Chamber and committees

I start by congratulating Collette Stevenson for securing the debate. She has mentioned me a few times and I will come on to that.

Earlier today, I was speaking to pupils on a school visit to the Parliament and I told them how I first got involved in politics when I was at school—a long time ago. When I was at school in 1980, a report known as the Brandt report came out, written by a group headed by Willy Brandt. It was all about international development, and we learned about the north-south divide. The message of the report was how important it is for developed nations to help less-developed nations and how that benefits us all. I read that report—all of it. I supported that message, and my views have not changed since.

I have been a supporter of international development for over 40 years, so I have felt a sense of pride that the UK’s international development programme was being delivered from the town that I have represented as a councillor and MSP since 2007. If I have a frustration, it is that what was DFID, and is now the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, reaches out to the world but does not reach out to its Scottish home very well. To my mind, it has a great story that it has not really sold.

In 2015—I think it was 2015 and not 2014—the HMRC threatened to leave East Kilbride and go to Glasgow, so that was a similar situation. As we have heard, a campaign was launched, which was called “Stay in EK”. I got involved in that, as all parties did. We worked with the trade unions; I have not heard from the trade unions on the current issue. I do not know whether it was a result of the campaign or something else, but that decision about HMRC was reversed in January 2022. Anyone who represents the town must have been delighted by that, as I was.

The announcement by the FCDO at the end of last year that it intends to move out of Abercrombie house and go to Glasgow came as a shock. It certainly came as a shock to me; I cannot stand here and say that I was delighted about that—of course I am not delighted. I would rather that it stayed in East Kilbride. The decision is a result of the lease ending on the current HMRC building at Queensway house. That lease is ending, HMRC—

It is good to see the cabinet secretary in Parliament today. I wonder whether, this year, he plans to beat his record of travelling to six countries in the first seven months of last year, which cost £5,500. The Scottish National Party Government’s budget for its overseas offices is increasing to £7.8 million. That is happening while budgets for transport, councils and housing are being slashed. What is the return on that investment?

No, I am not going to take any more interventions—unless I get loads more time.

Thank you very much.

We have both been in discussion with the FCDO. I have spoken personally to the minister, Andrew Mitchell. We will work—and I am quite happy to work with Collette Stevenson if she wants to do it properly—to do all that we can to see whether anything can be done for staff locally.

If staff are to move, the key thing is that they must be treated properly. I have been involved in an office move. There are issues such as parking, extra costs for transport, childcare and whether people can work from home.

Strathclyde Partnership for Transport works across the region, including in East Kilbride, but the Deputy First Minister has just slashed its general capital support grant to nothing. That money funds engineering works, bus station works, bus stops and shelters, bus infrastructure and the decarbonisation of the fleet, and it supports councils in delivering active travel. Does the Deputy First Minister agree with the SPT’s chair and SNP councillor Stephen Dornan, who has said that this is completely unacceptable?

The First Minister’s gift to hard-pressed rail passengers was the announcement of a near 9 per cent increase in fares, which is way above the current level of inflation. At a time when we should be doing all that we can to encourage more people to use the train, why is the First Minister doing the opposite?

The finance secretary has managed to deliver a £29 million real-terms cut to the transport, net zero and just transition budget. What will be the effect of that?

I will follow up on what Sharon Dowey asked about. She covered the NHS England mental health dashboard, which I have had a look at. I am sorry if you feel that it is too bureaucratic, Dr Cook. You can come back in on that, but to me, it provides very useful information. It follows progress, which is what this is all about. That links into what Mr Coffey asked about. It is about following the money and seeing what progress has been made. That is what the dashboard is all about. It used to be called the mental health five-year forward view dashboard, which is a bit of a mouthful. The website, which anyone can look at, says that it

“brings together key data from across mental health services to measure the performance of the NHS”.

Should we not be doing that here?

I am all in favour of doing things simply, rather than introducing bureaucracy. Are you basically saying that you would like to have a Scottish mental health dashboard? I put that question to Dr Cook and Caroline Lamb.

From what you have said, that will be possible, but not until after next summer.