Chamber and committees

The reformed system of education that the cabinet secretary outlines needs to serve learners. Children and young people must be centred in the process of reform; how will the Scottish Government ensure that that happens?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Can I check whether my vote registered? I would have voted no.

I congratulate Alasdair Allan on bringing this debate to the Scottish Parliament. I am happy to make some brief remarks in support of his motion, which recognises the work of the Great Bernera Community Development Trust towards a crofting community buyout and the development of its island.

The Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 and the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 seek to ensure that landowners uphold their responsibilities, and they provide a legal basis for communities to negotiate a purchase of the land. As Alasdair Allan said in opening the debate, an absentee landlord might legally own and control the land—or, in this case, the island—but the question remains whether, morally, they should. Although we might say that morally and culturally the land already belongs to the people there, it is the case, particularly when we look at the experience of the citizens of Great Bernera, that in order for them to develop and thrive, legal ownership could be seen as crucial.

It is hugely regrettable that the lack of co-operation from the absentee landlord has delayed and halted progress in that regard. I am sorry that the legislation that is in place to deal with that, namely the 2003 and 2015 acts, have not yet delivered for that particular community. The reports of the highly unusual demands from the absentee landlord for payments from local crofters are, frankly, alarming. The community itself knows what is required to sustain the population there. The loss of the school, care home and shop, combined with rising house prices and the difficulties in developing land, contribute to a challenging picture for the community.

It is not just a matter for the Highlands or rural Scotland; it is of concern to urban communities, too. The fact that MSPs from around the country will contribute this evening reflects just how important the topic of who owns our land and assets, and what they are used for, is.

Land reform is defined as changes to land ownership and land use in the public interest. The issue of land ownership in Scotland can be a contentious one. It is of concern to many of us that large swathes of our country are being held by only a handful of private and in many cases non-resident landowners. As the Centre for Local Economic Strategies notes,

“Land ownership matters because it is an expression of economic and political power”.

The concentration of rural land ownership in the hands of only a few people is a structural problem, particularly when it results in land use that extracts wealth from local communities to their detriment and to the detriment of the wider public interest. The situation in Great Bernera highlights that.

I wish the Great Bernera Community Development Trust every success in its endeavours. I believe that ownership of the land being with the folk who live there will help to redirect wealth back into the local economy and place control and benefits into the hands of the local people, which is right and just.

I warmly congratulate Bill Kidd on securing this important members’ business debate on preventing trafficking and protecting refugees. I also congratulate him on his excellent motion and speech, which powerfully joined the dots between the risk to women, the causes and consequences of trafficking, and violence, and which importantly, highlighted the solution.

The motion is timely, given the war in Ukraine and the perilous situation facing women and children fleeing that conflict, and, indeed, the support offered from the Government at this time.

I acknowledge that trafficking is not a new concern, that refugees from across the globe are at risk and that women are trafficked within Scotland and the UK, not just from outwith. The issue is complex. From our relative safety in Scotland, it is hard to put ourselves in a place where we can imagine the terror of having to flee our homes as war is waged, and the danger and risks of travelling to new countries to seek sanctuary.

The risk to women and children does not end when they arrive. Last week, I raised with the Scottish Government the need for active safeguarding and safety planning to continue in the medium and long term. As a Government with a commitment to feminist foreign policy, I expect our Government will have looked at the issue through a gendered lens and understands the unique risk to women and children.

Of course, initially the areas of most concern were at border areas and transport hubs. However, Scotland must also be aware of the indications or attempts to recruit potential victims of human trafficking and take action to counter and prevent them. With Europol warning about individual opportunistic abusers posing as volunteers and criminal networks that specialise in human trafficking, there are increasing concerns about the potential for perpetrators of abuse and human traffickers to exploit our current response to the war in Ukraine.

Minister Neil Gray agreed last week to consider my request to include violence against women and girls partnerships and services in the response at both strategic and operational levels and to commit to carrying out gender-specific risk and safety planning, not just at entry to the country but also in the medium and long term.

Helpfully, a statement recently released by the Glasgow violence against women partnership laid out in more detail the value that that would bring. In addition to the measures that I have just mentioned, it also asks that responses include the specific community integration needs of women and children, are cognisant of previous experiences of male violence against women and female-specific war crime, and, importantly, engage the Ukrainian community. It asks us to ensure that there is sufficient awareness of indicators of gender-based violence, including human trafficking and its particularly gendered nature, with front-line staff in key services such as health, social work, police, pharmacies, schools and housing receiving sufficient training on and knowledge of the impact of violence against women. Front-line staff must also fully understand the referral pathways, and hosts and supporters should be trauma aware and promote trauma-informed responses.

On monitoring, there should be oversight of where Ukrainian refugees are residing, and the Government should ensure disaggregation of data in terms of gender and age—I hope that the minister can tell us in summing up that that is already happening. Of course, it goes without saying that robust safeguarding, vetting and matching procedures need to be in place to mitigate the current risks and that those must be monitored and reviewed.

To protect women when they are here, they need accessible, culturally sensitive, trauma-informed, women-only services with access to interpreting; clear referral pathways to access support; and their medium and long-term needs met through rapid access to childcare and children’s education.

It is within our gift to address all those things to make our Ukrainian sisters safe and welcome here. Indeed, they do not necessarily require much more new resource or new services; rather, what is needed is a refocus on and recommitment to existing policies. Many of those things should be happening already to ensure the safety of all women and girls in Scotland.

While trafficking is a complex and wicked problem to address, there is a simple truth at the centre of it, which I know the Scottish Government recognises—a truth that should spur it on to join the dots, act promptly and legislate. Trafficking in human beings is a financially motivated crime, and exploitation of prostitution in particular is motivated by traffickers’ knowledge of how much money they will make from men paying for sexual access to women and girls. Removing that financial incentive for criminals by tackling men’s demand is the way to end this cruel trade in human suffering. Our words and policy intentions do not keep women and girls safe. We need legislation to punish those responsible, backed up by services to support victims. To end—not mitigate or manage—this harm requires a change in the law. I urge the Scottish Government to act now.

I want to press you for an example of that good practice. It is good to hear exactly what that looks like for a student. Obviously, I acknowledge that students’ needs are diverse, but will you share some examples of good practice with the committee?

On that issue of responsiveness to communities and to business and routes to work, how much influence do staff have on the choice and design of the qualifications that colleges offer? I put that to Stuart Brown.

Good morning to the panel. Obviously, colleges provide important access to education and routes to employment, as you have said. Will you share your reflections on how, post regionalisation, colleges are responding to the needs of learners and the communities that they serve? Stuart Brown spoke a bit about that, so I will come to him first. It would be good to hear about some of the good practice as well as the challenges.

Will you comment on how collaboration with schools can help to hang on to pupils and keep them in education? I am thinking about the combination of academic and vocational studies that can be made available.

Has regionalisation impacted on your reach into schools?

I welcome the minister’s statement and the clarity on accountability. As part of that important accountability, how can we ensure that services are flexible enough to meet people where they are and to enable them to participate fully in the decision making that affects them?