Chamber and committees

The minister is well aware that the situation in Orkney is little different to that elsewhere in Scotland. When will we see a meaningful plan to start replacing Scotland’s ageing ferry fleet on the West coast and in Orkney?

Earlier today, I was able to download my record of vaccination certificate. Within a minute, I managed to create a copy of the certificate in which I was able to change every single detail. That is not a particularly robust system, is it?

I want to query an aspect of the Town and Country Planning (Miscellaneous Temporary Modifications) (Coronavirus) (Scotland) Regulations 2021 (SSI 2021/292). As you will be aware, under coronavirus legislation, the requirement to hold public consultation events on potential building developments was suspended; in other words, such events did not need to be held. The regulations continue that suspension until 31 March next year. Given that we are now allowed to attend all sorts of events, such as concerts, football matches and weddings, I query why anyone should not be allowed to hold a public consultation event.

We have not had an explanation for that, so the committee should write to the Government asking for one. We could also write to the lead committee, which I think in this case would be the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. There is a related regulation that we will consider later—SSI 2021/291—so we could perhaps include that in the letter.

Convener—

We are not quite in private yet. I apologise, but I want to raise an issue.

We know that we are to have a debate in the Parliament on vaccine passports. I do not actually know what we will debate yet, because we have not seen any details. Frankly, all that I have to go on is what the First Minister announced last week and what I have read in the press. We will have a debate and vote and I imagine that, for such a significant measure, regulations will be laid at some point.

There is a process issue. A lot of the coronavirus legislation has gone through under the made affirmative procedure, under which the law comes into force and then the Parliament has a look at it. A lot of planning has clearly gone into vaccine passports. The First Minister said last week that, if MSPs approve the proposals, she would like them to come in at the end of this month. Therefore, there is time to do what I would describe as proper scrutiny. I argue that the regulations should be laid before they come into force and that we should use a process other than the made affirmative procedure.

Given the lack of clarity, the committee could write to the Government to ask what its plans are. We do not want to know about the detail of the plans—that is for a policy committee to scrutinise—but we want to know how the Government plans to proceed and what process it plans to use. We could also flag that up to the COVID-19 Recovery Committee, which I think will be the main policy committee.

I congratulate Alasdair Allan on bringing the debate to the chamber. It has been interesting for me to listen to members who represent islands—I do not represent islands, so it is great to hear from people who do and who have first-hand experience of the problems that islanders have faced, particularly this summer. We heard from Dr Allan, Kenneth Gibson and Jamie Halcro Johnston, who spoke of islanders’ anger, and we heard from Jenni Minto—I will come back to something that she said.

Alasdair Allan set out very well the problems and issues that people have been facing over the summer. I take issue with one thing that he said, which relates very much to his motion. He said that having islanders on boards would in itself improve services. It would not in itself improve services; however, it is the right thing to do.

On the review, which I think is very important, can the minister say when that will be concluded? Is he prepared to make a statement to Parliament once it is concluded?

We have seen cuts to services, a dispute that has now passed 130 days, 90 per cent of Sunday services cancelled, engineers now threatening strike action and the looming threat of all that continuing while world leaders visit rat-infested, SNP-run Glasgow in November. All of that is happening on the transport minister’s watch. When will he take control and get it sorted?

That is why I said that it is the right thing to do. It will not in itself improve matters. What will improve matters is having more ferries and newer ferries.

That is the issue. We have an ageing ferry fleet, as all members who represent islands and all people who have to use ferries know. The fleet is too old and we have underinvested in Scotland’s ferries for decades. That is why we are in the position that we are in.

Let me talk about the role of a board member. A member of a company board has a responsibility to act in the interests of the whole company and every community; they should not just try to secure decisions that suit their particular interest group—if we can call it that. If someone from island A is on a board and sees themselves as an islands representative, there is a risk that they might act in a way that does not serve the interests of island B.

However, if we are adults about this, we can get through the problem. That brings me back to what Jenni Minto said. She was absolutely right to say that British Columbia Ferry Services has representatives from different communities. I have spoken to a board member of the company. They do things rather differently in Canada: British Columbia Ferry Services has been given a decades-long contract to run the ferries, which enables it to invest in ferries in a way that we have not seen in Scotland.

There is an opportunity to do things differently. I urge the minister to look at the serious proposal from Alasdair Allan and others and to involve the people who use the services.

Minister, is this a taste of things to come when ScotRail is nationalised?