Chamber and committees

Child sexual abuse and exploitation are abhorrent crimes that have a devastating impact on victims and their families. My heart goes out to any child who has experienced abuse.

Any reported rise in abuse of that nature is, of course, deeply concerning. I recognise the vital work of Police Scotland’s national child abuse investigation unit in identifying and safeguarding children and stopping perpetrators and bringing them to justice. The Scottish Government is working with Police Scotland and other partners to support robust collective action, and I encourage anyone with a concern about a child to contact Police Scotland.

The Scottish Government remains wholly convinced that Scotland’s future would be best served by being a member of the European Union and we are determined to support the transport connections that will enable that to be possible. Improving our transport and trade links to the European mainland is even more important given the challenges that we face at this time.

The Cabinet Secretary for Transport met Mr Ruskell on Tuesday evening to discuss the issue and I know that she is happy to continue communicating regularly with potential operators and with Scotland’s main ports so that Scottish exporters and passengers can have more direct routes to and from Europe.

The Government will do that. I am not sure whether I have shared this detail with Parliament, although I think that I may have done. In the aftermath of the publication by the United Kingdom Government of its green paper on immigration, I convened a meeting of stakeholders across the education, health, social care, food and drink, hospitality, construction and engineering sectors. The view that was expressed to me from around that table was that the proposals from the UK Government were directly damaging to the prospects of the Scottish economy, given the challenges that we face in boosting our working-age population, which is boosted by migration.

We are working with stakeholders. I also raised the issue with the Prime Minister when we met a week past Friday and indicated that we need a different and distinctive approach to migration in Scotland. This Government will pursue that, doing so in consultation and dialogue with stakeholders, one of which is Scottish Engineering. I welcome the contribution from that organisation, which Michelle Thomson has placed on the record.

I am open to ensuring that we have in place the correct legislative framework to deal with criminality in our country. That is why the Government brings forward legislation. Mr Findlay is making suggestions about an area of policy that could be considered for strengthening. I am perfectly willing to consider that, because I do not want anybody to benefit from criminal activity in our society, and I want people to be punished accordingly.

The Government will always keep legislation under review, but it has to be acknowledged that our criminal justice authorities, the police and the Crown Office have been successful in apprehending, imprisoning, interrupting and disrupting organised crime in this country, and I give the public the assurance that, under my Government’s leadership, that will be sustained in the years to come.

As Rhoda Grant probably knows, I am very familiar with issues in relation to the ferry fleet. CalMac has to make a variety of operational judgments. One of the obligations of the contract that has been put in place is that such judgments must be undertaken in dialogue with the ferry users committee and individual island communities, which I know is something that the Cabinet Secretary for Transport insists on at all times.

As Rhoda Grant will know, more capacity will come into the fleet shortly, and those operational issues will be considered. I hear her point in relation to the MV Isle of Lewis and I will ask for a briefing on the current situation to make sure that the needs of the community in Barra are properly taken into account.

There was an awful lot in what Mr Findlay said with which I agree. Organised crime is intolerable and unacceptable. It requires the forensic attention of our police and criminal justice authorities to tackle it. That is being undertaken in Scotland relentlessly by Police Scotland and by the criminal justice authorities. I expect the authorities to pursue that level of scrutiny and activity, which is what is happening. However, I do not agree with Mr Findlay’s conclusion.

There are quite a number of flaws in the argument that Russell Findlay has put forward. The first flaw is that a very high number of participants in organised crime activity are currently incarcerated for a very long time in Scotland’s jails, which is contributing to the significant congestion in our prison system.

One of the operational challenges for the Scottish Prison Service—which is why I admire its work so strongly—is that it has to ensure that our prisons remain safe internally. A number of members of organised crime groups are housed in our prisons, and they cannot be housed together, as that would risk the internal stability in our prisons. That is the type of focused work that the Scottish Prison Service is taking forward.

The second flaw in Mr Findlay’s argument is in the fact that this Government established the Scottish crime campus, which is viewed across the world as one of the most innovative and successful measures in bringing together all the intelligence gathering services—whether that is Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency or the United Kingdom’s enforcement authorities—in one place. Indeed, it is visited by people from around the world, because it is a leader.

The third thing is that Mr Findlay said that we never talk about these things. Three times a year, the Government brings together the serious organised crime task force, which involves local authorities, the national health service, Police Scotland, the National Crime Agency, His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs and various other organisations, to ensure that we tackle the issue. Indeed, the serious organised crime strategy was published in February 2022, updating the actions that the Government is taking.

The recommendations that the Government has considered in relation to the neonatal unit at Wishaw general hospital are the product of advice from an expert group that included the medical director of NHS Forth Valley; the Scottish neonatal nurses group; Bliss, which is the United Kingdom’s leading charity for babies who are born premature or sick; and the Scottish Perinatal Network.

The expert group recommended that we take forward a model that was tested at a number of different sites around the country—Queen Elizabeth university hospital, Crosshouse hospital, Edinburgh royal infirmary and Victoria hospital. The group proposed that units should be located at the Royal hospital for children in Glasgow, Aberdeen maternity hospital and Edinburgh royal infirmary’s Simpson centre for reproductive health.

Those recommendations were made for babies who have the most serious and complex conditions or are at the extremes of prematurity, so they need the most specialist level of care to have the best chance of survival. The Government received that professional clinical advice from experts, and I think that the Government is correct to follow it. The vast majority of babies will still be cared for in their local neonatal unit, and those units, including the one in Wishaw, will continue to deliver a range of care, including some intensive care.

On the question of water quality, I note that 87 per cent of Scotland’s entire water environment is assessed by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency as having a high or good classification, an increase from 82 per cent in 2014. Obviously, I want to ensure that we have the highest-quality natural environment, and that we have water systems that are of the highest quality, too, and those figures indicate that the Government is making progress on the steps that we are taking to ensure that that is the case.

Mr Macpherson gives a strong account of the situation in his constituency. I welcome the investments that have been made in relation to “Dept Q”—it has been a tremendous success and will be a great advert and showcase for our country.

The Government will support the screen sector as strongly as we can. As I indicated in my earlier answer, we have increased the budget for Screen Scotland, and in its strategy, which was published last year, it outlined an ambitious plan to grow the sector further and to combine international investment with increased support for emerging Scottish producers and local creative originations. The development is very welcome, and I am delighted that Mr Macpherson has highlighted the significance of the opportunity for Scotland.