Chamber and committees

Every day that I am First Minister is a day when I learn something new.

I recognise the significance and seriousness of the issue. As the person who took the bill through Parliament, I did all that I could during the parliamentary passage of the bill to ensure that the scheme that we brought forward was as extensive and comprehensive as it could be.

I made the comments to which Mr Smyth referred during an evidence session with the Education, Children and Young People Committee when public authorities were still researching the bases on which and circumstances in which children were placed in Fornethy house. Those factors would have a bearing on eligibility for the redress scheme that Parliament approved.

The independent research that was undertaken as part of the commitments that were made to the Fornethy survivors reported that, according to such records as exist, children were primarily placed in Fornethy house for short-term care with the agreement of their parents. That is fundamentally different from the circumstances that the Parliament legislated for in the scheme.

Fornethy house will be a case study in the next phase of the Scottish child abuse inquiry, and there will be an opportunity for further exploration of the issues and the circumstances involved in those cases.

The Government is wrestling with a situation that is affecting many jurisdictions around the world, including the rest of the United Kingdom. In the aftermath of Covid, we have seen a sharp increase in the prison population as a consequence of the work to address the delays in the court and tribunal system.

The Government has introduced legislation to address those issues and to ensure that we have in place a set of mechanisms that will ensure that our prisons are safe for those who are working in them and safe in the public interest. Those are the proposals that Parliament will consider.

The Government is engaging with Pam Gosal on her bill. The Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs had a productive meeting with her on 25 September, and we will consider full details when we have further detail on the component parts of the bill.

On Pam Gosal’s comments about the Government’s approach to domestic abuse, I remind Parliament that the Government introduced—and Parliament supported—the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018, which was implemented in the subsequent year. That act strengthened the legal protection for victims of domestic abuse and significantly increased the constraints on any perpetrators of domestic abuse.

The figures to which Pam Gosal referred are unacceptable, but they indicate that more individuals are coming forward to report offences and to ensure that the perpetrators of domestic violence are brought to account. Fundamentally, men’s behaviour must change, and the Government will put in place the legislative framework to enable that to be the case. Domestic violence must come to an end, and that will happen only when the behaviour of men changes.

The Scottish Government continues to engage regularly with key stakeholders, following the announcement by Petroineos that it intends to cease refining at Grangemouth. The Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy last met the business on 5 November, and Government officials met staff in the business last week.

I recently met Derek Thomson of Unite to discuss the very issues that Michelle Thomson puts to me. She will be aware that the Scottish Government believes that the announcement of the closure of the refinery is a premature decision, and that it accelerates a change that does not need to take place at this stage, but which could be managed over a number of further years to enable us to put more alternatives in place.

Michelle Thomson asked me whether I would support a pause in plans to close the refinery, and I do support that. I have put that point to the Prime Minister and expressed the Scottish Government’s willingness to work with the United Kingdom Government to find a way to work with the company to avoid the premature closure of the refinery. That will be the Scottish Government’s position as we continue to work with the UK Government and the company to try to avoid economic disruption and damage to the Grangemouth area and especially to the livelihoods of the workers who are involved.

I thank Colin Beattie for raising the issue and reminding the Parliament that it is now more than 1,000 days since the illegal invasion of Ukraine. There is absolutely no justification for the invasion, and the Russian aggression must be repelled.

Scotland has stood in solidarity with Ukraine. We have provided sanctuary to more than 28,000 people who were sponsored by the Scottish Government or an individual in Scotland to come to this country. More than 21,000 of those arrivals are part of the Scottish Government’s support scheme. We have invested heavily in providing the support that is available to Ukrainian refugees to come here, and I make it clear that those Ukrainian refugees are welcome in Scotland and play an important part in our country.

I reiterate the unacceptability of the illegal invasion of Ukraine, the determination to stand in solidarity with the Ukrainian population and the need to repel the Russian aggression. That is a necessity in our modern world today.

I prefer to invest in the university system, which the Government does, with £1 billion of public expenditure and a commitment to work collaboratively with the university sector to ensure that Scotland’s research excellence can be deployed as part of the overall economic approach in Scotland. Innovation and creativity lie at the heart of taking forward the fantastic elements of research that come from our university community.

What is not helping our universities just now is the fact that they face a significant increase in employer national insurance contributions. That is the point that has been made by the principal of the University of Edinburgh: the shock to the university’s finances of the United Kingdom Government’s unilateral action in increasing employer NI contributions. It is another argument for why that particular policy approach by the UK Government needs to be reversed.

I think that members of the public will be stunned that a Labour Government that promised to reduce fuel bills by an average of £300 has seen those bills increase in October, with the likelihood of further increases coming in January. To compound that difficult situation, the withdrawal of the winter heating payment means that more than 400,000 people on low incomes who have been eligible for that entitlement will lose it.

It is a very serious situation that pensioners in particular in our society are facing. I make the plea today, because it is absolutely central to what we need to do, that we get the UK Government to reverse the unwarranted cut in winter fuel payments, which is damaging the livelihoods and circumstances of pensioners in Scotland.

Those issues are very important, and Lorna Slater raises an important question about the impact of tobacco and alcohol misuse on the health of the population. The Government has taken significant action in relation to minimum unit pricing, and we will continue to focus on measures to tackle this significant issue.

As to the question of a public health supplement, that will be considered as part of the budget process. Of course, I am not at liberty to comment on those issues until the budget comes to Parliament in December.