Chamber and committees

Three hundred and ninety-two young people were waiting over two years for mental health care. One young person in NHS Grampian was waiting for 2,534 days—that is six years and 11 months—for their care to begin. We get endless promises from this Government, but the waits seem to be never ending. By when can young people expect a decent and timely mental health service?

This was supposed to be the grand plan to show that lessons have been learned but, for the third year in a row, we have yet more chaos. The expectations for the SQA were low, but there is now real anger and the cabinet secretary refuses to take more action. How bad does it have to get before the cabinet secretary steps in and does something?

The SNP Government wasted years dragging its feet on breaking up Education Scotland and scrapping the SQA. Meanwhile, Scottish education slipped down the international rankings. Reform is urgent, yet everyone will need to wait for another two years before we get the change for which we have been crying out. Can the minister guarantee that the organisations will have new leadership, or will it be the same top people with different roles? Structural reform is not enough. Will the new education agency focus on producing top-down policy direction or on acting as a facilitator to enable teachers to discuss and develop the curriculum?

We must apply more pressure on the UK Government to change its approach to the seasonal workers programme. It is having a devastating effect on farms in my constituency, which have shrunk in the last year. Last year we had rotten fruit and vegetables in the fields; we will not even have the plants this year, because we do not have the workers.

What discussions has the minister had with the UK minister about that? Is she hopeful that the UK Government will change its approach?

Does the minister not think that there are some lessons here for those in the nationalist movement, such as that breaking up long-term economic partnerships is damaging, protracted and bad for business? Should he not learn the lessons instead of trying to repeat them?

I commend the committee for its hard work and Donald Cameron for stepping in at the last minute and making a considered speech in which he set out the three tensions that exist in this debate.

The fact that the debate is still dragging on six years after we voted to leave the EU and two years after we actually left it is further evidence that breaking up long-term economic partnerships is hard to do and damaging. It is a lesson not only for the advocates of Brexit, but for the advocates of independence, who think that breaking up the UK would somehow be a breeze in comparison. The truth is the opposite, and the sooner the nationalists understand that, the better off we will be.

As is often the case, Liz Smith made a reasonable and constructive contribution to the debate. She focused on the practical steps that need to be taken and, indeed, challenged her own Government to match the commitments and the promises that it has made in the past on the level of funds. However, at best, there is confusion over the level of funds; at worst, there is a potential cut of hundreds of millions of pounds.

Between 2014 and 2020, the annual contribution from the EU structural funds was about £2,000 million a year. The National Council for Voluntary Organisations in England estimates that the shared prosperity fund will provide only £866 million, which is a cut of £1.1 billion a year. The minister referred to the Treasury Committee report and a cut of 40 per cent. What would be the impact of the worst-case scenario on projects across the UK? I say to the minister that this is not just a Scottish issue; it is a UK-wide issue.

It is almost six years since the Scottish independence referendum and two years since we left the EU, but still the Conservative Government has not worked out what it is doing. It is moving far too slowly, which is causing massive uncertainty in the sector and organisations face a funding cliff edge as a result. Jobs are at risk, as is the vital work that those organisations do.

Pre-launch guidance on the shared prosperity fund was issued only last month, further details will not be available for weeks and it will take months for applications to be submitted and processed, even though existing funds will run out by December. I say to Liz Smith that time is marching on. The Conservative Government must speed up and end the uncertainty.

There is also great doubt about the role of funds in skills development. At a time when we are short of sufficient skilled workers, that is incredibly short-sighted. The SNP Government is in danger of focusing solely on its exclusion from the process, while organisations across the country are primarily concerned about the shortfall in funding and the lack of certainty.

I want partnership and co-operation. I believe in federalism. That is the answer to the problems that we are facing over this and many other post-Brexit issues that we have been debating today. I would argue that we should have the structures of engagement in areas of common interest. The shared prosperity fund is one area that would benefit from a partnership approach.

I think that most people in this country want Governments just to get on. They want them to work together in partnership, put aside the constitutional differences and make things work. They need to do that in partnership with local authorities, and spats over who is in charge are completely irrelevant to most people on the ground, especially when jobs and opportunities are at stake. Paul Sweeney was bang-on with his comments on that.

I urge the Conservative Government to establish a joint council for UK shared prosperity for the fund and the levelling-up agenda. The council would include representatives of the constituent authorities of the United Kingdom. It could work in partnership with local communities and local government on the development of programmes.

Let us draw on the skills, expertise and talents of everyone at every level of government to make a success of the funding. Let us end the uncertainty over the level of funding, and make sure that the jobs are saved and the opportunities are seized.

I thank the Deputy First Minister for helping out with my constituent’s case last month. The issue has been resolved, after previous repeated attempts by the constituent to resolve it.

There seems to be a particular communication problem on the issue between Scotland and Wales that does not exist between Scotland and England. Has the Deputy First Minister got to the bottom of the problem, and can he resolve it?

A student was alarmed to discover that the night buses in Edinburgh are not covered by the under-22 scheme. Given the challenges that young women are facing in the United Kingdom in relation to gender-based violence, and this Government’s commitments on that matter, will the minister consider extending the scheme to night buses?

Will the minister give way?