Chamber and committees

Will the minister make it clear that the court ruling applies only to the City of Edinburgh Council’s short-term lets policy, and that the national legislation underpinning the licence scheme remains robust and applicable across Scotland, with a considerable degree of local discretion?

Scotland’s small businesses are facing higher energy costs, labour shortages due to Brexit, and the impact of inflation on goods and services due to United Kingdom Tory Government mismanagement of the economy. Given the paltry consequentials that the Scottish Government has received, which severely limits its ability to repair some of that damage, what continued calls is the minister making to the UK Government to provide further much-needed support?

Presiding Officer,

“I cannot see a rationale or justification for an approach to asylum determination that takes years, costs the taxpayer extraordinary amounts and that prevents the individual from contributing to the economy and society”.

Those are not my words but those of Helena Kennedy KC, as chair of the Independent Commission of Inquiry into Asylum Provision in Scotland.

We should at this point remind ourselves that the UK is a signatory to the 1951 UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 protocol, which serve to protect refugees. The convention defines a refugee as someone who has a

“well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion”

and

“is outside the country of”

their nationality.

The latest figures that have been published for the 12 months to September 2023 state that 75,340 asylum applications, relating to 93,296 people, were made to the Home Office. In number of asylum applications per head of population, the UK ranks 20th highest in Europe. That is very far behind other countries including Cyprus, which topped the table for asylum applications per head of population.

The Refugee Council identified that the top five countries of origin of people seeking asylum in the UK are Afghanistan, Iran, Albania, India and Iraq. Two of those countries are where British troops engaged in armed conflict for many years and one is where human rights abuses, in particular against women and girls, have been well documented. The others are on the list as a result of crackdowns on independence movements or sectarian violence. That is why 75 per cent of people who apply for asylum in the UK are granted protection on their initial application.

As of September 2023, 124,000 people were waiting for the conclusion of their asylum applications. Meanwhile, the same people who are seeking asylum are banned from working and, in many cases, are provided with only £9 a week from the UK Government to cover the cost of their basic necessities. That is at a time when, across the UK, 949,000 vacancies need to be filled to help the Scottish and UK economies to grow. Why are we not allowing individuals who have been granted protection in this country to work to support themselves?

The National Institute of Economic and Social Research, in its discussion paper “The Economic and Social Impacts of Lifting Work Restrictions on People Seeking Asylum”, highlights that

“The UK is one of six European nations who grant asylum applicants the right to work after they have been waiting for an outcome of their application for longer than a year”,

unlike most other countries, which have a restriction of six months. However, the UK

“is the only country to impose further restrictions on what jobs a person seeking asylum can apply for once the right to work has been granted, by allowing people to take up jobs only on a ‘shortage occupations’ list.”

The report found that the annual impacts of allowing people who are seeking asylum the right to work in the UK would be to increase tax revenue by £1.3 billion, to reduce Government expenditure by £6.7 billion and to increase the UK’s gross domestic product by £1.6 billion. As Helena Kennedy stated in the final report of the commission,

“What an utter waste of human potential and of resources. Particularly in a country that has an urgent growth agenda and massive skills shortages.”

She continued:

“The UK needs care workers, HGV drivers, butchers and other technically and professionally skilled workers. We need to honour our commitments to protect people and we need people who want to play a role in our economy and society. Canada’s recently announced 2023-25 Immigration Levels Plan embraces a strategy of immigration to manage future social and economic challenges. They are seeing immigration as an opportunity not a threat; in contrast the UK seems short-sighted on multiple fronts.”

Many refugees are highly skilled and want to contribute to their new country and to give thanks for the opportunity to rebuild their lives. Instead, the UK Government has left more than 56,000 of them languishing in hotel rooms, which is resulting in increased mental health issues, on-going trauma and a loss of wellbeing, which has resulted in their requiring more support from our already stretched NHS.

Under the Scottish Government’s recently published immigration proposals in the “Building a New Scotland” series, we would welcome asylum seekers and provide support so that they could more easily integrate into communities. People who are seeking asylum would be given the right to work and would therefore pay taxes, which in turn would allow access to public services, including employability support. The result would be increased tax revenue for the Scottish Government, lower expenditure on asylum support and increased productivity.

The UK Government’s repugnant policies on asylum and immigration in no way reflect Scotland’s values of compassion, humanity and upholding international law, nor do they take into account the fact that migration benefits Scotland’s economy and our public services. An independent Scotland would be able to establish a humane approach to supporting refugees and people who are fleeing conflict and persecution, who deserve our compassion and aid, and it would be aware of the need for equity for the global south in our approach to migration. We would be able to do that with the values of dignity, fairness and respect at the heart of all aspects of immigration policy.

To ask the Scottish Government how its budget for 2024-25 will support Police Scotland. (S6O-02939)

I welcome the real-terms budget increase for Police Scotland. However, with the continued squeeze on Barnett consequentials and the disappointing autumn statement, will the cabinet secretary outline the impact that that will have on delivering a fit-for-purpose Police Scotland service in the long term?

I, too, thank Bob Doris for bringing the motion to Parliament for debate and Marie Curie for its 75 years of providing palliative care across Scotland and the UK.

The first Marie Curie home in the UK was opened in 1952 at the Hill of Tarvit in Cupar, Fife. Since then, its UK hospice network has grown, with nine hospices now offering in-patient and out-patient care and a broad range of day therapies to meet the needs of individual patients.

As others have said, the two Scottish hospices are in Glasgow and in my constituency of Edinburgh Pentlands, at Fairmilehead. I have visited that hospice on many occasions, the most recent time being only two weeks ago, when I took part in the lights to remember event.

In the past year, the Marie Curie Edinburgh hospice and the West Lothian care-at-home team supported a total of 1,690 patients through their in-patient, out-patient, community and day therapy services. I should point out that my wife is a district nurse who provides palliative care to patients in West Lothian and works alongside the Marie Curie care-at-home team, which provides support to those individuals.

Demand for the service is increasing as Scotland’s population is ageing, with the census highlighting that, between 2001 and 2021, the over-65s had increased from 16 per cent of Scotland’s population to 20 per cent, which is an increase of nearly 267,000 people in that age category. Although, compared with previous decades, life expectancy for men and women is increasing, there is a downside in that those who are over 65 have more health problems and the amount of time that is spent in ill health is also rising. That puts pressure on our health service, including those who are working to improve end-of-life care.

The Marie Curie report “How many people need palliative care?” provides basic estimates of the future need and indicates that there will be a significantly higher need for palliative care in the future. The report states:

“The methods used in this report can provide a headcount of how many people in the population need palliative care, but they do not indicate what the service implications are for meeting this need, what the gap is between need and the current provision of care and services, or which groups or individuals are most likely to miss out. More research is needed to model population need for different types of services, alongside improved data on service access, outcomes, and patient and carer experiences.”

I totally agree with that, and I will come to that point in two seconds.

I welcome the announcement in the report that Marie Curie will commission research to help answer the questions of population need for different types of services, alongside improved data on service access outcomes and patient and carer experiences.

It is important that we better understand what support people require as they reach the last few months of life. Therefore, I welcome the Scottish Government’s creation of a strategy steering group to oversee the development and delivery of a new palliative and end-of-life care strategy. The aim is to ensure that everyone in Scotland receives

“well-coordinated, timely and high-quality palliative care, care around death and bereavement support based on their needs and preferences including support for families and carers.”

The strategy will also aim to understand and respond to issues of financial insecurity, housing and employment, and it will provide information in accessible formats for everyone who requires end-of-life care, and their families.

I thank the dedicated staff at Fairmilehead Marie Curie hospice, who will be working over Christmas and new year, for all that they do to support those people who are reaching the end of their lives.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that, if Scottish Labour members are serious about protecting the rights of workers and going further to deliver fair work conditions in Scotland, they need to take proper action to press their London bosses to commit to devolving employment law to Holyrood as a priority?

Some of my constituents who live in Ratho, Bonnington Cottages, Hermiston village and Blinkbonny need support for energy efficiency and decarbonisation improvements. Many people are unaware that Home Energy Scotland’s grant and loan scheme offers a rural uplift. What work is the Scottish Government doing to ensure that rural households are aware of all the home energy funding opportunities that are available to them?

I absolutely agree. In addition, as some stores deliver to homes where people are housebound or have caring responsibilities, they can keep an eye on the most vulnerable in society. I thank Audrey Nicoll for that intervention—the only issue is that I have forgotten where I am in my speech now.

To the Williams’s surprise, they hit their initial target in the space of 24 hours, with the support of the local community. However, as more people became aware of the much-needed initiative to help those struggling during the pandemic, they continued to receive money and eventually raised more than £10,000.

The hardship fund was handed out in small amounts, with no questions asked, to ensure that the money was used to help as many people as possible, whether to pay for food or household bills. Their efforts made a huge difference to many in the community and they rightly received wide recognition, winning a number of awards. Those included, last month, the Raj Aggarwal trophy from the Association of Convenience Stores, which is awarded to retailers who have demonstrated exceptional commitment to community retailing over the past year, supporting their colleagues, customers and fellow retailers and representing the very best of community retailing.

The convenience store sector has faced many hardships in recent years, from the financial crash of 2008 to the pandemic, Brexit food shortages and now inflationary pressure on overheads. Earlier this year, the Scottish Government offered support by funding the go local project, offering a match-funded grant worth up to £5,500 per store for convenience shop owners to provide dedicated long-term display space for locally sourced, fresh and healthy Scottish products. Stores that took part in the initial pilot saw a 40 per cent increase in sales of local products and delivered additional local economic benefits in excess of £159,000 per store. The initiative also enabled stores to support Scottish producers and give those businesses a vital route to market, helping with recovery and regrowth from Covid-19.

At a time when households and businesses are bearing the brunt of Westminster’s cost of living crisis, it is right that we celebrate the hard work and resilience of Scotland’s convenience store sector.