Chamber and committees

That is helpful. Thank you.

We absolutely get that. How did you do that?

Yes. I completely understand about the range of views and the range of people you speak to. We had the example in which one of your stakeholder’s views was not taken forward for, I presume, completely understandable and legitimate reasons. As a reflection of how you are communicating well with your stakeholders, how did you manage telling them why, and how did you tell them?

The disaster of Brexit that Scotland did not vote for has, among other things, narrowed opportunities for some of our young people. With that in mind, can the First Minister provide an update on what proportion of school leavers have gone on to positive destinations?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how the fuel insecurity fund is supporting residents in the Cunninghame South constituency. (S6O-02456)

Reducing poverty, delivering growth, tackling climate change and providing high-quality public services are rightly the focus of the programme for government that our First Minister announced at the beginning of this new parliamentary term. I was pleased to hear the First Minister describe his agenda as “unashamedly anti-poverty and pro-growth”. The better and fairer Scotland and the more equal society that we would all like to have require our concerted efforts to eradicate poverty, to tackle the cost of living crisis and to create opportunities for businesses and individuals to thrive.

Today, we debate equality, opportunity and community, and actions to build stronger communities, improve social justice and reduce inequalities. Those things will, arguably, make the most immediate difference to the people whom we serve. Like many colleagues from across the chamber, I spent the recess in the communities that I represent, doing additional surgeries and meeting community groups and businesses, to listen and to provide assistance where I could. Among the many and varied things that I and my office team help constituents with, one thing that is constant is the way in which poverty exacerbates every single inequality and any injustice.

People across Scotland have been paying a steep price for economic incompetence, austerity and Brexit. That situation has been caused by successive Westminster Governments over a number of years. In the past five years, the Scottish Government has spent more than £700 million on mitigating the impact of Westminster welfare cuts alone. The current cost challenges, which are being noticed by all but a few households, are a crisis that is felt even more acutely and keenly by those who already have the greatest challenges, and it is harder for them to overcome.

Scottish Government action is making a difference to children and families in my constituency and throughout Scotland. Due to the policies of our SNP Government, an estimated 90,000 fewer children are expected to live in relative and absolute poverty this year, with the poverty level being 9 per cent lower than it would have been otherwise. One child living in poverty is one too many, but progress is being made.

The First Minister quoted the late David McLetchie’s warning about

“worshipping the false god of consensus”—[Official Report, 9 June 1999; c 376.]

and said that

“For the good of society ... where we need to pick a side”—[Official Report, 5 September 2023; c 12.]

we will do just that.

There are two matters on which I will follow the First Minister’s advice on that front. The first concerns the Children (Care and Justice) (Scotland) Bill. The aims and principles that underpin the bill are laudable; it is the right thing to do and it absolutely supports keeping the Promise. However, there is an undeniable challenge in balancing the rights of offenders against those of the victims who are harmed by offending behaviour. That is never starker than when both parties are children.

I am sure that MSPs across the chamber will recognise, from their casework, that there are situations in which the balance has been off and has not felt just, and in which the harmed child has been further traumatised by the actions of our care and justice system. The system intended to do its best for the child who caused harm but has—in particular, in cases in which a sexual offence has been committed or in which the harmful behaviour is coercive control and domestic abuse—let down the victim and compromised their safety.

That important balance of rights is not correct in the bill as drafted. Child victims will not have their rights realised if changes are not made. I am hopeful that the Scottish Government will work with me, Victim Support Scotland and others to get the balance right. I appreciate the willingness of the Minister for Children, Young People and Keeping the Promise to meet me—I hope that we can get a date in the diary very soon.

Finally, and again on the theme of justice and inequality, and reflecting on how poverty exacerbates inequality and injustice, I note that there are—as colleagues have set out—many measures to welcome for women in the programme for government, but, to be honest, I am pretty dismayed to see no mention of legislation to tackle commercial sexual exploitation within the work on preventing violence against women. For decades now, the Scottish Government has recognised that commercial sexual exploitation in all its forms is violence against women. However, our legislation does not protect women from that particular violence. It is a cause and a consequence of women’s inequality, and women and girls with the greatest vulnerabilities are most harmed. It is shameful that, in this country, men can buy sexual access to women online as quickly and easily as they might order takeaway food. That fuels trafficking and abuse, and it does not harm just the women involved; there are wider societal implications for women and men.

I call on the Government to do three things: to outlaw online pimping and the purchase of women; to hold traffickers, male buyers and those who exploit and fuel demand to account with the full force of our criminal justice system; and to provide comprehensive financial support and exiting services for women who are prostituted and exploited.

For me, a fairer country will be one where no woman is bought or sold, where women and girls have equality, where their lives are not limited by misogynistic society and where the communities in which they live are safe and free from male violence. Any attempts to tackle the pervasive misogyny that harms so many women and girls, as well as boys and men, will be futile if we close our eyes to the issue or look the other way because it is too difficult or there is not a comfortable consensus at the moment. The equal society that we all seek demands actions, which I hope my Government will take.

Although the key energy policy levers remain with the United Kingdom Government, it is welcome that the Scottish National Party Scottish Government continues to support people who are facing unprecedented rises in the cost of energy.

Does the minister agree that the Tories at Westminster have so far failed to take the necessary steps to ensure that households never again experience an energy crisis such as the present one? Will she join me in calling for the UK Government to put the energy and cost of living crisis front and centre of its work?

Last week I met my constituent Willie Kennedy, who is chair of the Scottish Sea Angling Conservation Network. He painted a pretty distressing picture of the decline of our inshore waters of the Clyde, due to destructive trawling since the removal of the three-mile limit in 1984. He spoke of his organisation’s desire for robust protection measures and a just transition for the Clyde fleet.

How can enhanced marine protection support the recovery of the Clyde sea bed and the protection and promotion of the interests of our local communities, sea anglers and the low-impact commercial fishing sector?

The number of pupils who are identified as having initial support needs has grown substantially in the past 10 years. Has any work been undertaken to understand why there has been a sustained increase in the number of pupils being identified?

It is helpful to hear about those trends. How do local authorities and the Scottish Government use that data to ensure that the right support is in place?