Chamber and committees

Good morning. I want to ask a couple of questions about the Scottish Government’s commitment to combating violence against women and girls. Can you identify or break down how that budget has been spent? I appreciate that you might not have that information to hand, and a response in writing would be fine if that is the case.

I have a quick supplementary that follows up on Pauline McNeill’s line of questioning. You said that building costs increase astronomically year by year. I do not know whether there are any precedents for this, but would you ever put a cap on the final cost? Could you say, “This is the maximum that we can go to and the design needs to be brought into line with that”? I do not know whether that has ever been done, but would it be a way to provide more certainty?

It will be no surprise to anyone that I disagree with every word that we have just heard Stephen Kerr say.

There are serious questions to be asked about the value of the inquiry report’s conclusions and whether they are sufficiently supported by the evidence. What process will the Scottish Government follow to identify the most valuable and evidence-driven recommendations in the report?

Practically every word.

I thank Bill Kidd for bringing the debate to the chamber. I fully support his motion and commend him for his unwavering commitment to getting rid of the obscenity of nuclear weapons. In fact, I would even call him a trailblazer. I completely endorse my colleague’s wish for a nuclear weapons-free Europe. I welcome to the gallery the United Nations legal expert and executive director of the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, Melissa Parke. I hope that she enjoys the debate and can see how much support she has in the Scottish Parliament.

Nuclear weapons are wrong at every level—strategically, morally and financially. Even before I became involved in politics, decades ago, I instinctively knew that they were abhorrent. I am delighted that the Scottish Government has set out how, after independence, Scotland could adopt a written constitution that would protect and enhance all our human rights and get rid of those weapons from the shores of our beautiful country. The First Minister’s proposals for new constitutional rights for an independent Scotland include a constitutional ban on nuclear weapons being based in this country. Westminster’s commitment to nuclear weapons leaves other aspects of our defence weakened, and the outdated argument—some of which we have just heard from the previous speaker—that they have kept the peace and are a deterrent is palpable nonsense as the world is witnessing the tragic and heartbreaking wars that are happening at the present time.

I do not agree with that premise, which was woven into Mr Kerr’s own speech. I do not think that such weapons will ever be a deterrent, and they never have been.

The UK Government’s irresponsible obsession with nuclear weapons has led to immoral and ruinous expense. The current estimate is that the nuclear deterrent costs us around £2.7 billion a year. Just think how that money could be spent on new hospitals, schools and uplifting armed forces’ pay. The Scottish Government supports long-term investment in Faslane as a conventional military base. Our position on nuclear weapons is clear. After independence, the SNP would use Scotland’s new sovereign powers to remove them from Scottish territory as soon as that could safely be undertaken.

Bill Kidd has already mentioned this, but it is worth repeating repeat that, on Saturday, the Scottish Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament will hold a festival for survival, which promises to be an inspiring and landmark event. It will take place in two venues in Glasgow and will bring together campaigners, civic voices, think tanks and academics—everyone who is interested in moving forward the case for removing such weapons from Scotland and the world. The festival will include a range of workshops and cultural exhibits to bring hundreds of people together to discuss and debate the issue. The focus will be on the twin threats to our planet—nuclear calamity and catastrophic climate change—because the two are interlinked. The CND’s statement on its website says that those twin issues

“fuse together to threaten the very habitat we rely on. Today’s nuclear bombs are many times more destructive than those dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. All of the nuclear states including India and China are developing new weapons while the non-nuclear powers create new pressure towards disarmament through the UN Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. In Scotland, we have a special responsibility to rise to that challenge. Removal of nuclear warheads from Faslane and Coulport would dismantle the British nuclear weapons system and prove that nuclear states can be disarmed.”

We share the deep concern about the catastrophic humanitarian consequences that would result from any use of nuclear weapons and recognise the consequent need to eliminate these inhumane and abhorrent weapons. The abolition of nuclear weapons would be a global good of the highest order and an essential step to promoting the security and wellbeing of all people.

Does the member recognise any good policies that the Scottish Government has introduced? Does he recognise that some of the ones that I have just listed are helping families?

Scotland is leading the way in giving children the best start in life. I am proud to say that that is internationally recognised and evidenced through the groundbreaking baby box, the Scottish child payment and so much more.

Across the country, more than 250,000 baby boxes have been delivered since the start of the scheme in August 2017. Since August 2021, the Scottish Government has delivered at least 1,140 hours of funded early learning and childcare for all eligible three and four-year-olds, saving families £4,900 per year.

Children living in poverty can never flourish or have the best start in life. That is why the Scottish Government has invested £1.3 billion in the game-changing Scottish child payment, which is forecast this financial year to lift 50,000 children out of poverty—the figure is 90,000 when the payment is combined with other benefits. Currently at £25 per week, the payment has been increased by 150 per cent since its inception, and it is available for all children up to the age of 16.

The Scottish child payment is unique to Scotland, and it is one of the most ambitious policy interventions to reduce child poverty in recent history. That is despite the financial challenges emanating from the UK Government’s callous cuts and the abhorrent two-child benefit cap, which affects almost 81,000 children across Scotland.

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation believes that the Scottish child payment is significantly reducing child poverty. In addition to many other measures to promote wellbeing among children and families, the best start grant package has put more money in the pockets of 284,495 low-income families in Scotland.

We aim to go further on access to funded childcare, which is a game changer for families and for expanding our workforce. It will be expanded from nine months through to the end of primary school in early-adopter communities in six council areas. Fife and Shetland Islands will join the existing councils of Glasgow, Clackmannanshire, Inverclyde and Dundee City. That means that 13,000 additional children stand to benefit by the end of the parliamentary session.

As our motion says,

“the unique and critical period of child development”

is

“from pre-pregnancy to age three, when experiences and the environment shape the foundations for life”.

The early child development policy recognises that, because childhood development is fascinating and complex. One size never fits every child, as they each develop at different rates in different ways. The one thing that they all have in common is the need for attachment, love and care. Attachment is crucial in the early years for healthy development. I have seen children at first hand who have not been lucky enough to experience that, and it often leads to a variety of problems during the course of their lives.

Nothing is more important than attachment and a stable, loving start in life. That is why all measures taken by this Government aim to provide that to support families that are often struggling in the most difficult circumstances, particularly now, during a Tory-made cost of living crisis.

I am aware that my contribution is highlighting the achievements and aspirations of this Government to get it right for every child. I am very proud of them. I am sorry if they sound self-congratulatory, but I think that they are worth repeating at any opportunity. However, it cannot be overlooked that, over the past six years, the Scottish Government has spent £733 million to mitigate the worst impacts of UK Government policy, such as the bedroom tax and benefit cap, with £127 million being invested this financial year alone.

It is plain to see that, if we could use that money to promote our wellbeing policies, reduce poverty, build more schools and create a climate-friendly environment, we must have the power to use our resources—our taxpayers’ money—to do that, rather than spend them mitigating the UK Government’s wrecking policies. The only way to do that is for Scotland to be independent.

Good morning, panel. Dr Bruce, I want to go back to something that you said about the whole system and all the agencies working together generically but also working individually. Can that work? How far away are we from that happening? Is that a long-term aspiration?

What do you mean by “minimising barriers” to effective participation?