Chamber and committees

One of the concerns that has been put to me by the aviation and travel sector is that progress to incorporate Scotland into the digital app technology that will be used to check passengers’ Covid status has been slow and is behind other countries’ progress. Can the First Minister update Parliament on when that app technology will be ready to incorporate Scotland?

To ask the Scottish Government what revenue it estimates it will receive from land and buildings transaction tax in 2021-22. (S6O-00049)

I thank the minister for that response. Does he agree that, for many young first-time buyers, in areas where there are very high house prices with many properties over the £250,000 rate at which LBTT kicks in, that tax, on top of other taxes that people pay, is quite prohibitive? Does the Scottish Government have plans to introduce regional schemes in which there can be more targeted support for aspirational families, or does it have—at least—plans to provide tangible support through mortgage assistance?

I have no relevant interests to declare.

Scottish universities are reporting that the number of students who are likely to arrive from red-list countries for the start of the new academic term in September is likely to exceed the hotel quarantine allocation, and they are complaining that the issue has not been addressed in good time. Why is that the case and what will be done to address those serious concerns?

I join the minister in thanking the people who are on the front line as we grapple with the pandemic, which is obviously forcing Scotland to face up to very difficult circumstances. It takes just a quick look at the statistics that were published yesterday for us to recognise the scale of the challenges that lie ahead, especially in relation to securing people’s jobs. There are also budgetary challenges.

I have three questions for the minister. I turn first to the underspend and the concern that, in this on-going and serious pandemic, there continues to be a very large sum of public money that many sectors want to be spent on urgent support. For example, in the health budget there is an underspend of £183 million while there are backlogs in treatment. That is very serious.

Will the minister provide Parliament with full transparency on budget lines, regarding exactly how the Covid recovery money, including that which is provided to Scotland by the UK Government, has been spent and how it will be spent, across each sector?

Secondly, I note that transport once again has the largest underspend, which we are hearing just days after the Scottish Government announced that it has missed its climate change targets for the third year running. What money will be given to green transport and infrastructure projects to ensure that the effects of climate change will be mitigated?

Finally, this week the First Minister was accused by members of the national economic forum of not ensuring that enough effort has been made by the Scottish Government to engage meaningfully with the business community on planning for the future. What is being done urgently to address that problem?

On the back of concerns from NFU Scotland and those of some witnesses who gave evidence to the Environment, Climate Change and Land Reform Committee during the previous parliamentary session, I lodged a written parliamentary question in February to ask the Government whether the funding for the regional land use partnerships would be made available through the rural affairs budget. I was told that the Government’s intention is to make the money available through the environment, climate change and land reform portfolio programme. Can the cabinet secretary confirm whether that is the case, when the money will be made available in 2021 and whether it is the Government’s intention to ensure that the partnerships become permanent and do not remain as pilots?

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the rural affairs secretary has had with the land reform minister regarding measures to be put in place to introduce regional land use partnerships. (S6O-00009)

The Tories will call for anything where there is good co-operation between the Holyrood and Westminster Governments. That is absolutely critical and I hope that it has been mentioned by the advisers to the Scottish Government, one of whom is Chris Stark, who is an adviser on climate change. We need to be really clear about the shared endeavours that we must have if there is to be economic recovery and a green agenda.

On taking up the cabinet secretary’s offer of co-operation across the parties, what do we want from the Scottish National Party? First and foremost, we want to see an enterprise bill that would, in order to deliver and create the right jobs across Scotland, establish lasting partnerships between the Governments, local authorities, education providers, skills providers and businesses, whose work on the ground will be crucial to the economic recovery, as the cabinet secretary hinted in her speech.

We also want hastened progress on a circular economy bill, which the SNP had to postpone last year and is seen by so many stakeholders as being absolutely crucial to the green recovery. We want investment-led infrastructure projects that can combine green objectives with jobs, and we want digital enterprise, effective full-fibre broadband and diverse skills, which we would seek to support with the retrain to rebuild accounts. We want rates relief for businesses and maintenance of the poundage rates until the 2023 revaluation, a more tapered scheme for the small business bonus and no new Covid business regulations before 2023, in order to allow businesses to get back on their feet as quickly as possible.

I return to Kate Forbes’s comments about certainty and stability. She is absolutely right about those two fundamental principles, which are exactly what business wants. I am sure that the business dialogues that she has undertaken have been telling her exactly that.

In that context, I ask her to consider the following. First, what certainty and stability can there possibly be in the prospect of yet another referendum on Scottish independence, when we know that basic questions about currency, economic borders and the size of the fiscal black hole have not been answered?

Those questions are fundamental to businesses as they plan ahead, but all they get is the constant constitutional rumbling and uncertainty that dominates what the SNP says. Ministers say, “If only we had all the powers we need.” Actually, we now have many more powers, and businesses want us to use them wisely and with full transparency and accountability, just as the Auditor General has demanded.

We get constant jibes from the SNP that the better together parties are an unholy coalition that is frustrating Parliament. However, we now have a new variety of better together—namely, the unholy coalition of the SNP and the Greens. Forgive our cynicism, but that coalition is much more to do with the drive for independence than it is to do with economic growth.

The coalition with the Greens could be a looming disaster for the Scottish economy, because the Scottish Green Party’s plans for a universal basic income, as set out in its manifesto, could cost the Scottish economy £58 billion in one year alone and would raise taxes for all Scots. We know from a Scottish Government freedom of information response that the highest payment level of UBI would lead to each tax band having to increase by 39p to 49p in the pound.

We also know that the Scottish Green Party’s plans for a wealth tax have been described by the Institute of Directors as a blunt instrument that would end up stymieing entrepreneurialism, and we know that the Greens want to completely kill off the oil and gas sector, about which my colleague Liam Kerr asked a question. That would put at risk more than 100,000 jobs in a sector that is worth £11.6 billion to the Scottish economy. [Interruption.] I will not give way, because I am in my final minute.

During the election campaign, Patrick Harvie said that ending oil and gas production within a decade would be the price of the coalition deal with the SNP. However, there is little detail when it comes to outlining the collective effect and the effective cost of that policy commitment in respect of people’s jobs and Scotland’s economic welfare.

Our amendment is absolutely clear about the need to protect people’s jobs in the sector, especially in the north-east, and about working as partners within the £16 billion North Sea transition deal. The SNP-Green amendment is, of course, really all about independence. We know that that means lack of clarity and stability for Scottish businesses. That is why we will speak up on behalf of businesses in Scotland.

I move amendment S6M-00165.4, to leave out from “and calls for” to end and insert:

“; recognises the importance of Scotland’s energy sector, including the oil and gas industries to the Scottish economy and the over 100,000 jobs that it supports; calls for the Scottish Government to be a partner in the £16 billion North Sea Transition Deal, and further calls for all of Scotland’s parties and both the Scottish and UK governments to work together to make rebuilding the Scottish economy the number one priority in the immediate aftermath of the COVID-19 health pandemic.”

Will the minister take an intervention?