Chamber and committees

I accept the importance of the point that Mr Whitfield puts to me. The Government is taking steps to reduce the number of children who are living in temporary accommodation. Indeed, in the statistics to which Mr Whitfield refers, across 20 local authority areas, councils have reduced the number of children in temporary accommodation.

However, it is not enough. That is why the Government has committed £768 million to invest in housing in Scotland in the forthcoming financial year. Increasingly, more of those resources are being applied to tackle void properties, for example, to make sure that those properties are available for families to occupy. In many local authority areas, that change in priority is already delivering better outcomes in which families have long-term accommodation.

There is a deadly serious point at the heart of Mr Whitfield’s question, which is that I can take the action that he wants me to take on housing only if the Parliament approves the budget. We all—every one of us—are committed, as a Parliament, to the Promise. Therefore, we have to take the necessary steps to make it happen, and we can take those steps only if we have the financial investment to do so.

I leave the point with Mr Whitfield to reflect on over the week-long recess that lies ahead that, if he wants to turn his rhetoric into reality, he should support the Government’s budget at stage 3 and ensure that the investment is made in housing. If he does not do that, it is just empty rhetoric from the Labour Party.

If Russell Findlay wants to have a dividing line in politics on this type of stuff, I will happily be on the other side of the argument from him and all the cohorts that he is courting with his question.

I want to make sure that there is a replacement prison so that those who are sentenced to prison can be held safely and securely and that staff are safe and secure in undertaking their responsibilities. That is my duty as First Minister, and that is what the Government will concentrate on delivering.

I spend a lot of my time, as I did on Tuesday, engaging with the Scottish energy advisory board and other energy interests in Scotland. One of the pleas that the energy advisory board has made to me, which I acknowledge is important and which I faithfully try to deliver, is to provide absolute policy certainty so that investors can invest in the technologies that come forward.

In 2023, 70 per cent of electricity generated in Scotland was from renewable sources. That is a marked increase compared to the 32 per cent in 2013. Mr Sarwar should be careful not to create the impression that renewable energy is not delivering formidably for Scotland, because it is.

I think that investors will be really worried by Mr Sarwar’s language. Investors tell me that they know exactly where the Scottish Government stands today. We are right behind the renewable energy revolution and we are delivering that. In his pursuit of the new direction, Mr Sarwar wants to muddy the waters. He wants to add uncertainty. He wants to scare off investment from the renewable energy industry. I will not do that. I will give a clear green light to the green energy revolution in Scotland and I will be proud of what Scotland can deliver.

What I am interested in doing is ensuring that we manage the transition to net zero, because we cannot deny the climate crisis that we face. That will be the position that I adopt and observe, because the science tells me that that is the rational position for us to take. It will also dictate the approach that I take on energy policy and encouraging the move to sustainable energy security by the investments that we make in offshore renewables. Again, that is supported by the Government’s budget, which passed stage 1 on Tuesday, and is facilitated by outstanding interventions such as that from SGN in Methil, where there is a pilot project on using hydrogen as a replacement for gas in domestic power systems.

Scotland is leading the world on such innovation, and I am immensely proud of what our academic institutions and companies are doing to take forward that agenda. They will have the full support of the Scottish Government.

The work of radiologists is absolutely crucial in effective delivery of a wide range of services, including cancer diagnostics. I take this opportunity to thank the radiologist community across the country for their commitment on our behalf.

Our investment in the radiologist workforce over the past 10 years is evidenced by an almost 25 per cent increase in consultant radiologist numbers. We continue to invest heavily in radiology training, funding 192 speciality training places in clinical radiology, including 78 extra places that we have added since 2014, based on modelling of future workforce need.

Clinical radiology training programmes, which have been filled at 100 per cent in Scotland every year since 2013, enable doctors to train, and to enter the workforce following completion of training, which takes a minimum of five years.

I welcome Mr MacGregor’s point. He acknowledges that I cannot comment on the substance of the case, because it is live, but I assure him that the Crown Office has made significant improvements in its engagement with families in recent years, as is reflected in its family liaison charter. I fully expect that the family involved in this tragic case will get the support that they require. If there are any concerns about that, I know that Mr MacGregor will faithfully raise them with the Lord Advocate on behalf of his constituents.

I assure Roz McCall that I have every intention, working closely with my minister Natalie Don-Innes, to provide all the necessary focus, leadership and impetus. In the programme for government that was published in September, the concept of whole family support was absolutely pivotal to the achievement of the Government’s highest priorities related to the eradication of child poverty. I want to make sure that the work that we undertake to improve the experience of care-experienced individuals is right at the heart of our agenda on eradicating child poverty and providing the best start in life for children and young people. I assure Roz McCall of the Government’s absolute determination to ensure that that is the case.

The approach is obviously having a beneficial effect given the number of procedures that are being delivered through it. To ensure that we have robust data and to allow us to better identify how robot-assisted surgery can be used across the national health service, we have commissioned Public Health Scotland to audit the experience. That data will be vital in ensuring that we can continue to scale up, drive equitable access and maximise patient benefit.

The concerns that the cabinet secretary raised were about the time taken for the decision-making process as a consequence of Government scrutiny. The minister expressed her concern that the Government had to speed up its decision-making processes in that respect. That has happened as a consequence of the actions that ministers have taken in the intervening period.

I am struck by the fact that, on 23 April 2024, one of Mr Hoy’s colleagues said that consent times were

“a huge issue”

for offshore wind farms, and he called on the Scottish Government

“to streamline the necessary regulatory and administrative processes, to expedite the approval and implementation of offshore wind programmes”.—[Official Report, 23 April 2024; c 6.]

Those were the words of Douglas Lumsden MSP as they appear in the Official Report of the Scottish Parliament.

I suggest that the Scottish Conservatives decide whether they want to have projects delivered timeously or whether they want to get in the road. Either way, the Conservatives look as though they are in their usual muddle today.

I am well aware of the case and have discussed it with Jamie Hepburn, the local member, in the course of this week.

Such decisions are taken by Creative Scotland, which works independently of Government, as the law requires. Creative Scotland makes those decisions in line with the criteria that it has set out. I understand that there is to be a meeting next week between the chief executive of Creative Scotland and Cumbernauld theatre to consider the issues.

I recognise the enormous disappointment that will be experienced in Cumbernauld. However, Mr Griffin must accept that there is not parliamentary support for the Government to intervene in Creative Scotland’s decision making, because Parliament has determined that Creative Scotland should be able to take those decisions for itself.

I hope that there is a constructive conversation that can find some way of resolving the issue. Among all the other decisions that have been taken, the content of the Government’s budget has given an absolutely colossal boost to culture and the arts in Scotland. There is a real improvement in the funding that is available, and I am glad that that has been able to be felt across communities the length and breadth of our country.