Chamber and committees

I think that I heard the request from Pam Duncan-Glancy first.

As set out in the heat in buildings strategy, we will invest £400 million over this session to support the development of heat networks and low-carbon heat infrastructure at scale in Scotland. We will also launch a heat network pre-capital support unit in 2022, which will help to nurture opportunities for new networks and to expand existing ones. In addition, the Scottish Government’s community and renewable energy scheme—CARES—utilises the Local Energy Scotland network of regionally based development officers to provide advice and financial support to local communities that are looking to decarbonise their energy consumption.

Presiding Officer, I wish to raise a point of order regarding exchanges at the end of yesterday’s debate on backing the north-east economy. It is undeniable that feelings were running high in that debate, and I was, of course, frustrated when Douglas Lumsden misquoted my comments about party-political support for the development of new fossil fuel extraction. I acknowledge that I do not know whether he had, in fact, ever bothered to check what I had actually said or whether he merely accepted at face value a false media report and repeated it without knowing.

Of course, I accept that matters of accuracy are not something that you are able to rule on, Presiding Officer. You and previous Presiding Officers have frequently been annoyed by accuracy matters being raised in that way, so I could and should have found a different way to challenge the inaccuracy and to ask Mr Lumsden to correct the record.

However, it is very clear that what followed was far more serious than a slightly annoying use of a point of order. In relation to a physical attack that took place against his local office, and speaking in direct reference to me, Mr Lumsden stated:

“I am not telling the police how to do their job, but perhaps they should consider that a member of this Parliament instigated that attack.”—[Official Report, 15 December 2021; c 63.]

Presiding Officer, in both his words and his body language, he made it perfectly clear that I was the member he was referring to. Let me be equally clear. This allegation of instigating an attack on his office is utterly baseless and deeply offensive. I consider it to be clearly defamatory, and, if it had been made anywhere else but in the chamber of Parliament, I would be taking legal advice.

Conduct in the chamber is regulated by the code of conduct and by your own role as Presiding Officer. We surely cannot permit a situation in which a member is able to level a completely spurious allegation of serious criminal conduct against another member without consequences. To do so would signal to all members that such disgraceful behaviour is acceptable. So, I ask you, what are the consequences for Mr Lumsden’s shocking abuse of his position in Parliament and how can all members be assured that they will be protected from such behaviour in the future?

The Scottish Government is clear, across the whole heat in buildings strategy, that a huge scale of investment is needed. That is why we will create a green heat finance task force to look at the wide range of options for increasing that investment. We are committed to supporting local communities and local authorities that want to maximise the deployment of heat networks, and we will work collaboratively with local government and across the political spectrum to ensure that that happens.

I am grateful to the member for giving way. The Conservatives, not necessarily here, but at Westminster, are still selecting as candidates—as politicians—people who are outright climate deniers and who have moved on from supporting Brexit to opposing lockdown and are now forming the net zero scrutiny group to oppose climate action UK-wide. How embarrassed are the Tories about that?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I suspect that the member knows that I did not use the words “far right” and that he is well aware that he is misleading the chamber. If my suspicion is wrong, I will apologise, but, if he is aware that he is using words that I did not use and that I used the words “hard right” to describe him and his party, not anybody else, then I suspect that he should withdraw his comments.

No, I did not.

A specific regional breakdown for the west of Scotland is not information that we hold. However, as of mid-November, 233 tenant hardship loans had been awarded totalling £615,614, and a further 12 loans had been offered with a potential award value of £38,608.

Councils are administering the tenant grant fund, and they will report progress to the Scottish Government quarterly. The first report is due by the end of this month. It will set out the number and level of grants that were issued, whether those paid the arrears in full or partially, and how many tenancies were sustained at the time.

The member can quote people out of context all he likes, but will he not acknowledge as a matter of fact that political parties of the left, centre and centre right, and even lifelong Conservatives such as John Gummer, have already got real and recognised that everlasting expansion of oil and gas extraction is not compatible with a serious response on the climate emergency?

I will speak if he wants me to.