax and spending, I would not be cutting the budget by £160 million—I would be cutting it by £2 billion, because that is the reality of the position that the Conservatives put to Parliament. I will take no lessons today from Douglas Ross, as he desperately clutches at straws in his last weeks in office.

The issues at stake here are properly a matter for the local authority to determine, but it has a duty to make the arrangements that it considers necessary for the transport of pupils between home and school and to have regard to their safety. That commitment is a significant element of the guidance that is available, which has to be addressed by the local authority. The local authority’s engagement processes should be designed to ensure that parents and carers can make representations where they are concerned about the safety of their children, and the local authority should take those seriously.

The Government is facing very challenging financial times. Yesterday, I set out that we will deliver on our commitment to ensure that free school meals are available for primary 6 and primary 7 pupils who are eligible for the Scottish child payment.

We will not be able, in this parliamentary session, to roll out universal eligibility across primary 6 and primary 7 pupils, because our budget has been eroded by the fiscal mismanagement and the sky-high inflation that Douglas Ross was party to creating as part of his support for the United Kingdom Government.

On the question of the attainment gap, the Scottish Government has given steadfast support to the education system through the delivery of the Scottish attainment challenge and the provision of pupil equity funding. What do we see? We see that, among young people who are leaving school and going into positive destinations, the attainment gap has reduced by 60 per cent. That is transformational for the lives of young people in Scotland, and I am glad that the Scottish Government has delivered on those commitments.

My commitment to eradicating child poverty is steadfast in the programme for government, and the Government is putting in the resources to make sure that we can achieve that objective. More than £400 million has been spent on the Scottish child payment, which is keeping 100,000 children out of poverty. That is what is happening on this Government’s watch. We have a lower child poverty rate in Scotland—it is far too high for my liking, but it has been made worse by 14 years of the folly and actions of the Conservative Government.

I reassure Mr Sarwar that nobody in the Government—certainly not me and certainly not the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care—is desensitised to the scale of the challenge. We are very much focused on improving the performance of the national health service.

One of the examples that Mr Sarwar cited was children’s access to mental health services. Stronger performance is being delivered there, and I welcome that. That has come about because of the commitment and dedication of staff and the ability to expand the capacity to do that work.

We are taking steps to improve capacity in the health service. On cancer, for example, there is strong performance in terms of the median waits for individuals to receive treatment. Obviously, there will be people who wait longer—I accept that—but we are trying to reduce those waiting times as quickly as we possibly can. Doing so will remain the focus of policy making and decision making in the Scottish Government, and it commands the full attention of the health secretary and myself.

The Government’s commitment to the Promise is absolute. I was in Government when the commitment was originally given, and it will remain steadfast in any Government that I lead.

However, I also recognise the challenges that we face in this regard. Just at the start of the school year, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills published the steps that have been taken in relation to behaviour and attendance in our schools, because we recognise—prompted by constructive discussion in the Parliament—that, in the Covid aftermath, there are significant implications in relation to school attendance and behaviour as a consequence of Covid’s disruptive effect. That affects all young people, and it will have an effect on care-experienced young people into the bargain.

Our focus on addressing those issues will continue. There are, of course, other aspects of work that we are doing that are being implemented as part of our commitment to the Promise. One of them was the enactment of the provisions of the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Act 2024, which ends the placement of children in young offenders institutions in Scotland. I am glad that that came into force on 28 August, and I am deeply grateful to everybody across our system who has made that possible. That is just one other commitment in the Promise that the Government has delivered, and we will deliver more.

Obviously, there is widespread concern about the Eljamel case, which is the subject of a public inquiry that is under way. The health secretary is looking carefully at the issue to determine what approach we can take to ensure that any of the concerns that have been raised in the news article can be addressed as effectively as possible and that any of the information that we hold can be made available to the Libyan authorities as appropriate.