Chamber and committees

Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention on that point?

What will be the make-up of that advisory group?

The recent heat in buildings consultation undervalues the significance and ability of renewable liquid fuels to contribute to a just transition and allow off-grid households to decarbonise in a fair, easy and affordable way. Will the minister commit to giving renewable liquid fuels a prominent role in the upcoming heat in buildings legislation? Will he look towards removing renewable liquid fuels, such as hydro-treated vegetable oil, from the polluting heating systems criteria?

Mark Griffin will probably be feeling nauseous by now, but I start by paying tribute to him and his office for the power of work that he has put into the bill. I also thank everyone who has provided input to the deliberations and work of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee on his proposal.

As we have heard, there is consensus on the urgent need for progress to be made on what the benefit will look like in Scotland and the advice on it that will be developed. I continue to have a lot of sympathy for Mark Griffin’s proposal. In the previous parliamentary session, I worked with the Government on Frank’s law, the aim of which was to extend the provision of free personal care to people under 65. There was a lot of cross-party work in Parliament to reform our welfare system and, for example, to remove time limits for payments to people with a terminal illness. Just recently, I launched a consultation on delivering a right to palliative care. I hope that, across the Parliament, we can make progress on many of those issues.

It is important that today’s debate and the work done by Mark Griffin have helped to put pressure on the Scottish Government, which has achieved something. We will now—finally—have a consultation, and it seems that the Scottish Government will introduce a version of Mark Griffin’s proposals and will help to shape an employment injury assistance benefit in Scotland. We know that such cases will be some of the most complex, not only because of the number of case transfers but because of how those cases will be embedded in Social Security Scotland. We need to focus on that, too.

However, we cannot ignore the committee’s report, which was produced after cross-party examination of the bill. It is clear from the report’s conclusions that the committee continues to have significant concerns, which were not resolved during its scrutiny of the bill. The report notes that,

“Before it could recommend establishing a new statutory body, with its associated costs, the Committee would need to be certain that that”

would be able to

“deliver on its aims.”

As others have said, the fact that we do not have a benefit in place now means that the bill would put the cart before the horse in terms of our ability to deliver the benefit and advice.

Many members have touched on the fact that a benefit from an older industrial age will be dealing with a complex future, especially post-Covid. We will need to consider which cases will be eligible—for example, complex cases involving work-related long Covid for professionals in the national health service, in care homes and in teaching. Work is only just starting on that. We need proper scrutiny of whether such cases will be accepted and whether such people will be able to access the benefit in the future, and we all need to ensure that that scrutiny takes place. I hope that the work that the Government is now proposing will take place.

In its helpful briefing, the Royal College of Nursing Scotland states:

“With less than two years until the agency agreement with the Department for Work and Pensions ... is due to end, the Scottish Government need to publish its consultation setting out its proposals for the new EIA.”

We have heard today about a consultation. I hope that the cabinet secretary understands that there is a lot of cross-party interest in that work and that progress urgently needs to be made.

That should include details of the expert advisory group that will support the establishment of the new Scottish benefit and which health groups will be involved. In making my intervention earlier, I was interested in hearing which medical groups would be included in the expert group. I hope that the Government provides that information as soon as it can and that those of us who are interested and who want to input to the group will be included.

It is also important that we consider the organisations that are calling for action. I have met many of the organisations that have been highlighted, from Injury Time to Asbestos Action. A range of organisations have highlighted higher rates of cancer in many workforces, including among our firefighters and Scotland’s industrial communities. It is important, therefore, that those organisations are also at the table. I completely accept the work that Mark Griffin has done with unions to make sure that their voices are heard—that is incredibly important.

As many members on all sides of the chamber have said, it feels as though the bill has come too early, but it has also made the Government act. Mark Griffin should be pleased that he has made sure that the Government has listened.

It is clear from the debate that urgent action is needed. I hope that the cabinet secretary will update Parliament at the earliest opportunity. Given the result of the committee’s deliberations, Scottish Conservatives will not support the bill at stage 1. However, we certainly want work on delivering the advice that Scotland needs to establish the principles of the benefit to move forward at an urgent pace, and we will work across Parliament to achieve that.

That would be helpful. We have discussed empty homes at length. I know that a number of councils do not have the resources to invest in building maintenance. It is welcome that a lot of councils are employing housing officers specifically to look at empty properties, but we do not seem to be pushing down on the number of empty homes. We have heard this morning about all the problems with cladding and RAAC, and about what is creating even more housing need.

What is the Government’s plan for empty homes? Has the Government considered establishing a national empty homes fund, which councils could bid into? In Edinburgh, more than 3,000 council-owned properties are sitting empty. Can councils look at getting such properties back into use?

Thank you.

Good morning to the minister and his officials. I have a couple of questions. First, I will ask about the post-implementation analysis that the Government has undertaken of some of its policies. It has been two years since about 500,000 properties in Scotland were identified as not implementing the interlinked fire alarms policy. What analysis has been done of that? Do all local authorities and housing associations now comply with that policy?

I know that there is anecdotal evidence that privately owned homes implement the policy only for a sale and not before. Is there any data on that?

Two years ago, the Government allocated £500,000 for vulnerable and disabled individuals to access support for implementing the policy. Has that all been allocated, or was that money not spent?

Thank you for that. It would be useful to keep the committee updated on some of that work.

You talked about barriers. Looking back at the Government’s rent control policy, I note that housing associations warned us quite clearly that mid-market rent development would dry up—the minister, in fact, was asking a number of questions about that when he was a committee member. Indeed, we have seen that happen for housing associations. Is there a specific commitment to look again at that issue for housing associations to try to get mid-market rent development going again? Is that central to the discussions that the minister has outlined, too?

Rather than discussions, the most important issue is outcomes and what will actually make a difference. In Edinburgh, the loss of mid-market rental properties has been catastrophic for our housing market, so getting those back is really important.

I want to move on to homelessness. The Scottish Housing Regulator has reported systemic failures in the delivery of homelessness services by some councils, with other councils being at risk of failure. What has been the response of the Scottish Government to that and to the fact that councils across Scotland have declared housing emergencies? The Scottish Government has not declared a housing emergency, but some councils have, including the City of Edinburgh Council in the region that I represent.