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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 6 July 2025
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Displaying 899 contributions

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Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

National Planning Framework 4: Annual Review

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Fulton MacGregor

Do you believe that the NPF4 supports the delivery of a gender-sensitive approach to planning? If so, how do you think that it achieves that? Do you believe that more can be done?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

National Planning Framework 4: Annual Review

Meeting date: 24 June 2025

Fulton MacGregor

Good morning, minister; I have a couple of quick questions. As you will know, the Royal Town Planning Institute has asked that NPF4 be made a dynamic document that is continually updated to reference new advice and guidance as it is published. Can you and the Government do that?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

National Planning Framework 4: Annual Review

Meeting date: 17 June 2025

Fulton MacGregor

Good morning. Do the witnesses believe that NPF4 supports a gender-sensitive approach? If not, how might more be done to improve that?

As I am not in the room, convener, I am happy for you to go through whoever wants to come in.

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

National Planning Framework 4: Annual Review

Meeting date: 17 June 2025

Fulton MacGregor

My final question might give the witnesses an opportunity to sum up. How can the committee focus future NPF4 scrutiny to ensure that it targets areas of concern to communities and stakeholders? I will go to Clare Symonds first because she and I did a bit of joint work with an organisation in my constituency—the northern corridor community forum—whose views and thoughts are not often taken into account. The question is therefore particularly important to me. What can the committee do to make sure that communities feel that they are heard in the NPF4 process?

11:15  

Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]

Substance Misuse in Prisons

Meeting date: 28 May 2025

Fulton MacGregor

This has been a very interesting first session on this topic. My first point is about custody being an outcome for people with addictions, which Kirsten Horsburgh spoke about. Rona Mackay and Ben Macpherson commented on it, too. However, rather than asking any more questions on that, I hope that the fact that there has already been a good discussion on that issue might lead to the committee doing further work on it. I would like that to be the case, because I completely agree with what has been said.

I was going to ask questions about staff, but Rona Mackay and the convener have already covered them. I was also interested to hear about the welfare considerations for staff who could be dealing with deaths in prison.

Another staff-related angle is the pressure on those who are working in the current context. It strikes me that your staff in prisons are dealing not only with a very vulnerable group of people but with organised criminals. When I think about prison staff, I always consider that they themselves are quite a vulnerable group, because organised criminals will go to all ends available to get their drugs into prison or wherever else. What support do you provide for staff to help them with managing the people that they might come into contact with? Do you have specific training for that, or is it more about providing support?

Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]

Substance Misuse in Prisons

Meeting date: 28 May 2025

Fulton MacGregor

I can imagine. It sounds like you have quite good protocols and procedures in place for things that might happen in work. Is there any guidance in place for what staff should do if they are approached outside of work?

Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]

Substance Misuse in Prisons

Meeting date: 28 May 2025

Fulton MacGregor

Would that information be reported to you?

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee [Draft]

Housing (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 27 May 2025

Fulton MacGregor

I will mainly speak to my amendment 491. The amendment came about through a discussion with the Church of Scotland. I know that Willie Rennie’s amendment 452 came about through similar conversations and may be in a similar area—Meghan Gallacher has just highlighted some of that.

I thank the cabinet secretary for the constructive conversations. I confirm at the outset that I do not intend to move amendment 491; it is more of a probing amendment.

The amendment seeks to address the issue for a landlord who is not an individual, in relation to the proposed new section 51A of the 2016 act. The bill as drafted says:

“The Tribunal may consider in particular ... whether a period of delay in bringing the tenancy to an end would—

i) cause the landlord to experience financial hardship,

ii) have a detrimental effect on the health of the landlord, or

iii) have another detrimental effect on the landlord due to the landlord having a disability”.

Those provisions mirror the considerations that are contained in section 51A(2)(a). In the case of a manse let, the landlord may not be able to prove financial hardship, as they will still be entitled to rent during the period. The provisions in proposed new sections 51A(2)(b) and 51A(2)(c) could not apply to a landlord who was not an individual.

The proposed new section would enable the First-tier Tribunal to consider another detrimental effect on a landlord that is not an individual. For example, in the cases of manses, the detrimental effect would be that the house could not be used by the landlord for occupation by a person engaged in the work of a religious denomination as a residence from which the duties of such a person are to be performed. The detriment would prevent a minister who is called to the charge from being able to take up occupation in the parish if the manse is occupied. The example that was given to me when I met the Church of Scotland representatives was one in which a manse is used for charitable aims such as hosting refugees. Amendment 491 may be helpful in such a scenario.

I reiterate that I do not intend to move amendment 491. I am happy to continue discussions with the cabinet secretary and others ahead of stage 3.

Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]

Cybercrime

Meeting date: 14 May 2025

Fulton MacGregor

Good morning. It has been a really interesting evidence session; thank you for your contributions. I was going to ask about protections for vulnerable people, but we have had quite a good discussion about that already. Adam Stachura, Jude McCorry and others have contributed with regard to older people in particular, which is what my question was going to focus on.

Instead, I would like to ask about increasing resilience in the population overall, which is possibly something for a wider discussion and not for today’s witnesses. However, while we have been talking today—particularly in the exchanges with Ben Macpherson a few moments ago—I have been wondering whether there has been any discussion about that sort of internet safety awareness being brought in as almost a mandatory topic in schools, for example? If you can start to implement that awareness at a very young age, you can increase the population’s resilience over time so that people are less vulnerable. I do not even know who would be best to answer that, but has that been discussed or thought about, and who would deliver it?

Criminal Justice Committee [Draft]

Cybercrime

Meeting date: 14 May 2025

Fulton MacGregor

Okay, thanks. As I said earlier, the question came to me during the wide-ranging discussion that we were having.