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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 15 July 2025
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Displaying 637 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 26 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Concerns remain that some schools allegedly advise as many young people as possible to go to university, even when an apprenticeship or graduate apprenticeship would provide better prospects.

Given the chronic shortage of construction and engineering workers, for example, what steps are being taken, in partnership with schools, to encourage more young people to take up an apprenticeship?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Medium-term Financial Strategy and Fiscal Sustainability Delivery Plan

Meeting date: 25 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

It is disappointing that the UK Government’s central capital allocation for Scotland in four years will be £163 million less than this year. What will that mean for capital investment in our infrastructure?

The statement mentioned a modest 0.5 per cent annual decline in the public sector workforce, as we have already heard. Will that be concentrated in specific departments or across the board, and how will front-line services be protected?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Budget (Provisional Outturn 2024-25)

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Can the minister confirm that the £557 million of resource underspend is only around four days of Scottish Government expenditure, which shows the tight levels of financial management by the Government, for which he should be commended. All of that has rolled forward into the current financial year.

However, capital borrowing was £193 million less than expected, due to emerging underspends. Does the minister agree that having shovel-ready projects in place, such as pothole repairs, which can be undertaken fairly quickly in most places, would help to ensure that capital is fully utilised, should capital underspends emerge in the future?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

First Minister’s Question Time

Meeting date: 19 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

It has now been more than four months since the Scottish Government committed to exploring the purchase of Ardrossan harbour from Peel Ports, but talks appear to be deadlocked. Until the future of the harbour is resolved, Arran will not receive the lifeline ferry service that it needs and deserves, while Ardrossan will struggle.

This afternoon, constituents from both communities are protesting outside the building. The Cabinet Secretary for Transport will meet the protesters this afternoon. Will the Scottish Government now inject some urgency into the process to break the stalemate? Will the First Minister also confirm that there are no plans to remove road equivalent tariff tickets from island visitors, which would inevitably damage our island economies?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Public Service Reform Strategy

Meeting date: 19 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

The minister said that a vital change will be to streamline and enhance front-line service provision by reducing levels of duplication and sharing where possible. I very much welcome the statement. The public sector landscape is cluttered. We have local authorities, health boards, city region deals, regional growth deals, community planning partnerships, integration joint boards and non-departmental public bodies. Will the minister speak to Scottish Government plans to declutter and, potentially, merge public sector bodies?

Meeting of the Parliament

Economic Performance (A Better Deal for Taxpayers)

Meeting date: 18 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Those projects bring high-quality jobs and long-term opportunities to communities across the country, which is a clear sign that Scotland is open for business. Inward-looking Tories do not want to hear that and would close our overseas offices, where Scottish Development International engages with investors. We will pursue growth while the Tories undermine efforts to secure it.

Meeting of the Parliament

Economic Performance (A Better Deal for Taxpayers)

Meeting date: 18 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

As for the economic performance gap, I quote the evidence that Professor Graeme Roy gave to the Finance and Public Administration Committee last week:

“The net tax position is interesting ... it is not an assessment of Scottish Government policy or performance ... As we highlight in the report, it could be down to different policy decisions; it could be the result of a UK Government decision having an impact on Scotland relative to the UK; it could be a Scottish Government decision having an impact on Scotland relative to the UK; or it could just be down to general economic performance in Scotland ... London is also a factor ... If the city has a really good year ... it will be harder for Scotland with regard to the net tax position.”—[Official Report, Finance and Public Administration Committee, 10 June 2025; c 20.]

EY’s annual UK attractiveness survey reports that Scotland, which has only 8.2 per cent of the UK’s population, secured 15.8 per cent of UK inward investment projects last year, which created 4,330 Scottish jobs. That record market share cements Scotland as the UK’s top destination outside London for the 10th year in a row, and the sixth best in Europe. Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow remain among the top seven UK cities for foreign direct investment. EY’s global investor survey found that a quarter of those who are planning to invest in the UK are targeting Scotland, which maintains our long-standing position as the UK’s preferred destination outside London.

Meeting of the Parliament

Economic Performance (A Better Deal for Taxpayers)

Meeting date: 18 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Scotland’s continued success in attracting inward investment is testament to our skilled workforce, world-class universities and commitment to innovation. Despite global economic instability, investors recognise the strength and stability of Scotland’s economy.

Meeting of the Parliament

Economic Performance (A Better Deal for Taxpayers)

Meeting date: 18 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

I apologise for not taking interventions, but a speaking time of four minutes is clearly not long enough.

15:29  

Meeting of the Parliament

Economic Performance (A Better Deal for Taxpayers)

Meeting date: 18 June 2025

Kenneth Gibson

Let us start with the ludicrous suggestion that, after taking no pay rise, Scottish ministers should continue to wear a hair shirt and endure declining real incomes year on year, even though the UK has had cumulative inflation of 70 per cent over 17 years. Which other societal groups do the Tories feel should not receive a pay rise for 17 years? It would certainly not be UK ministers—there are now 121—under successive Labour, coalition and Tory Governments. There has not been a peep about their pay from the Westminster devotees to my left—the Tories—which completely devalues their already threadbare argument. It is just a cheap, nasty and rather pitiful shot that devalues what was already an incoherent and poorly cobbled together motion.

The Tories suggest that they would cut tax

“by up to £444 for every person in Scotland”.

I was not aware that every person in Scotland paid tax, as the clumsily written motion suggests. Children, many pensioners, prisoners, students, the unemployed and so on do not pay tax. The motion says “up to £444”, which means that some people would gain very little—I note that it is not an average, but “up to”, which is like buying double glazing and getting “up to” X pounds off. The Tories must do better if they are to reclaim even a soupçon of the credibility that they lost by backing the Liz Truss economic catastrophe less than three years ago, which led to the highest UK tax take since world war two.

How much would the Tories’ tax cut reduce spending by? What would be cut? They suggest a nice, easy target:

“highly paid public sector senior executives”.

The UK Tory Government that they urged us to re-elect last year did not cut such jobs, but apparently we should. Which ones? What would be the impact on public service delivery if talented people voted with their feet and left the public sector? It is just empty, lazy, thoughtless populism, which is aimed at clawing back votes from the Faragists. Come budget time, we will no doubt hear from Tory MSPs the same tedious litanies in which they demand more expenditure in every single Scottish Government portfolio ad nauseum. It is as boring as it is stupefyingly predictable.

If the Tories truly believed in a crackdown on waste, one might be more sympathetic. However, that is belied by their UK Government’s waste of tens of billions on shoddy defence procurement, dodgy public-private partnerships in services, which were often provided by Tory pals, and high speed 2, which has been delayed again and is set to cost over £100 billion.