Skip to main content
Loading…

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.  

Filter your results Hide all filters

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 29 July 2025
Select which types of business to include


Select level of detail in results

Displaying 1555 contributions

|

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 8 January 2025

Rona Mackay

Can the cabinet secretary expand on how the investment in community justice services that is contained in the proposed Scottish budget will continue the Scottish Government’s shift to the use of more community-based sentences and help to reduce reoffending?

Meeting of the Parliament

Scottish Elections (Representation and Reform) Bill

Meeting date: 17 December 2024

Rona Mackay

I am pleased to speak in this important debate, which is crucial for democracy and transparency.

The Scottish Parliament—rightly, in my view—agreed not to consent to the UK Elections Act 2022, as it is for our Parliament to legislate on electoral law in Scotland relating to local and Holyrood elections.

As a recent substitute member of the Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee, I had catching up to do on the detail of the bill, and I hope that I manage to capture the crucial elements today.

As we have heard, the bill introduces provisions to expand candidacy rights, protect candidates and campaigners from intimidation and improve administrative arrangements for elections in Scotland.

In what I understand was a largely consensual committee process—that is always the best kind—the minister worked to bring together all points of view to accommodate different opinions on most areas. Indeed, he stressed an open-door policy in which all views would be considered, and I think that they have been.

Improvements to the bill have been made during the scrutiny process, including amendments at stage 3 that will allow the issue of dual mandates—which has hit the headlines recently—to be addressed before the 2026 election.

On that important issue, the Scottish Government has been clear that it is supportive of ending the practice of dual mandates whereby members of the Scottish Parliament are also able to be members of the UK Parliament or peers. However, it should be noted that the issue was not really discussed at stage 1 and there has been no consultation on the matter, which is why provision to introduce secondary legislation has emerged in the amendments at stage 3.

The Scottish ministers have now committed to holding a public consultation, to allow political parties, the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and the public to provide views on dual mandates for MPs, peers and councillors prior to the 2026 Holyrood election.

The bill is an opportunity to create an electoral system that improves democratic engagement, including for those who have chosen to make Scotland their home. That is hugely important, and I agree whole-heartedly with Alex Cole-Hamilton’s comments.

The bill extends candidacy rights in Scottish Parliament and local government elections to foreign nationals with limited leave to remain, ensuring that all those who live in Scotland can play a bigger part in our democracy. Welcoming all those who choose to make Scotland their home is an important signal, and it is an especially important reform for European Union citizens in Scotland who had their democratic rights removed by the folly of Brexit.

The bill proposes important changes in a number of areas requiring action, including candidacy, voting and electoral administration. It also extends the UK Elections Act 2022 disqualification order to bar those found guilty of offences involving intimidation of campaigners, candidates and elected representatives from being MSPs and councillors. Additionally, it creates a Scottish disqualification order, which will apply to people found guilty of offences involving intimidation of electoral workers.

The legislation makes changes in relation to spending in election campaigns, including to the definitions of notional expenditure, overseas spending and third-party campaigning. Those changes broadly match those made by the Elections Act 2022 for UK Parliament elections.

Learning from recent lessons based on the experience of Covid-19, the Government has included in the bill measures to allow elections to be rescheduled in emergencies. That is an absolutely necessary future-proofing measure.

The bill revokes the existing Scottish regulations on digital imprints, but it adds to the new rules that are applied under the Elections Act 2022.

We have heard that, to support innovation in elections, the bill also allows pilot schemes to be brought forward by the Electoral Management Board for Scotland and by electoral registration officers and Scottish ministers. The bill creates a power that enables the Scottish Government to fund efforts to increase democratic engagement across Scotland.

Another aspect of the bill is the boundary changes, but I do not have time to explain those.

I think that we are all agreed that the bill is a huge step forward and that it will make an important difference to the democratic rights of voters in Scotland. It puts voters first in its programme of electoral reforms.

17:15  

Meeting of the Parliament

Same-sex Marriage

Meeting date: 17 December 2024

Rona Mackay

It is an absolute pleasure to speak in this landmark debate celebrating the 10th anniversary of the passage of the legislation on same-sex marriage. I thank my colleague Emma Roddick for bringing it to the chamber, and for her customarily passionate speech. I also thank Paul O’Kane for making such a lovely personal speech.

The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Act 2014 legalised same-sex marriage in Scotland, with the law coming into effect on 16 December, and the first same-sex marriage ceremony taking place on hogmanay the same year. The legislation was passed two years before I was elected, and it is definitely a huge regret for me that I was not in the chamber that day to celebrate the passing of that joyous legislation. I am really quite jealous of Jackson Carlaw having been here to experience that.

I understand that campaigners stood up in the gallery and applauded, against the rules of the chamber, and I am pretty sure that more than a few tears were shed, too. I would love to have been at the first same-sex marriage ceremony that took place on hogmanay that year—what a celebration that must have been. Since 2014, more than 10,000 same-sex couples have married in Scotland. That is a lot of happy people who are now able to live and love as they choose.

There can be few of us who do not know people, or who do not have family members, in same-sex marriages. As ever, though, we cannot take equality for granted. We must stop treating same-sex relationships as being somehow different, special or exceptional. They are most certainly not—they simply reflect the make-up of our diverse society.

My office manager and his husband will have been married 10 years this February—they did not waste any time in tying the knot after the legislation was passed. They did it, in fact, in a cave in Iceland, and those happy memories of an amazing day are remembered by many of their guests. Now, having adopted two siblings as babies, they are living life as one happy—if, at times, chaotic—family. You could not hope to see happier children or a more contented family.

The bill that was passed 10 years ago is proof that legislation can enhance and improve society at every level, but—as with all issues concerning inclusivity and what can be termed by some as “moral issues”—it was not easy to get it passed. That is why so much credit must go to the campaigners who gave so much of their time and energy over the decades leading up to 2014, and to those who are still campaigning to ensure inclusivity for all in a diverse modern Scotland. They are the trailblazers to whom future generations will owe so much.

To be able to live and love freely, regardless of sexual orientation, is fundamental to a civilised society. Thankfully, young people who are growing up today do not see the stigma that existed for many people of my generation. We must consign discrimination of every kind—sexual, gender, race, disability and more—to the dustbin. Scotland is a tolerant and inclusive society, and any form of discrimination must be called out by each and every one of us.

To all the happy couples out there who have benefited from this decade-old legislation, I say this: “Thank you for being true to yourselves and for committing to living your life as you wish, with the love of your life. You have paved the way to happiness for future generations.”

18:07  

Meeting of the Parliament

Martins Review

Meeting date: 17 December 2024

Rona Mackay

The Scottish Government’s commitment to continually maintain and improve performance and openness and transparency is very welcome. Can the Deputy First Minister advise what steps are being taken to monitor performance so that momentum is kept up?

Meeting of the Parliament

Healthcare in Remote and Rural Areas

Meeting date: 12 December 2024

Rona Mackay

I am pleased to be speaking in this important debate, despite my not being a member of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee or the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee. As the MSP for Strathkelvin and Bearsden, whose constituents do not face the challenges that have been highlighted in the committee’s excellent report and by colleagues throughout the chamber today, I think that it is important to highlight the difference between rural areas and largely urban areas, such as my constituency.

Residents in East Dunbartonshire can access public services including transport and health centres without difficulty, but we must have equity throughout Scotland. Although my constituents might dispute the efficiency of services at times, their experience does not compare with the situation in our rural areas, as we have been hearing today. That really matters: we need to repopulate our rural areas, so it is essential that we do everything that we can do to ensure that such challenges are properly considered and addressed. In addition, we owe it to the communities and people who choose to live in rural areas to give them equal access to the services to which council tax payers throughout Scotland are entitled.

I endorse Carol Mochan’s comments about women’s health and access to gynaecological services, and Emma Harper’s comments about maternity care being so crucial. In that respect, the Scottish Government has made a number of policy commitments to meet the health and social care needs of people living in remote and rural areas. We are supporting the implementation of multidisciplinary teams in rural and island communities through £123,000 of additional funding in 2024-25. The new national centre for remote and rural health and care, which was referred to by the cabinet secretary, will help to reduce health inequalities and to improve the delivery of healthcare services in rural communities.

The rural and islands workforce recruitment strategy focuses on sustained direct support, with long-term methods to provide rural and island employers with the help that they need in order to recruit successfully. That is absolutely crucial because, as we know, more and more people are attracted to the idea of living in the beautiful remote and rural areas of Scotland, but they have to be reassured that there will be opportunities for employment, so that they can afford a decent standard of living. A short strategy paper will be published early next year, which will outline the direct support model in more detail.

General practice does not have its troubles to seek at the present time, but the Government is taking steps to address that. We are taking forward a range of initiatives to support recruitment and retention of the workforce in rural general practice. Those include a golden hello scheme to attract new rural GPs, and ScotGEM, which is a scheme that provides a graduate entry medical degree that has a rural focus. The Scottish Government is also supporting an innovative recruitment campaign called “Rediscover the joy”. RTJ aims to recruit experienced GPs to provide support for rural practices.

As we have heard in the debate, housing continues to be a massive problem in rural areas. I believe that the challenge has been exacerbated in recent years by holiday-home ownership and Airbnb properties. We want people to visit and enjoy our beautiful country and for those who can afford it to own their own homes for their families to enjoy or to rent out as a business, but that cannot come at the expense of those who have chosen to live, work and bring up their families in an area. That is why the Government remains committed to delivering 110,000 affordable homes by 2032, of which at least 10 per cent will be in rural and island areas. The Scottish Government is making up to £25 million available from our affordable housing supply programme budget from 2023 to 2028 in the form of the rural affordable homes for key workers fund. The funding is available to support local authorities and registered social landlords in purchasing existing suitable properties, including empty homes, in rural and island areas for key workers and others who need affordable housing where there is an identified need.

However, we cannot ignore the fact that Brexit has exacerbated the employment situation generally in rural areas, not least in healthcare. I recall that, during the election campaign, Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie stated that she would be open to a discussion about a distinct Scottish visa scheme to address the unique challenges that Scotland’s rural communities face. Does Labour still support those calls? Does Labour also recognise that there will be an uplift in funding for front-line health services in rural health boards of between 15 and 20 per cent, depending on the board allocation, in the upcoming Scottish budget? That is another reason why parties across the chamber must support the budget to ensure that it can be delivered to help our rural areas to flourish.

In conclusion, I commend the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee for shining a light, which is long overdue, on a crucial subject, and for confronting the challenges that need to be addressed so that future generations are able to enjoy our beautiful country.

16:07  

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 4 December 2024

Rona Mackay

Again, with respect, we know that sexual offences are, by their nature, unique. Witnesses have told us of their terrible experiences because there is no uniformity in the way that they are treated. A sexual offences court would surely address that. Again, that is what they want.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 4 December 2024

Rona Mackay

Has that not got to do with corroboration, which still exists despite the—

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 4 December 2024

Rona Mackay

The Government has tried to balance the removal of the not proven verdict by moving to the two-thirds majority, as opposed to a simple majority, but in your opinion, that is not acceptable—is that correct?

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 4 December 2024

Rona Mackay

There is a bit of hypothesising going on there, but okay.

Criminal Justice Committee

Victims, Witnesses, and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill: Stage 2

Meeting date: 4 December 2024

Rona Mackay

I fundamentally disagree with the opinion that a sexual offences court is not necessary. With the greatest of respect, we have been hearing for years about the journey of victims of sexual offences, and nothing has happened and nothing is happening. I have been on committees dealing with this for eight years, we talked about it eight years ago and the position for victims has not got better.

We are talking about a trauma-informed, specialist court that, as you probably heard our earlier witnesses say, is very much wanted by victims. I do not think that it should come down to logistics or money. If we can make it work, we should make it work. That is my view. It is necessary and long overdue.

My question picks up on something that Sandy Brindley said about her misgivings about a judge being able to decide whether a victim should have special measures and whether that should be up to the victim to decide. What are the witnesses’ opinions on that?