Chamber and committees

I have just outlined a host of ways in which people can come here. They are welcome to come here and Mr Rennie should recognise that fact. Net migration from non-EU countries has risen to its highest level for 45 years. For the year ending March 2020, an estimated 316,000 more non-EU citizens came to the UK than left; the figure for EU citizens was 58,000.

I was interested to read a paper from the Construction Industry Training Board. Its research shows that 8 per cent of the construction workforce in Scotland was born outside of the UK and that 23 per cent of construction companies that operate in Scotland employ non-UK-born workers. The CITB says that the dependence of employers in Scotland on migrant workers is low—its words—and that only 3 per cent of employers that operate in Scotland feel dependent on migrant workers.

Most construction industry employers that operate here do not expect the introduction of the points-based immigration system to have an impact on their company. Of those that employ migrant workers, 91 per cent do not expect the number of non-UK workers that they employ to change over the next 12 months. That is what they have told us.

That is not to say that there are not challenges. As Willie Rennie said, it is not a black and white issue. I have been speaking to hauliers, too. There is a shortage of lorry drivers, which the UK Government could help to address by relaxing some of the rules—we have to be honest about that. However, with well-paid jobs such as a lorry driver, I have to ask why we cannot train enough of our people to do it and get youngsters interested. The skills gap in the haulage sector has existed for a while and cannot be blamed solely on the UK leaving the EU.

Age Scotland has highlighted the number of vacancies in the care sector, although those figures are quite out of date, given that we have been through the pandemic in the meantime. I suspect that, whatever the current figure is, it will have more to do with the pandemic than with anything else. However, it is a challenge to fill vacancies in that vital sector, and it has been for a long time. That is where our amendment comes in, as it talks about the need to create more apprenticeships, to reverse the trend of decreasing college student numbers that has occurred under the Scottish Government, to set out plans for a return to in-person small-group learning in higher and further education, and to introduce individual learning accounts, as called for by the Confederation of British Industry Scotland.

The Government needs to concentrate less on trying to score cheap political points and more on filling the skills gaps that we have had for years, which is something that should unite us all. All parties will have ideas, and Mr Lochhead should be reaching out rather than trying to stoke grievance.

My biggest fear is not Brexit, which I see as a land of opportunity; it is that we will have a large group of young people left behind because of Covid. The unemployment figures do not tell the full story. Many thousands of people do not show up in the figures. Those people are not claiming benefits; they are just waiting, often in desperation, for things to open up again. Let us give them the hope that they deserve.

My first speech as an MSP, five years ago, was about Brexit and my first speech in this session is about Brexit. The difference this time is that Brexit has happened. Some of us have moved on from that, but the SNP has not.

The title of the debate is negative and the contributions from the SNP have matched that tone. For a party that is built on division and grievance to stage this debate takes quite a collective brass neck. We are having the debate against a backdrop of an economic calamity that has been caused not by Brexit but by Covid, and we do not know how it is going to play out. The signs are that the UK economy could come back very well, but responding to Covid is the biggest challenge that employers face right now. At least the Government motion mentions that.

On the UK bounce back, the unemployment rate has been falling and the employment rate rising, but to listen to some of today’s speakers, one would think that it is impossible for anyone to come to Britain to work. EU citizens who are already here could apply to stay under the EU settlement scheme, and should have done so, and there is a host of other visas and work permits that are open to the world. We have the skilled worker visa, the health and care worker visa, the temporary seasonal worker visa, the youth mobility scheme visa, the global talent visa and the frontier worker permit—Britain is not closed.

The cabinet secretary says that he wants to phase out new petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Can he say how he plans to do that? In doing so, will he tell the chamber what progress has been made in delivering a hydrogen highway in the north-east?

Can the First Minister explain why domestic cruise ships can drop off and pick up passengers from Scotland in England, but not Scotland, and why this ban on domestic tourism is in place at a time when thousands of football fans will—quite rightly—be allowed to gather in Glasgow?

I want clarity from the cabinet secretary. He has already been asked whether he favours a moratorium on new incinerators, pending the review that he has announced. I am not clear about what he thinks about it. Should there be one or not?

If Maurice Golden had been in the cabinet secretary’s position, would he have given a firmer answer than Mr Matheson gave me earlier when I called for just that moratorium? Would Maurice Golden call for that immediately?

I have written to Kate Forbes to ask for extra help for the travel industry, especially travel agents, and I hope that the First Minister will agree to look at that. However, I want to ask about another issue that is concerning the industry.

If someone travels to a green-list country from an English airport, they can book a testing package, through multiple providers, for £60. The Scottish Government says that if that traveller flies from a Scottish airport, they can use only one provider—CTM—and the same package costs £195. The situation is similar for countries that are on the amber list. What can the First Minister do to bring down the cost and stop Scots being ripped off?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I could not hear anything so, assuming that we are talking about the Oliver Mundell amendment, I would have voted yes.

made a solemn affirmation.