Chamber and committees

Good morning, everybody. Over the weekend, I was reading about minimum unit pricing policies that have been implemented in other European countries. I declare an interest as a registered nurse and former liver transplant nurse. Other countries are adopting MUP in some form or another. Other European countries have some form of taxation on alcohol, anyway. There is a report called “No place for cheap alcohol: the potential value of minimum pricing for protecting lives”. I would be interested to hear about what we can learn from other countries. The impact of the pandemic would then be a second question.

The issue is not just one of education. For example, we had to introduce laws on the wearing of seat belts in cars in order to get people to wear them. Should regulation not be part of the process of tackling alcohol harm in Scotland?

My question is about your thoughts on alcohol advertising. I read an article in The Lancet that basically said that one third of the people on the planet die because of fossil fuels, alcohol, ultra-highly processed food and tobacco. What needs to happen with advertising to reduce the harm from alcohol?

Women who might have been affected by incorrect exclusion will, understandably, be concerned. Can the minister provide any further assurances that the vast majority of exclusions have been found to be correct?

I thank Stephen Kerr for that intervention and respond by saying that Change Mental Health is supportive of how we take things forward. I support Kevin Stewart’s statements about lived experience needing to inform the work as we take the bill forward at stage 2. I am confident that the committee will know how to address the bill and the issues that have been raised at stage 1 as we move forward after today’s debate.

In thinking about the enabling power to establish the moratorium that is included in the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Bill, responses to the Economy and Fair Work Committee’s report show strong support for the principle of such protection, even if they understandably raise questions about the details.

I want to pick up on one other point that some organisations have touched on regarding bankruptcy, debt and employment. We are all too aware that, particularly due to Covid and the current cost of living crisis, many people have fallen into unsustainable debt, with around 700,000 people in Scotland reporting unsustainable levels of debt. Because of that debt, and even bankruptcy, people are being negatively impacted in their ability to obtain certain types of employment.

That creates a vicious cycle, as people who cannot get employment cannot pay their debt, whereas, if certain vetting and employment practices were changed, people would be able to establish payment plans to manage their debt in a more sustainable way. I therefore ask the minister whether he would consider entering into some kind of dialogue with the UK Government to explore whether certain types of debt could be omitted from, for example, Government and civil service vetting.

The bill is only one part of the programme of work to improve bankruptcy and diligence. The Scottish Government will introduce changes through secondary legislation, some of which, it is hoped, will be laid before Parliament during the progress of the bill. The Scottish Government has also commissioned a long-term review to assess how far current statutory solutions meet the needs of a modern economy. Yvonne MacDermid OBE has accepted an appointment to lead stage 3 of that wider stakeholder review, and there are some matters that merit further consideration as part of the review, which is welcome.

The bill is yet another example of how Scotland is making the process of bankruptcy and insolvency fairer for those in this situation. I welcome the bill and will support it at stage 1.

I, too, take the opportunity to congratulate Dunoon grammar school. I congratulate Donald Cameron on bringing the debate to the chamber, and I am happy to support his motion. I also add my thanks to all at Dunoon grammar school for their hard work and their dedication and commitment to the community, and for providing a school-age learning experience that spans a lifetime for the pupils.

The school’s many achievements, which have been well rehearsed by Donald Cameron, are testament to its ethos of continually improving and doing all that it can to ensure the best outcomes for young people.

Dunoon grammar school has a long and distinguished history spanning more than 350 years of growth, of which high standards of academic and personal development have been the hallmarks. A huge well done goes to all in the school community.

In preparing for the debate, I had a wee discussion with my head of office, who attended Ayr grammar school, and we had a blether about the history of grammar schools in Scotland. Scotland has many schools, including Ayr grammar and Dunbar grammar in my South Scotland region, which are called grammar schools but are now essentially the same as other state schools. Although, historically, those grammar schools would have acted independently and are, in some cases, still viewed as providing high-quality academic education, it is important to note that they are not the same as grammar schools in England and Northern Ireland.

With that in mind, I will share some of the exceptional work of schools in the South Scotland region, which are working to provide the best possible educational outcomes.

One such school is Lockerbie academy in Dumfries and Galloway, under the leadership of Brian Asher. Lockerbie academy is very much an integral part of the town. It embraces fully the town motto, “Forward”, building on its vision around improving the future of the local area for pupils and the community.

Lockerbie academy has a

“twin purpose, to be a place where pupils feel cared for and above all, come here to learn”,

which drives their desire to be the best that they can be.

Every year since the Lockerbie air disaster, the academy has worked with Syracuse University in New York as part of an exchange programme. Two pupils from Lockerbie travel to Syracuse, and vice versa, to lay a wreath on behalf of the town in remembrance of all those who died in the air disaster. That is massively appreciated by the town and the wider community, and it has led to the school being nationally recognised by Education Scotland for its leadership of that scheme.

Other fantastic examples are Dumfries high school and Kyle academy in Ayr, both of which have been leading the way with the vision schools Scotland programme. The programme aims to encourage and empower Scottish schools to enshrine Holocaust education in the curriculum, in order to ensure that every young person learns of the horrors of the Holocaust.

Just last week, I had the opportunity to meet Dumfries high school secondary 6 pupils Brogan Matthews and Katie Donald, and their teachers—Lizzie Smithard, who is their history teacher, and Philip Cubbon, who is the headteacher—at Dynamic Earth for a vision schools Scotland award ceremony.

Brogan and Katie have been leading the way with Holocaust education in the school, and they had the opportunity to visit Auschwitz earlier this year. That work is vitally important, and I thank the pupils and the school communities of Dumfries high and Kyle academy for their work.

Finally, I mention Stranraer academy, which was recently awarded the Young Enterprise team programme award. Stranraer academy stands now where my first secondary school was a long time ago. It runs a programme over a full academic year that involves students from S5 and S6 starting their own student company. The pupils go through key milestones of developing an idea, conducting market research and creating the product or service. Ultimately, it is then promoted and traded. The award that those pupils received was well deserved.

In closing, I put on record my thanks to all our fantastic schools, and to Donald Cameron for lodging the motion, bringing the debate to the chamber and raising the profile of Dunoon grammar.

I am not a member of the Economy and Fair Work Committee, but I am interested in ensuring that we get bankruptcy and insolvency right for people who are facing financial harm in communities across Scotland. I therefore welcome the fact that the bill will bring forward stakeholder-led recommendations to introduce improvements to current insolvency solutions and debt recovery processes. I thank all the committees, members and clerks for their scrutiny and thank everyone who has provided evidence as the legislation has been taken forward.

In recent times, countries around the world have faced unprecedented challenges and strains on their economies. Scotland has not been immune to that, not least because of the Conservative-created cost of living crisis. The Covid-19 pandemic introduced huge uncertainty and had a far-reaching impact on business and on the employment arrangements of thousands of people in Scotland. Now that we are in the midst of a cost of living crisis that places many households in extreme financial difficulty, unsustainable debt will, unfortunately, be the regrettable consequence for many, so it is right that the processes we put in place to address that should be adequate and should treat people fairly.

It is essential that we look to maximise the effectiveness of the systems that provide the necessary protection and support to help people navigate their way out of problem debt. Scotland has good mechanisms for that, with far-sighted reforms that were introduced in 2015 placing high-quality consumer debt advice at the centre of the system. The debt arrangement scheme has been a major success and remains the United Kingdom’s only statutory debt repayment solution. Reforms introduced immediately prior to the onset of the pandemic have enabled the scheme to grow, allowing more people to take control of their debt by using manageable payment programmes.

The Scottish Government committed to a policy review of Scotland’s statutory debt solutions, with the aim of further enhancing and improving our system. The first stage of the policy review dealt with the priorities to be taken forward to address the immediate impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. The second stage was undertaken by stakeholder-led working groups that drew on a wide range of expertise and knowledge from representatives of all sectors in the debt landscape. I welcome the fact that those stakeholder groups, made up of people with lived experience, have informed the approach to the bill.

The bill contains a power that would allow the Scottish ministers to create a mental health moratorium. Others have already described that this afternoon, and charities such as Change Mental Health and the Samaritans have welcomed that step. That power, if used, would protect people with serious mental health issues from debt recovery action. The idea of a moratorium providing special protection to those with serious mental health conditions achieved broad support in the bankruptcy and debt advice review consultation.

Scotland outperforms the rest of the UK on tree planting, but further action is needed to ensure that barriers to progress do not prevent us from reaching our targets. Does the minister share my bemusement at the fact that, while the Tories want more money for various initiatives, they are content with Scotland’s budget being slashed, as their bosses in Westminster did not lift a finger to stop it?

I recently chaired a round-table meeting to discuss funding for winter festivals and in particular the Big Burns Supper in Dumfries, which was impacted by the loss of Scotland’s winter festivals funding this year. In attendance were EventScotland, VisitScotland and many local organisations. The discussion was positive, but it highlighted the crucial importance of support for the promotion of Robert Burns. Will the cabinet secretary make a commitment that the renewed winter festivals funding for next year will support and promote organisations such as the Big Burns Supper in order to promote Scotland’s national bard at home and around the globe?

To ask the Scottish Government what support it is providing to cultural organisations to promote Robert Burns this Burns season. (S6O-03022)