Chamber and committees

I thank Edward Mountain for raising this important issue and for the commendable commitment and leadership that he has shown on the issue inside and outside Parliament.

The Scottish Government, along with the rest of the United Kingdom, follows advice about screening programmes from the United Kingdom National Screening Committee, which is an independent expert advisory group. Scotland has fully adopted the National Screening Committee’s recommendation to invite everyone aged between 50 and 74 for bowel screening every two years. The recommendation was based on a thorough assessment of the risks and benefits of screening people at different ages. I assure Parliament that if the National Screening Committee recommended a lower age range, we would explore, as a matter of urgency, how that could be taken forward in Scotland.

I very much welcome the announcement that has been made by XLCC in relation to the facility at Hunterston. That is an example of exactly what we envisaged with the Scottish National Investment Bank—that it would provide the opportunity for investment through that mechanism to support private sector investment and leverage much more significant volumes of private sector investment into the Scottish economy. The funding model is working, which helps us in taking forward our net zero ambitions.

I am delighted that Mr Gibson’s constituency has benefited in the way that he has recounted to Parliament. It is important from the Government’s point of view that the Scottish National Investment Bank is actively engaged in supporting investments as part of our transition to net zero.

It is important that accurate information is given to the public about the measures that are being taken forward on the Government’s policy agenda. On 16 December, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, copying in the Secretary of State for Scotland, to specify the data sharing requirements. Those included:

“• Data for all children attached to the Universal Credit claim, including date of birth.

• Data for which children on the Universal Credit claim are included in the UC payment.

• Data for all children who are paid under the Universal Credit exemptions rules including the exemption reason.

• Central Payment System benefit code.

• All data already shared by DWP for the purposes of administering Scottish Child Payment but expanded to include children up to age 19 years old ...

• Data on the UC payment cycles for the claims.”

I was assured by the Prime Minister, face to face, that the DWP would work collaboratively with us to take forward the policy. It is not helpful, and it is not representative, for the Secretary of State for Scotland to make the comments that he made yesterday. If we are going to have an improved climate of relations between the Scottish and the United Kingdom Governments, the UK Government better keep its side of the bargain.

This winter, we are forecasted to invest more than £65 million in our three winter heating benefits, which will provide vital support to more than 630,000 people with their energy bills. Additionally, we have increased investment in our warmer homes Scotland scheme by a further £20 million, taking the total investment to £85 million this financial year. That will help around 1,500 additional households to save an average of £400 a year each on their heating bills, thereby helping to tackle fuel poverty. We have also invested an additional £20 million in the Scottish welfare fund—no national equivalent of which is available elsewhere in the United Kingdom—to enable councils to provide more vital support to people in crisis this winter.

This year, we are committing more than £3 billion to policies that tackle poverty and, as far as possible, protect people during the on-going cost of living crisis. That commitment is an essential part of the Scottish Government’s work. This year alone, we are spending £154 million on activities to mitigate UK Government policies through schemes such as discretionary housing payments and the Scottish welfare fund, which provide vital support to households.

Given the agenda for change that was supposed to come from a Labour Government, we might have expected that many of the issues that we were previously mitigating because of the previous Conservative Government’s callousness would have been removed, but they have just been carried on. Indeed, on winter fuel payments, they have been made worse. People in Scotland will realise that it is the SNP Scottish Government that will act to protect those who face difficulty and that they will not get such support from a Labour Government.

In six weeks’ time, will the Conservatives vote against a winter fuel payment for pensioners or will they not? From all that I can—[Interruption.]

From what I can deduce, the Conservatives will turn their backs on pensioners in Scotland in six weeks’ time. [Interruption.] What pensioners in Scotland can rely on is the Scottish National Party Government.

As I indicated in my earlier answer, the Scottish Government decommissioned all Hikvision cameras across its estate last year. Liz Smith asks me for a further audit of that activity. She will appreciate that I can explore that issue in relation to Scottish Government activity. In relation to my ability to explore that in independent organisations such as local authorities, I suspect that the power for me to compel such an exploration does not exist; however, I could invite them to do that.

I will take away Liz Smith’s points and explore whether there is more that the Government can do to better align the activities of all public authorities in Scotland to address the legitimate points that have been accepted by the Government and that she has put to me today.

National planning framework 4, which was published in February 2023, was a turning point for planning in Scotland. The Scottish Government has since monitored its impact and the delivery programme was last updated in October 2024. It showed that there has been positive progress in delivering NPF4 strategy principles and national planning policies. Planning decisions are for local planning authorities in the first instance, and we continue to work with them on applying NPF4 policies and practice.

Emerging local development plans will also reflect NPF4 in each part of Scotland. The Minister for Public Finance leads on that work, with a sharp focus on improving planning authority capacity and performance. That is a key part of our response to the housing emergency, including on-going work to unlock stalled sites for development.

First, I commend Mr MacGregor on his leadership of the cross-party group on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse. He is correct that I have had a great deal of engagement with the group and with that area of policy in my previous roles in the Government.

I take the issue of child abuse extremely seriously. It is abhorrent and, as is a matter of record, the Government has taken a number of actions, including the establishment of the inquiry that is led by Lady Smith, to examine and confront the issues.

The Scottish Government absolutely accepts the point that Mr MacGregor makes about the importance of the issue being addressed by professionals. I want to be very clear in saying that, in Scotland, professionals already have a professional duty to report child abuse. A practitioner’s failure to do so could constitute a breach of their employment contract, lead to disciplinary action or give rise to a claim for civil damages. Practitioners could also be struck off social work, teaching or medical registers for gross misconduct.

We are, however, considering the United Kingdom Government’s proposed planned approach to mandatory reporting, and we will consider all relevant recommendations that come out of the independent Scottish child abuse inquiry that I referred to.