Chamber and committees

The Scottish Government continues to meet the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and individual local authorities on a regular basis to cover a range of topics, including current and future budget pressures.

I was pleased to meet Councillor Stockan on 31 August during my visit to South Uist, which observers will note is not in Orkney, but it was on the occasion of a meeting with three island authority leaders, which took place on South Uist. I responded to Councillor Stockan’s most recent letter on 21 November, confirming that we will make arrangements to meet again at the earliest opportunity.

Section 17 of the Inquiries Act 2005 gives an inquiry chair alone, rather than ministers, responsibility for deciding how an inquiry should operate. It will be for Lord Brailsford to determine how to strike the right balance between addressing the wide range of questions that people have and making sure that the inquiry can be delivered at speed, so that we can learn and benefit from lessons as early as possible. The inquiry will provide information and updates on its website at www.covid19inquiry.scot as it progresses and as the chair considers appropriate.

For Mr Lumsden’s benefit, that is causing acute inflationary pressures and, if Mr Lumsden wants to ask me a supplementary question, I will go into a lot of detail about the inflationary pressures that arise from migration challenges, because all of the available evidence highlights that particular point.

The Scottish Government, through the work of our ministerial population task force, tries to develop concepts such as the rural visa pilot proposal, which is designed to address some of the questions that Emma Roddick has raised with me, but we need a fuller range of responsibilities to enable us to address the negative effects of the migration stance of the UK Government.

Obviously, there are lots of issues to consider in relation to social care reform. As a Government, we look at all the available evidence. A parliamentary process is under way for each committee’s scrutiny of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. The committees will have the ability to consider all manner of questions in relation to social care, and ministers will, of course, listen with care to the evidence that is put forward.

I am not quite sure why Mr MacDonald’s question, which is based on the substantive analysis of the OECD, was met with groans from the Conservative benches, because now, in the United Kingdom, we are wrestling with the economic consequences of Brexit, which was inflicted on us against our will by the Conservative Government. In September, that was added to by the folly of the mini-budget, which was entirely of Conservative design and will cause significant negative impact for many years to come. In addition, the political inertia of the United Kingdom Government since the revelation of partygate in December last year has resulted in there being no effective functioning domestic government in the UK over that period, and the inflationary pressures that arose from energy cost rises were not interrupted over the course of this summer. Therefore, we are dealing with very acute economic difficulties as a consequence of decisions that have been voluntarily taken by the Conservative Government. The implications are significant.

I will do all that I can to protect people from the effects of the Conservatives’ folly, but I cannot protect people from every aspect of the damage that has been done by the United Kingdom Government.

The current financial year’s budget has been significantly diminished by the corrosive effects of inflation. At the same time, demand for Government support and intervention is, understandably, increasing, and we have not received additional funding to compensate for the reduced buying power of that funding. The emergency budget review aimed to support those who need most help, while also managing the nation’s budget, which meant taking difficult decisions to further prioritise spending and find savings.

The Covid recovery strategy, which has been agreed with local government, focuses on reducing systemic inequalities, tackling poverty and supporting the people who have been most affected during the pandemic. Despite the challenges that I have outlined, we remain committed to the strategy and the achievement of its outcomes.

I will certainly do that, Presiding Officer, because the effects of inflation are undermining the purchasing power of our economy. As a consequence of that, and as a consequence of the issues that Emma Roddick raised about the migration stance of the United Kingdom Government, there is acute pressure on the availability of individuals to enter the labour market. We have historically low unemployment and historically high employment in the Scottish labour market now. That is creating acute labour shortages and acute inflationary pressures as a consequence.

The Covid recovery strategy is focused on reducing systemic inequalities, tackling poverty and supporting people most affected during the pandemic. Increasing financial security for low-income households and tackling child poverty are central to achieving our vision of a Covid recovery that is firmly based on a fairer future.

The extension of the Scottish child payment to children under 16 means that more than 400,000 children are now potentially eligible. We have demonstrated our ambition to achieve our challenging child poverty targets by further increasing the value of the payment to £25 per child per week.

What Mr Halcro Johnston misses out is the fact that the Government has substantially increased investment in ferry services in Scotland. When the ferries plan was developed in 2012, if my memory serve me right, the budget was a bit over £100 million, and it is now well over £300 million. Substantial investment has been made in ferry services and in road equivalent tariff. The Government works constructively with individual island authorities to maximise their economic potential, which will continue to be the case with Orkney Islands Council.

I understand and sympathise entirely with the point that Collette Stevenson has advanced. The analysis that the IPPR has provided has demonstrated quite clearly the negative impact of the benefit cap and the two-child limit as being both unjust and unfair.

All Governments must take action to address child poverty issues. As I said in my opening answer, the Scottish Government has introduced the Scottish child payment, which is available only in Scotland—it is not available in any other part of the UK. However, our efforts to lift substantial numbers of children out of poverty would be substantially assisted by the removal of the two-child limit and the benefit cap. That could be of enormous assistance in addressing the issue of child poverty.