Chamber and committees

In her statement, the minister said that there has been a rise in cocaine use and its associated harms. She also stated that there are no medicines available as substitutes. Other treatment methods are available, one of which is supervised detoxification. Will she explain how supervised detoxification will be delivered and whether there will be a requirement for residential rehabilitation? If there will be such a requirement, will she explain how residential placements will match demand?

For the reasons that everyone else has given, I am content. The group has cross-party support and Oliver articulated its purpose very well.

I am delighted to speak in the debate on the reconsideration of the UNCRC bill. Although the bill is much closer to becoming law within the Scottish Parliament’s devolved competence—a very welcome development—the incorporation of the convention must be done in the right way. As we have heard, the bill was originally passed in 2021 but was held to have fallen outside the competence of this Parliament. It has been nearly two years since the outcome of that legal case. Scotland’s young people, some of whom are joining us in the public gallery, have watched and waited for the bill to move forward, and rightly so.

As Martin Whitfield has said, we need to learn from the mistakes that have been made on the legislation. He suggested that we could do it better, and we should look at that. Meghan Gallacher spoke powerfully about the bill being for every single Scottish child and young person, including those in the gallery. I know that Alex Cole-Hamilton is a hugely passionate supporter of making the bill happen, and he has spoken in every debate on the subject that I have heard.

We heard from committee members how some children and young people compared the bill to a spider’s web. I cannot not mention the poem that Kaukab Stewart wrote, which was excellent. Paul O’Kane asked how the Government will report on the bill in the future; Maggie Chapman rightly recognised the great work of the organisations and third sector groups that help children and young people; and Fulton MacGregor recognised the great work of his young constituent, Ryan McShane, and the importance of youth work to our young people.

However, there have been criticisms of the SNP Scottish Government’s approach. The former Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland said that former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon “absolutely failed” young people, and that the current First Minister Humza Yousaf has made “big promises” for young Scots that have yet to be realised.

It is not just fellow members but external organisations that have been critical of the Government’s lack of action over the past two years. This year, the Scottish Youth Parliament stated that the long wait for reconsideration had been “hugely disappointing” for Scotland’s children and young people. That sentiment was echoed by the Promise oversight board, which criticised the Scottish Government for its perceived failure to improve vulnerable children’s lives.

Now is the time to set things right, so I will vote in favour of the bill at decision time. Children and young people like my two grandsons are at the core of why passing the amended legislation is essential for enshrining the rights of our young people in law.

The legislation sets out to achieve numerous aims for children. Incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law will cover many facets of a child’s life, encompassing everything from civil rights to economic and political rights. It will also force any new bills to be UNCRC compatible, and so provide legal remedies when public bodies fail to act in accordance with it.

Aside from creating new obligations for such bodies, the bill will enable children and young people, together with their representatives, to enforce their rights through the Scottish courts. The involvement of children and young people is of the utmost importance in safeguarding their rights. That view was taken by MSYP for Glasgow Cathcart, Ellie Craig, who said that the bill offered an exciting chance to create policies that work for everyone, especially children and young people.

Such policies are a vital part of enshrining children’s rights in law across our nation. Not only will the passage of the bill and the incorporation of the UNCRC into Scots law act as a landmark domestic achievement in protecting children’s rights, but Scotland can become a world leader in safeguarding them. Today’s children and those of future generations will have the ability to grow up in a Scotland where that is the standard that we set.

I believe that members from across the chamber will join me in acknowledging that it has taken longer than we would have liked to get to this point. However, I am also optimistic that the bill enjoys enough cross-party consensus that we must now pass it on behalf of all Scotland’s children and young people. They have waited long enough for change to arrive. I will do my part by voting for the bill, having spoken today not only as an MSP but as a mother and a grandmother.

Good morning, minister and officials. Could you explain why the Scottish Government considers it necessary for solicitors and other regulated professionals to have at least a 10 per cent stake in alternative business structures?

Thanks for that. I have one more question, if you do not mind, convener. We have heard various views on whether regulating the title of lawyer could have unintended consequences. I would like to hear your view on that, minister.

Thanks for that.

How did you come up with 10 per cent?

I welcome the chance today to talk about the challenges that disabled people face in Scotland. There is much in the motion that we can welcome. We agree that Scotland can and should be a world leader in protecting human rights. We recognise the incredible difficulties that many disabled people faced during the pandemic and the global cost of living crisis, and we believe that disabled people must be at the centre of the decisions that affect them. More attention must be paid to the disability employment gap and the disability payment gap. There should be no discrimination in our economy or society, and we must work harder to root it out.

However, many important human rights issues for disabled people have been left out of the motion entirely. It paints an overly positive picture of the Government’s actions and glosses over many crucial aspects of the Administration’s policies. It neglects to mention the terrible failings of the Government, focusing only on the limited amount of positive work, and paying no attention to the negatives. It ignores many of the issues that the Scottish ministers ought to focus on, and that is what my party’s amendment seeks to address.

Given that the motion says that we should

“secure a life of dignity for all, including the most marginalised and disadvantaged”,

I fail to see how the Government cannot mention Scotland’s drug deaths crisis. It is an issue that is close to home for me—literally. In Springburn and communities like it across Glasgow, Dundee and the rest of Scotland, drug deaths have caused devastation. On the SNP Government’s watch, drug deaths spiralled to the worst level in Europe—several times worse than anywhere else in the UK—and we now lose more than 1,000 people each year to drugs in Scotland. Alcohol deaths, too, have hit record highs, and we also lose more than 1,000 people each year to alcohol in Scotland.

Those appalling statistics are not just for a year; they have been at or close to record levels for many years. For all that time, the Government has failed to act with enough urgency and enough resources. By Nicola Sturgeon’s own admission, the SNP took its eye off the ball. The SNP has neglected people’s human rights, including the rights of some of the most vulnerable. The lack of action from the Government has left whole families and communities in grief. Even now, years after the crisis began, the SNP is not doing anywhere near enough. It plays politics with drug and alcohol deaths. Instead of trying to save lives, it focuses on creating division with the UK.

Any discussion on human rights must include the SNP’s horrendous failure to tackle the shameful number of lives lost to drug and alcohol addiction. The motion overlooks and ignores some of our most vulnerable communities.

Drug and alcohol deaths are not the only glaring omissions from the motion. It cites the impact of the pandemic and the cost of living crisis on disabled people, and it is right to do so. Disabled people have suffered far more than most from Covid and the global cost of living crisis, but where is the mention of the Government’s human rights failings during the pandemic?

My colleague Jeremy Balfour has proposed a bill to introduce a disability commissioner. We support increasing the distance in the adult disability payment mobility descriptor to 50m. We believe that all people with disabilities should be entitled to the Scottish Government’s winter heating payment. We are coming to the table with things but, when we are having a debate about human rights, it is important to raise something that is very close to my heart. We are talking about the most marginalised and disadvantaged people, and I think that people with drug and alcohol addiction are part of that. We need to support them and show them human rights.

Where is the mention in the motion of people who had life-saving treatment stopped? Where is the mention of the many vulnerable disabled people who were moved out of hospitals without proper respect to their wishes or their families’ wishes? Where is the mention of the impact on the transfer of Covid-positive patients to care homes?

As my colleagues have said, and as more of them will continue to outline in greater detail, the motion also neglects to mention the huge number of disabled people in Scotland’s temporary accommodation. It does not bring up the need to deliver the “Coming Home Implementation” recommendations for people with complex care needs, and it does not mention the delays in and huge number of issues with Social Security Scotland. It does not focus on the Government’s lack of action to tackle homelessness for disabled people. Those are all glaring omissions of key issues that are well within the Government’s power. Too often, the SNP wants praise for the limited amounts that it has done while deflecting all criticism for all the things that it has failed to achieve.

Today’s debate is welcome, but it is a missed opportunity to address key issues facing disabled people and vital elements of human rights law in Scotland. The Government has lodged a motion that neglects to mention the many instances of failings that disabled people have suffered at the hands of the Scottish Government. It ignores so many human rights issues in Scotland that deserve to be debated in this Parliament. Although we agree with much of the positives in the motion, we are disappointed that it merely seeks to congratulate the Government instead of taking a serious look at its actions and how it could improve.

Good morning, panel. I am trying to get to grips with the issue of the independent regulator. In response to the committee’s call for views, you put forward the argument that an independent regulator, as proposed by the Roberton review, would

“threaten ... the independence of the ... legal profession”

and the rule of law, as well as the role of the Lord President. Could you expand on that for us, please?