Chamber and committees

I will start again so that the Conservatives can properly hear what the voice of business is telling us about the budget. The Scottish Retail Consortium said:

“Whilst the proposed Scottish Budget is far from perfect and has flaws, there is much in it that retailers can get behind.”

It added:

“our hope is that ministers and”—[Interruption.]

Rachael Hamilton is now laughing at the voice of business in our Parliament. That is where the Conservative Party has now descended to. [Interruption.]

The Scottish Retail Consortium said:

“our hope is that ministers and MSPs can work collegiately to pass the Budget”.

In addition, Shelter Scotland has welcomed the Government’s investment in affordable housing, and local government has indicated that the budget represents a strong investment package.

There we have it. The views of child poverty organisations, business, local government and the housing sector in Scotland demonstrate that this is a budget for unity in Scotland. It is not a surprise that the populist Conservatives are having nothing to do with it.

My speech on Monday was designed to set out the very serious issues that Scotland will face if the budget does not pass. We must have cool heads and a clear process to go through to secure agreement on the Government’s budget, because all that I said on Monday will come to pass if there is no agreement on the budget.

A process is under way within the Scottish Parliament to agree that and we are engaging in constructive discussions with all parties. I made it clear on Tuesday that, despite the comments that Mr Sarwar made on the radio that day, I do not in any way take the passage of the budget for granted. That is why this Government will fulfil, under my direction, its duty to engage constructively with all parties to secure a parliamentary majority and to ensure that we can deliver progress for Scotland.

This winter, we are forecasted to invest more than £65 million in our three winter heating benefits, which will provide vital support to more than 630,000 people with their energy bills. Additionally, we have increased investment in our warmer homes Scotland scheme by a further £20 million, taking the total investment to £85 million this financial year. That will help around 1,500 additional households to save an average of £400 a year each on their heating bills, thereby helping to tackle fuel poverty. We have also invested an additional £20 million in the Scottish welfare fund—no national equivalent of which is available elsewhere in the United Kingdom—to enable councils to provide more vital support to people in crisis this winter.

This year, we are committing more than £3 billion to policies that tackle poverty and, as far as possible, protect people during the on-going cost of living crisis. That commitment is an essential part of the Scottish Government’s work. This year alone, we are spending £154 million on activities to mitigate UK Government policies through schemes such as discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare fund, which provide vital support to households.

Given the agenda for change that was supposed to come from a Labour Government, we might have expected that many of the issues that we were previously mitigating because of the previous Conservative Government’s callousness would have been removed, but they have just been carried on. Indeed, on winter fuel payments, they have been made worse. People in Scotland will realise that it is the SNP Scottish Government that will act to protect those who face difficulty and that they will not get such support from a Labour Government.

In six weeks’ time, will the Conservatives vote against a winter fuel payment for pensioners or will they not? From all that I can—[Interruption.]

From what I can deduce, the Conservatives will turn their backs on pensioners in Scotland in six weeks’ time. [Interruption.] What pensioners in Scotland can rely on is the Scottish National Party Government.

As I indicated in my earlier answer, the Scottish Government decommissioned all Hikvision cameras across its estate last year. Liz Smith asks me for a further audit of that activity. She will appreciate that I can explore that issue in relation to Scottish Government activity. In relation to my ability to explore that in independent organisations such as local authorities, I suspect that the power for me to compel such an exploration does not exist; however, I could invite them to do that.

I will take away Liz Smith’s points and explore whether there is more that the Government can do to better align the activities of all public authorities in Scotland to address the legitimate points that have been accepted by the Government and that she has put to me today.

National planning framework 4, which was published in February 2023, was a turning point for planning in Scotland. The Scottish Government has since monitored its impact and the delivery programme was last updated in October 2024. It showed that there has been positive progress in delivering NPF4 strategy principles and national planning policies. Planning decisions are for local planning authorities in the first instance, and we continue to work with them on applying NPF4 policies and practice.

Emerging local development plans will also reflect NPF4 in each part of Scotland. The Minister for Public Finance leads on that work, with a sharp focus on improving planning authority capacity and performance. That is a key part of our response to the housing emergency, including on-going work to unlock stalled sites for development.

First, I commend Mr MacGregor on his leadership of the cross-party group on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. He is correct that I have had a great deal of engagement with the group and with that area of policy in my previous roles in the Government.

I take the issue of child abuse extremely seriously. It is abhorrent and, as is a matter of record, the Government has taken a number of actions, including the establishment of the inquiry that is led by Lady Smith, to examine and confront the issues.

The Scottish Government absolutely accepts the point that Mr MacGregor makes about the importance of the issue being addressed by professionals. I want to be very clear in saying that, in Scotland, professionals already have a professional duty to report child abuse. A practitioner’s failure to do so could constitute a breach of their employment contract, lead to disciplinary action or give rise to a claim for civil damages. Practitioners could also be struck off social work, teaching or medical registers for gross misconduct.

We are, however, considering the United Kingdom Government’s proposed planned approach to mandatory reporting, and we will consider all relevant recommendations that come out of the independent Scottish child abuse inquiry that I referred to.