Chamber and committees

I understand the importance of the point that Mr Doris puts to me. I can confirm that the Minister for Public Finance, Ivan McKee, has written to the UK Government on the question.

In the absence of banking facilities, post offices become central to the delivery of access to finance for individuals. I note the concerns that Mr Doris has raised and that there was a parliamentary debate on the subject the other day, led by Kenneth Gibson. That provides an illustration of the degree of parliamentary concern on the question.

I confirm that that letter has been written, and we will engage with the UK Government to try to find a different approach to that flawed process.

The first point that I will make is that figures published this week show that record levels of attainment in literacy and numeracy have been achieved in our schools and that the attainment gap in literacy has reduced to its lowest level ever. The attainment gap in positive destinations has reduced by 60 per cent since 2009-10, with 92.8 per cent of school leavers being in positive destinations nine months after leaving school in 2022-23. Figures published just today show that, when young people leave school, more Scottish students than ever before are securing places at university, including record numbers of students from our most deprived communities.

In addition, the Government has secured agreement with local authorities on an increase in teacher numbers. We have also secured agreement about reducing teacher contact time to give teachers and professionals the opportunity to develop their practice, and we are putting in place resources to improve the levels of attendance in our schools, which are lower as a consequence of the Covid pandemic. We need to work hard with individual pupils to rebuild their attendance at school. That is the set of actions of a Government that is determined to strengthen Scottish education and deliver for the people of Scotland.

I take great heart from the motion on the budget that was agreed to by the Parliament last night. The only people who voted against the motion were the Conservatives and Anas Sarwar. Despite Mr Sarwar’s opposition, I am generally more hopeful and optimistic that we are moving in the right direction. The Parliament approved our motion, which welcomed the steps in the draft budget

“to introduce a universal Winter Heating Payment and create the systems necessary to effectively scrap the two-child benefit cap in 2026, and looks forward to further engagement between the Scottish Government and the parties represented in the Parliament in advance of the next stage in the budget process.”

I welcome the fact that the Parliament supported the motion.

The Conservatives are in a poor place and are obviously not prepared to be part of the dialogue. They do not even want to have more discussion about the budget; they have closed the door on that.

I hope that Mr Sarwar will recover from his little indiscretion last night and that the vote indicates that we are moving towards a point of agreement. We deliberately constructed the budget in the hope that there would be broad agreement in the Parliament on the investment in health, local government, housing and culture funding. I encourage the Parliament to support the provisions in the budget.

Mr Golden has raised a significant and serious issue. On the general position, the budget settlement includes more than £1.1 billion of funding for teaching and research in our universities, which will be distributed by the Scottish Funding Council. As Mr Golden will appreciate, the University of Dundee is an independent institution, as are all universities, but it is in all our interests that those independent institutions are able to thrive and flourish. Like Mr Golden, I am concerned about the situation at the University of Dundee, which is an important university in the locality that I represent.

The Scottish Funding Council has been engaging with the University of Dundee, as has the higher education minister, Graeme Dey. The Funding Council will work closely with the university, on the understanding that the Government wishes to be kept very close to the discussions to ensure that we can provide exactly the reassurance that Mr Golden has asked of me, because it is vital that the university community feels confident about the future.

The University of Dundee is a magnificent institution that has tremendous strength in a variety of sectors, not least its contribution to life sciences research in Scotland. It is vital that the university gets a vote of confidence from the Parliament, and I am grateful to Mr Golden for providing me with the opportunity to say exactly that.

I have made it clear that unacceptable behaviour in our schools must be tackled in our schools. We have provided the approaches that are necessary to do that, and schools should feel empowered to do that.

However, we will not be able to increase teacher numbers if we follow Mr Findlay’s plans. This is the third week in which I have reminded Parliament of the folly that Mr Findlay has put in front of us. He has argued for a tax cut of £1 billion in public expenditure, which would reduce public spending by £1 billion. The savings that he has identified total £54 million. There is a £950 million gaping hole—[Interruption.]

Mr Choudhury has raised a very significant issue, and I have naturally been very close to the issues that have been raised in that regard in the past couple of days.

First, I make it clear that the greatest importance is attached to ensuring the safety of all services in the national health service, and that must be especially the case for maternity services. We have taken forward the Scottish patient safety programme perinatal programme, which has received a great deal of international commendation because of its focus on improving patient safety. We have also taken steps to increase the number of qualified midwives, and there has been an increase in that number over the past 10 years, especially in the past year.

However, all that said, the issues that have been raised publicly about the climate in NHS Lothian maternity services are not acceptable, and they must be addressed. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is insisting that NHS Lothian addresses those issues, because mothers must feel safe going into maternity services.

I consider, on the best advice that is available to me, that those services are safe, and I reiterate that point to Mr Choudhury today. However, I do not want in any way to suggest anything other than that there must be improvements in the relationships in NHS Lothian maternity services to ensure that the fundamental concerns that whistleblowers have raised are properly and fully resolved, because that will be in the interests of mothers and babies in those maternity services.

On Tuesday, the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills made a statement to the Parliament setting out the Government’s long-term strategy for Scottish education. In addition to that, data was set out to the Parliament, as I have rehearsed, on the narrowing of the attainment gap and improvements in attainment in our education system.

The Government takes forward its education priorities in consultation with all stakeholders in the education system. That is why the Government will take forward an education assurance board with local authorities, which have the statutory and legal obligation to deliver education in our communities the length and breadth of the country.

The Government will support that endeavour. We have put more resources into additional support needs, which were proposed in the budget and argued for by the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills. We have allocated more resources to boost local government funding, so that local authorities have more choice for investment. We have taken forward a behaviour in schools action plan, and we have taken forward steps to ensure that the attainment gap is narrowed.

Pam Duncan-Glancy will have to start making some choices. She has to decide whether she will support the Government’s budget in February. I am getting a bit more encouraged that the Labour Party might actually see sense and might see that an investment has to be made in public services. That will happen only if the Government’s budget passes in the Parliament. It is time for the Labour Party to get off the fence and support the Government’s budget.

I hope that I have given Parliament enough reassurance about the seriousness with which I take the issue. However, I have to say that non-fatal strangulation is treated as a very serious criminal matter. I understand the rationale and the argument for a stand-alone offence, but I do not want these exchanges to suggest in any way that the practice, which I deplore, does not, under common law, carry a very serious criminal penalty of up to life imprisonment. It is a very serious offence. We will consider whether it should be a stand-alone offence, but I do not want these exchanges to suggest in any way that the penalties for that type of behaviour are anything other than very serious.

There is a gaping hole of £950 million of public spending cuts in Mr Findlay’s plans. When I watched him being interviewed on television on Sunday, he could not provide one specific answer to any of the questions about where those cuts would come. It was an embarrassing interview, which the Conservative Party should be embarrassed about.

There are school pupils watching this exchange from the gallery and I say that if the behaviour of the members of the Conservative Party in this chamber was prevalent in our country’s schools it would need to be confronted and that the Conservatives are a disgrace to this Parliament.