Chamber and committees

The United Kingdom Government will make its financial decisions, and Mr Findlay is well able to make his representations to it. I point out that, when the Conservative Government was in power, it was not shy about putting tax on Scotch whisky into the bargain. It is nice to know that Mr Findlay has had a conversion on the road to Damascus on that particular question.

Significant issues affect the Scotch whisky industry. That is why the Government has had extensive dialogue with the Scotch Whisky Association, and it is why I will be engaging with it when I am in the United States over the next few days to mark tartan week.

I assure Mr Findlay that the Government will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that we take forward the concerns of the industry and will work with the United Kingdom Government and the industry to protect its prospects, given that it contributes very significantly to the economic wellbeing of Scotland.

Well, that is just what we hear from Jackie Baillie every single week, and it ignores—[Interruption.] It ignores the facts of what is going on.

Jackie Baillie raised some really important issues about cancer care. I want to reassure members of the public—[Interruption.]

The budget that the Scottish Government has successfully put to Parliament, and which is now going to be implemented, involves more than £700 million of business rate reductions for companies in Scotland, and that is just one of the pro-business measures in the Scottish Government’s budget. There is also the investment that we make in the enterprise agencies and in our representation overseas, which, of course, the Conservatives are opposed to.

Mr Findlay makes his call for business tax reductions, but he also made a call in the budget for income tax reductions, which would reduce public expenditure by £1 billion and would undermine the investment that we are making in the economy.

I can reassure Mr Findlay that the Scottish Government has taken forward an economic agenda that has seen gross domestic product per person in Scotland grow by 10.3 per cent, compared with 6 per cent in the United Kingdom. That is the record of a Government that is investing in the economy to boost economic performance and to create jobs and wealth in this country. That is what my Government is all about, and that is what we are delivering for people in Scotland.

The Government is working carefully to ensure that we have a sustainable prison estate. That involves ensuring that we have adequate capacity in the prison estate but that we also take measures to shift the balance of criminal justice, where it is safe to do so, to enable individuals to have different approaches to remedy as a result of criminal justice cases, rather than simply the option of incarceration.

The Scottish Government has no hostility to the oil and gas sector—[Interruption.] I will say it again to reassure the Conservatives that they heard it the first time—[Interruption.]

As Mr Ewing knows, I am a very strong believer in the rule of law. The issues that are—[Interruption.]

Apparently, the Conservatives believe in free speech—unless it is me who is speaking. Really!

Liam Kerr has said that there is a lack of a holistic strategy, and he has then gone on to suggest one of the options that could be considered as part of such a strategy. I dispute Mr Kerr’s claim—I think that we have a holistic strategy. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs has been completely open with the Parliament about all the challenges that we face, and, in my opinion, she has handled those challenges superbly well.

Liam Kerr has asked me for a holistic strategy but has ruled out one of the possible options in that regard. If the Conservatives want to be treated seriously—it is becoming increasingly difficult to treat them seriously because of the way in which they go about exercising their politics, as one of their members has found out and has today publicly made clear is the case—they should engage constructively in a debate about how we can meet the real challenges that this Government is focused on addressing.

Government officials have been in dialogue with Dumfries and Galloway Council on the issue. Obviously, the bridge is part of the local authority infrastructure, and the local authority has an obligation to bring forward plans to ensure that the closure of the bridge, which I understand is disrupting connections between communities in Kirkcudbright, is properly addressed. The local authority cannot ignore the issue of public safety, but if there is any advisory support that the Government can make available, I would be happy to arrange such discussions with the local authority.

I should be transparent in saying that the issue affects my constituency and that I am closely connected to the concerns of my constituents on the matter. NHS Tayside has the responsibility for working with the local community and general practitioners on the provision of physical facilities to meet the needs of the local population, and I am engaging in those discussions in my capacity as the local member of Parliament. It seems unacceptable to me that patients in the Errol area and in surrounding villages in the Carse of Gowrie would have to travel the extensive distances that Claire Baker has set out. I will work with NHS Tayside to address the issue and find a solution to that particular challenge.

There is a lot of merit in the concept of shared banking facilities. I have been exploring that very possibility in the highland Perthshire area of my constituency, so I understand the difficulties that Rachael Hamilton cites.

I encourage banks to work together on that proposition. There are a number of examples in Scotland of banks coming together as a way of trying to broaden access to cash in rural areas. I understand the viability challenges that individual banks find in particular towns, but there are solutions to be sought on a collaborative basis, and I encourage the various banks to engage constructively in local areas on that question.