Chamber and committees

I am grateful to the cabinet secretary for that update, and I welcome the Government’s commitment to rolling out universal free school meals.

Six months ago, the Government said that it would pilot universal free school meals in secondary schools. Can the cabinet secretary confirm which schools are involved and how the pilot is going? Will she or the relevant minister agree to meet me and campaigners, including the Scottish Youth Parliament and the Scottish Trades Union Congress women’s committee, to see how we can speed that up?

As a member of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, I am pleased to take part in the debate.

As the convener set out in his remarks, the inquiry has been significant and substantial, spanning 17 evidence sessions, over which we heard from more than 50 organisations. It is right that we got out of Parliament and visited a number of the communities who are at the heart of delivering on Scotland’s net zero targets and ambitions. I was part of the delegations to Aberdeen and Orkney, and I was pleased to get out of Central Scotland for a couple of days. Those visits were really worth while, and I am grateful to everyone who made them possible.

I was pleased to hear Willie Rennie and other colleagues acknowledge the importance of the report. We would not have been able to produce the report and the key recommendations without Peter McGrath and the committee clerking team, the Scottish Parliament information centre and everyone else who played a part.

It has been good to follow my committee colleagues in the debate. Planning has been mentioned, but if members will indulge me, as a former planner, I will focus on planning, because it is absolutely key to the place-based approach about which our deputy convener Fiona Hyslop is so passionate, and to the place-making agenda.

I am pleased that colleagues have read the briefing that we received from the Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland. We have seen a significant decline not just in the number of planners—members have heard some of those statistics in the debate—but in the capacity to deliver at a time when demand is increasing. As a Parliament, members have all bought into national planning framework 4, and we have had planning reform, so the demands are really high. We need to create opportunities, retain good planners and create a pipeline for new talent.

While we were taking evidence in the inquiry, we were a dynamic committee—I am looking at the deputy convener—because we did not just wait to get to the end and do the report. We used parliamentary questions and other devices to ask the Government questions, as things progressed. I was pleased that the planning minister Tom Arthur was very optimistic and positive about the opportunity that a planning apprenticeship model could bring. The model exists in England, so we can see how it is going there. Given that we have lost a number of planning schools over the years—planning schools have become an endangered species in Scotland—we have to create new routes, and the planning apprenticeship would be an exciting way to do that. I am glad that other colleagues have championed that idea in the debate; it looks like something good will come from that.

Another key area for local government is procurement. Procurement is not yet fully aligned with sustainability, and net zero is not fully or firmly embedded across all council directorates and budgets. The Sustainable Scotland Network acknowledged that more work is needed to align council procurement with net zero, but it said that the problem may lie upstream of procurement, including at the specification stage. The network is keen to do more to provide training and build capacity. That is another key area for the Government to consider.

I will jump across to transport. As we heard from the convener, we are trying to find local and national solutions to a global crisis—we are living through a climate and nature emergency. The cabinet secretary and his ministerial colleagues have heard me talk about this before, but the X1 bus, which used to serve communities in Hamilton and get to Glasgow City Centre quickly and efficiently, was lost during the pandemic.

I want our young people, who now have free bus passes, to have such services again. We know, not just from our report but from the Climate Change Committee’s strong words, that we need to do more to decarbonise transport and properly invest in active travel. Where we know that there is demand for community bus services, let us bring those services back.

When we took evidence on transport, it was worrying that, despite there being legislation and powers that councils can use, there was no evidence that councils were going to hit the button and start to run council bus services, because they did not have the resources. I know that work is happening in Government, but we need to see real and significant improvement in that area.

We know that decarbonising transport and buildings is the key area. We heard evidence from the vice-convener of Unison Scotland, Stephen Smellie, on what we need to do on retrofitting buildings. He gave a striking example from South Lanarkshire. The cost of retrofitting all non-domestic buildings in South Lanarkshire would amount to half a billion pounds. We know that the council does not have that money and that a partnership approach is needed. Again, we need answers to those really big questions.

I give a shout-out to community wealth building. The Government is committed to that approach, but North Ayrshire Council has been pioneering it. We need it if we are going to spearhead a community and worker-led just transition. There are really good examples in that regard, involving solar energy and a lot more.

I know that there has been time in hand, but I am quickly running out of seconds.

It is really important that the report is not given warm words today and then filed away without us talking about it again. We will have a new First Minister, and there might be a new Cabinet and a new approach in Government. The report will help the Government and Scotland. We have to keep looking back at it and the work of other committees in the Parliament, because it is the people of Scotland—the experts and communities in Scotland—who have informed that work. We have fantastic recommendations.

As Willie Rennie said, this is hard. Of course it is hard, but we have to do it. When we talk about net zero, there is a lot to be critical of and a lot to get gloomy about, but we need to give our communities hope that net zero is possible.

On what keeps me motivated, I visit schools as often as I can on my eco tour, and they know what is possible. They know what needs to be done, and they want to be part of the solution. They want us to invest in them so that people in them can be the planners, engineers and architects of the future.

I hope that that is a positive note to end on. I thank everyone who has taken the time to read the report, and I ask them not to file it away and forget about it.

Happy international women’s day to everyone who is celebrating.

I, too, place on the record my best wishes to Nicola Sturgeon as she counts down the days and hours to leaving the office of First Minister. She is our first woman First Minister but, I hope, not the last—and that is in no way a comment on the leadership contest that is under way. I hope that, regardless of political beliefs and party affiliations, women and girls across Scotland and the UK and, indeed, beyond will have taken inspiration, courage and confidence from the First Minister’s commitment to public service. I think that we all agree that leadership is for women and girls, regardless of their background.

Colleagues have been reflecting today on the collective progress that has been made towards achieving equality and equity for women and girls, and there is a lot to celebrate. However, as the First Minister and others have said, there is still a hell of a lot to do.

I turn to historical forced adoption. At First Minister’s question time last week, I received a positive indication from the First Minister that the Scottish Government has been listening carefully to the women and families affected by historical forced adoption. I am pleased that the issue was raised and reinforced in the First Minister’s speech today. We all know that an apology is due, and I hope that it will happen very soon, in the time that the First Minister has left.

We are joined today by Marion McMillan, who is in the public gallery. Marion’s son was taken from her in 1967 simply because she was an unmarried mother. It is really hard to talk about this as a historical injustice when Marion and her family and thousands of others who have gone through a similar experience are still living with the trauma and its life-changing impacts.

Marion is a survivor of multiple injustices and adversities. In addition to forced adoption, she was subjected to diethylstilbestrol, or DES—the drug that was given to women to dry up their breast milk as their babies were snatched from their arms. We now know that the drug increases the risk of cancer and other diseases. She is also a mesh-injured woman, and it is really a miracle that Marion is here, because she is also living with cancer. I am looking at Marion, and she is not a victim—she is a survivor. She is a warrior woman who has supported and championed countless women not just in Scotland but around the world.

She could not be with us in the public gallery in June 2001, when Parliament spoke with one voice on the need for a formal apology. I am pleased that she is here today, supported by her husband, George, and sitting with another phenomenal woman who also happens to be called Marion—the award-winning journalist Marion Scott, who is the political editor of the Sunday Post. Frankly, she has fought for justice for these women’s families when so many others in the media were simply not interested. We need warrior women in our media, too.

Forced adoption has left emotional scars on mothers, fathers, adoptees and extended families. None of us can change what happened, but we can acknowledge the harm that was caused through a formal apology, alongside a plan for access to specialist trauma-informed support and better access to adoption records.

Esther Robertson describes herself as a mixed-race black girl who grew up in a white adoptive family during the 1960s and 1970s. She was taken from her mother, Ann Bruce Lindenberg. I know that the First Minister might have more time soon, and I recommend that she and all colleagues listen to the podcast “Looking for Esther”, which is on Spotify. It was written and produced by Esther’s partner, Gayle Anderson, and it is about Esther’s 50-year search for answers on her birth parents, her background and her identity. It is a really important perspective.

While I am name-checking women, I have a wee gift for the First Minister, as I know that she likes books. It is “Adoption and Loss” by Evelyn Robinson—a Scottish woman who left our nation in 1970 after her son was taken. Evelyn was instrumental in ensuring the Australian adoption apology. I have several copies of the book in my office and I can provide them if other colleagues want to speak to me after today’s business. There is so much that we need to learn from these women, and I feel that we are finally getting there.

I mentioned the drug that was given to Marion McMillan. Colleagues know that I am passionate about women’s health. Over a year ago now, at a round-table discussion, we heard from Caitlin McCarthy, who is an American educator and award-winning screenwriter of an upcoming feature film about the DES drug disaster. She was inspired to write about that because she is a DES daughter.

There are so many more women to mention, but I have only a few seconds left. I also want to talk about period dignity, which other members have mentioned. At the weekend, I had the privilege of being a guest speaker at the University of Cambridge, and I want to let colleagues know that the work that we are doing collectively in Scotland on period equality is creating waves around the world.

I heard from Dr Zareen Roohi Ahmed, who has been inspired to set up a charity and a business to get free period products to as many people as possible, and particularly to women in refugee camps. She was inspired to do so because her daughter had a dream and vision but was abducted and murdered when she was 19. I did not want to dwell on violence against women today, but we should not have to turn to such dark times to find a way forward for gender equality.

I am running out of time, and there is so much more to say. I ask all colleagues, if they have not already done so, to download the PickupMyPeriod app and get it on their smartphones and other devices. Shona Robison and I had a really good meeting last week. Excellent work on period products is happening in local government, but we all have to tell our constituents how they can access those products.

I will finish with a short quote from Dolly Parton, because Cher got a name check and I do not want to leave out Dolly. We want all women to believe in themselves, so all that I want to say is:

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”

[Applause.]

I thank the cabinet secretary for mentioning my favourite subject—I am very grateful. I want to do a wee shout-out for Hey Girls, whose representatives are out in the members’ lobby, and I thank Paul McLennan for hosting them. Colleagues might be aware that Hey Girls has some period pants on display. I have been lobbying the UK Government about period pants, because they are still taxed as a luxury item, when we know that there is nothing luxury about periods. Therefore, I hope that the cabinet secretary and the rest of Parliament will join me in supporting Hey Girls, which is here with its reusable products, and in speaking with one voice to ask the UK Government to take VAT off our menstrual products.

I am sorry to grill you on sustainable deer management, Deborah, but the issue has come up now. You might not want to put a number on it, but what is the extent of culling? I read recently that there are millions of deer in Scotland. When you talk about sustainable deer management, do you have an optimal number in mind?

That is helpful. On your point about having the right tree in the right place, I declare an interest, in that I am the Parliament’s species champion for oak.

My next question is on the European Union’s nature restoration law. I will stay with you, Dr Mitchell but, if others want to contribute, they should catch my eye. The committee previously heard from stakeholders about the significance of the development of the EU’s nature restoration law. To what extent are your institutions monitoring the development of EU law? Are there areas where the EU is showing particular ambition or that are notable in terms of how the EU might translate COP15 outcomes? Where should Scotland seek to keep pace?

I have a brief supplementary, convener.

That is an important point.

The petition raises important issues, and I am sure that we are all grateful to the petitioner for the work that they have done. It would be good if we could do more at this committee, and it is a little bit frustrating that we cannot, but I understand the reasons why. I recognise that the matter will be looked at in the House of Commons, so it is important that we write to the Transport Committee to consolidate the work that has been done here and express the views that we have obtained. I hope that the select committee can keep us informed.

Thank you for that succinct answer.