Chamber and committees

I point out to members of the public in the gallery and to members of the public who are watching at home that, in all that diatribe from Mr Sarwar, six months before an election, he did not offer a single solution to the issues that we face.

In addition, when it comes to him putting his finger on the button to vote for a budget that would provide for police numbers, prison officers and prisons, Mr Sarwar does not vote for the Government’s provisions. What we have heard from him is just rhetoric and hypocrisy. I am proud to defend a record that includes our having one of the lowest levels of crime since 1974, and I will set that out to the people of Scotland.

Mr Greer will know from his detailed experience of engaging with the Government that we set out our tax proposals in relation to the budget, and that is exactly what the Government will do. We will give every consideration to those questions.

I am absolutely at one with Mr Greer’s concern about inequality in this country. That is why my Government is driven by the determination to eradicate child poverty, in which, as a consequence of the tax decisions that we have made, we are making progress in being the only part of the United Kingdom to have a falling level of child poverty, when it is projected to rise in every other part.

On some of the suggestions that Mr Greer has made, as he knows from his previous engagement—indeed, I have been engaged with some of these questions personally—we have explored some of the practical aspects of the proposals that he has put to us, and we have not been able to find a pathway that would work effectively without consequences that would be damaging to the policy intention. We have used the land and buildings transaction tax, for example, to weight tax charges towards the higher end of the income spectrum.

As I say, we will consider those issues in the formulation of the Government’s budget.

There will be issues in relation to the release of the full report that I am not sighted on today. The Lord Advocate has, in her period in office since 2021, brought to Government an intense focus on the awful experience of victims in our criminal justice system. I pay tribute to her for the work that she has undertaken to bring the perpetrators of heinous crimes to justice. I will therefore ask her whether there can be further dialogue with Mr and Mrs Inglis on the contents of the report in order to ensure that the issues about which they remain concerned can be properly and fully aired.

There may well be issues in relation to data handling, with which Mr Findlay will be familiar, that constrain the release of the full report. If the report can be released, I am very happy for it to be released, but there may well be reasons why it cannot be. I will ask the Lord Advocate to engage further with Mr and Mrs Inglis to ensure that they can have a fuller understanding and to help them to come to terms with the tragic loss that they have suffered.

I am familiar with the points that Mr Findlay has raised and, as always with issues that relate to the criminal justice system, we will give them consideration.

I hope that this provides some degree of reassurance, but under the recent legislation that the Parliament approved, the single bail test makes it clear that the court should specifically consider the protection of the victim from the risk of physical and psychological harm before making a decision on bail. In my view, that would provide the type of protection that Mr Findlay is looking for, and it is already in statute.

I appreciate that that is of absolutely no comfort to Mr and Mrs Inglis in the loss that they have suffered, but I hope that it reassures members of the public that the Government is taking action to ensure that the type of experience that Mr and Mrs Inglis have faced will be mitigated in the future because of the steps that we have taken to change the law.

I will, of course, give consideration to the points that Mr Findlay has raised and, as always, I will be happy to see Mr and Mrs Inglis, if that would be of any assistance to them.

I am very pleased that we are seeing a decrease in new out-patient waits that last for longer than a year. I am delighted that we are seeing the total waiting list for out-patients, in-patients and day-case lists decreasing compared with that in the same month last year. I am delighted, too, that the number of treatment time guarantee waits for more than a year have decreased by 6 per cent when compared with those for last month. I am also delighted that the health secretary has managed to reach agreement with the British Medical Association’s Scottish general practitioners committee, which will see general practice receive additional funding of more than £500 million over the next three years. Given my commitment to deliver 15 walk-in GP clinics across Scotland, added to the falling numbers on NHS waiting lists, the Scottish people can look forward to a strong national health service under Scottish National Party leadership.

I reassure Ash Regan that a number of the law’s central provisions have already been implemented, including the prohibition on providing or making available fireworks or pyrotechnic articles to children, a new statutory aggravation for courts to use when sentencing offenders who have used fireworks to attack emergency service workers, the powers relating to firework control zones and new offences on possession of pyrotechnics in public places and at designated venues and events.

Very strong action has been taken, but I come back to the point that I made in my original answer, which is that anyone who takes part in illegal activity or disorder can expect a robust response from Police Scotland. That is what has taken place in the past, and I expect that to be the case in the future.

I am very sympathetic to the point that Mr Sweeney puts to me and will ask the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government to engage directly with him and make the representation that he asks for. Credit unions provide an essential foundation in our society, particularly for people who are on low incomes and have low savings levels. It is important that financial security is available to them.

We have had no reply to that letter. Scotland previously received 46 per cent of the United Kingdom’s European Union fisheries funding allocation, compared with just 7.78 per cent of the new UK fund, which is spread over 12 years, with no guarantees beyond the current UK parliamentary session.

We are told that the UK fund is specifically aimed at revitalising the fishing sector, so allocations should reflect the relative size and importance of Scotland’s fishing sector. Scottish industry leaders have urged UK ministers to reconvene a meeting of the Scottish seafood industry action group to discuss the issue, and we plan to support that call in writing.

Mr Sarwar said that everything that has happened to date is the responsibility of my Government. I accept that responsibility. I am a First Minister who stands here every week and takes responsibility—I do not dodge it for a moment. [Interruption.]

We have listened to Mr Sarwar’s explanation. On this Government’s watch, the latest figures for 2023-24 show that recorded crime is at one of the lowest levels since 1974, and that it has gone down by 39 per cent since 2006-07. Police numbers are higher than when this Government came into office. Recorded crime is at one of the lowest levels since 1974. [Interruption.]

The latest data shows that there are already more than 14,000 full-time-equivalent college students on engineering courses in Scotland. We are working to support colleges to meet Scotland’s future skills requirements and are investing £750 million in colleges in the current year.