Chamber and committees

Will the concept of vicarious liability apply to snaring offences under the proposed legislation? If so, how?

Minister, you mentioned the primacy of the police in investigations. What conversations has the Scottish Government had with the police and the Crown Office about those issues? There was mention of a proposed compromise around some of the reservations that had been expressed by them. I am thinking particularly about matters such as powers of entry.

Yes. Why is the bill framed as it is?

I appreciate what you are saying about the fact that a final decision is still to be made, but, on vicarious liability, what likely consequences might there be under the legislation? For example, if someone on a farm or an estate uses a snare illegally, what might the options be for consequences? Could something be done in relation to support under agricultural payments, for example?

You mentioned the fact that most European countries have banned snares altogether. What have you learned from those examples, whether they relate to vicarious liability or anything else? My understanding is that the United Kingdom is one of only six countries left in Europe that even has the option of snaring. What lessons have you learned from other places?

What steps have been taken, or changes made, to maximise transparency in the Scottish Government’s records management policy and processes?

Will the member give way?

As the motion indicates, the Scottish Government is, not least through some serious investment in social housing, taking much vital action to address the housing crisis that now exists in many parts of the Highlands and Islands. Indeed, any debate around the issue must begin with the frank admission that, for young people in some rural communities, “crisis” is the only word that can be used.

Decades-long trends in depopulation have accelerated since the pandemic. Islands house prices have increased far more substantially than islands wages. Those who are on the bottom rungs of the housing ladder simply lack the economic means even to begin to compete with retirees, property investors and second-home purchasers. No Government can build houses at the rate that they are disappearing in those ways. For my Na h-Eileanan an Iar constituency, between 2018 and 2028 the working-age population is due to decrease by 6 per cent and the number of children is due to decrease by 13 per cent. I regret to say that, at the same time, the islands are being touted in the national press as an idyllic wilderness—the best place in the UK for people to retire to. That definitely does not help.

We are already seeing the impacts of all that on businesses and public services, as critical vacancies go unfilled. In many communities, the balance is shifting rapidly away from year-round lived-in houses to short-term lets and second homes. When that trend gets out of hand in a community the school closes, families relocate and, in the space of a generation or less, a village is transformed into a retirement or holiday community. The Gaelic language plan is also being squeezed under those pressures.

Writing in The Observer earlier this month, Ness-born poet Donald S Murray warns of the dangers of allowing the idea to take hold that the Highlands are merely a place where

“the natural world has a greater appeal than the existences of the humans in their surroundings.”

I do not say all that lightly: I am an incomer myself. The islands need new people, but they need a mix of new people.

Getting the housing question right is now an existential concern for many of the communities that I represent, so I very much welcome the publication of “Rural & Islands Housing Action Plan”. The plan supports Scotland’s long-term strategy in “Housing to 2040” and will bolster the commitment to deliver 11,000 affordable homes—of which 70 per cent will be for social rent—by 2032.

In response to some of the accusations that have been thrown about during the debate, I should say that in my constituency more than 650 housing association properties—roughly a third of the Hebridean Housing Partnership’s stock—have been built since the SNP came to power in 2007. The Scottish Government has made more than £43 million available for affordable housing in the islands over this parliamentary session alone. That money now needs to be spent wisely.

It is not just about building homes; it is also about keeping homes in the housing stock. Hundreds of islands houses have slipped out of domestic use as the number of short-term lets has exploded: the number of short-term lets is nearly two and a half times what it was a decade ago. Short-term let licensing and control areas now give local authorities much-needed options to exercise controls in communities where such controls are needed.

In common with other areas, my constituency has a high number of empty houses, so I welcome the plan’s focus on building on the work that has happened across the country, much of which can be said to have been pioneered by Comhairle nan Eilean Siar and its empty homes officer, Murdo Macleod.

With nearly a quarter of all second homes in Scotland being in the Highlands and Islands, many people across the region consider that the unregulated increase in the number of second homes is helping to fuel the housing crisis. Giving councils the ability to levy additional charges on second homes will help to tackle the problem while bringing the approach to them into line with the existing rules for long-term-empty properties. I believe that the Scottish Government should consider granting powers to restrict the number of further second homes in any locality where the supply of housing for full-time habitation is under pressure.

I welcome the plan’s recognition of crofting’s vital role in maintaining the population of the Highlands and Islands, and its commitment to reviewing the croft house grant scheme, in search of improvements. The upcoming reform of crofting law should, in my view, include looking for ways to make it easier for affordable housing developments to progress on land that is under crofting tenure. I know that that has been a struggle in the Western Isles, where such land accounts for the great majority of the land. There is also an urgent need to tackle what are increasingly becoming, in some cases, absurd prices for croft tenancies on the open market.

Although there are no easy solutions to the housing crisis, “Rural & Islands Housing Action Plan” lays the foundations for a range of actions that have the potential to make a real difference in providing the housing that island communities urgently need.

We are together for Parliament.

I apologise, but I am going to move on unless anyone else wants to come in. I am conscious of the time, which is the usual hue and cry from our conveners.

One of the aspects that we have explored—we have highlighted the challenge in it—is that the Parliament is just one element in what sits here and what we call democracy. We have party politics and we are all members of political parties. The extent to which Parliament can influence political parties is always challenging. As Ivan McKee pointed out, that should be done very cautiously. Political parties play an important role with regard to the number of members that they return and the relationships that exist within the Parliament. The Government draws its members almost exclusively from elected MSPs. Ivan McKee has hinted at the challenge for the Government: the larger a Government is, the fewer back benchers it has and the harder the situation it is.

We have already considered myriad questions, but the issue is where they interact. I would particularly like to hear our witnesses’ comments on a question that Ivan McKee raised and that we did not quite get to the bottom of, which is whether we should look at the reality of how committees are created here. I use the word “committees” in its widest sense. Should we look at how people are appointed to formal roles in the Parliament, or should we look at how people perceive it happens? Which way do we want the rules to go? Do we want the rules to influence how it actually happens? That is perhaps more of a reference to culture, which Karen Adam talked about. Should we create rules so that there is a way of circumventing them to get the decision that works for the Parliament? How do we reconcile that tension with regard to what this committee is being asked to look at?

Despite telecommunications legislation being wholly reserved to Westminster, the Scottish Government has made more than £600 million-worth of investments through the R100 contracts. Can the minister provide an update on engagements with the United Kingdom Government to extend Gigabit Networks to Scotland’s rural communities, given that telecoms are the UK Government’s constitutional responsibility?