Chamber and committees

To ask the Scottish Government whether it has a policy of a presumption against new oil and gas licences. (S6O-04114)

I do not think that anyone will be the wiser as to where the Scottish Government stands on this after that answer from the minister.

As members will know, the energy sector has fiercely criticised the Government’s uncertain tone when its energy strategy and just transition plan was unveiled last year. That tone has knocked confidence and discouraged industry investment.

Workers in the sector urgently need confidence that the energy transition will protect the livelihoods of their communities across Scotland. A lack of clarity on new oil and gas licences or the future of Scotland’s refinery capacity at Grangemouth does not build confidence. Will the Government now step up with a plan that meets Scotland’s energy security from our own natural resources, and provide a realistic plan to restore the industry confidence that will secure sectoral skills?

The imminent additional costs to Scotland’s critical public services from UK Labour’s brutal hike to employer national insurance contributions will have an acute impact of £191 million on our Scottish NHS, £5 million on our Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and £25 million on Police Scotland, which is the equivalent of more than 800 new police salaries. Does the Government agree that resource-abundant Scotland cannot continue to thrive by merely mitigating damaging UK policy and that we must chart our own path through to independence?

The Scottish Government’s stated position in the equally safe strategy is that prostitution is violence against women. In the absence of a Scottish Government plan to challenge demand, will the Scottish Government do the right thing by Scotland’s women and girls and back my unbuyable bill?

I will start by sounding a cautious note of consensus with the Government. I believe that this budget is a step in the right direction. However, many Scottish households are under immense pressure, which is why, in my budget dealings, I sought to protect children and pensioners via winter fuel payments and extending free school meals. I welcome the progress that the Government has made on those two issues.

However, the Government promised in 2021 to provide free school meals for all primary school children, and this budget does not deliver on that commitment. Why not?

To ask the Scottish Government what plans it has to ensure that critical rural food production economic activity is viable, sustainable and attractive to the next generation of farmers, crofters and fishers. (S6O-04009)

Last week, I met NFU Scotland, which I think needs an assurance in relation to the land reform proposals that Scotland’s productive land and seas will sustain those industries for the future. What plans does the Scottish Government have to secure the future of food production and ensure that it is economically viable by addressing issues such as exploitative pricing, which is driven by a few large food companies?

It is beginning to look as though the First Minister has accepted defeat with regard to Scotland’s ever becoming an independent country, because, under his watch, Scotland will become the only top-25 oil-producing nation that has no refining capacity. How has it come to this—that a nationalist Government looks away, helpless, as key national infrastructure is lost for ever?

“Make work pay,” Labour says while making employing people cost much more. Increasing the rate that employers pay and the threshold at which employers start paying is brutal for the public sector and other organisations with modest profits and large workforces that are trying to balance their budgets and plan for growth. The Scottish Government is correct in saying that, if the public sector is not reimbursed for the £500 million cost of employer national insurance contributions, the impact on employees and users of public services in Scotland will add further pain to already stretched sectors.

Due to Scotland having a higher percentage of its workers in the public sector workforce and more generous public sector pay deals, our public services will have disproportionate cost pressures compared with those in the rest of the UK. Scotland is yet again being forced to pay for UK Government mistakes—this time, those of the Labour Party.

Like UK Labour’s cloth-eared approach to means-testing pensioners’ winter fuel payments, the situation demonstrates a lack of care or a lack of understanding of Scotland’s different geography, demographics and economic make-up. Scottish Labour is now in the untenable position of pleading for Scottish votes on a platform of reversing its own Government’s budget positions. If Scottish Labour members are now feeling ignored by their Westminster colleagues, at least they know what Scotland feels like, being consistently ignored and having our resources exploited at the whims of Westminster.

Any funding that Labour claims it will give back to Scotland is, in fact, giving back a proportion of Scotland’s own contribution from our people and our resources, and, if there is no adequate reimbursement, the funding that is given to the public sector will be absorbed by the increased costs of employing its workforce. Labour’s drip-feed, “Will they, won’t they?” approach to mitigation is neither serious nor building any confidence across sectors that need consistency and confidence in order to do their workforce planning.

The urgency of the situation is starkly evident from commentators’ responses to Labour’s UK budget, with the IFS and industry sectors sounding the alarm on the immediate and long-term consequences of this anti-growth budget. The chancellor claims that she has presented a budget for growth, but that needs to be taken with the same large pinch of salt as Labour’s manifesto pledge that it would not increase national insurance. The increased fiscal burden on Scotland’s sizeable public sector will inevitably impact front-line services in healthcare, social care and education, through increased staffing costs. What options are there for balancing budgets other than reducing services, delaying projects, freezing recruitment or even cutting staff to offset increased employment costs?

Short-term thinking must end if we are to have an economy that works for all the people and the businesses in Scotland. A change in that approach is not just necessary but vital. Does Scottish Labour honestly believe in a UK Government solution for funding black holes in its own finances that involves passing the buck to Scottish public services, and to our voluntary sector and our small businesses, by dramatically increasing the cost of employing people? That is not good enough.

I support the Government’s motion, although I do not think that it goes far enough. Labour should rethink this economic vandalism.

Given the controversy surrounding Creative Scotland’s funding of the explicit Rein project, what assurances can the Scottish Government provide to the public that substantive measures have now been taken to address governance failures in the public funding model of allocation and oversight? Can the cabinet secretary confirm whether that happens directly or via the charity Inspiring Scotland?