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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.  

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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 9 February 2025
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Displaying 386 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

In 2023, the Scottish Government gave a total of £750,000 to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East—UNRWA—to support its operations in Gaza. Concerns were then raised about the links between some UNRWA staff and the 7 October attacks, with a number of countries pausing aid to the agency.

At the time, the then First Minister, Humza Yousaf, confirmed that, despite the allegations, the Scottish Government was not pausing or withdrawing aid to UNRWA. Can the cabinet secretary advise what scrutiny and assessment the Scottish Government has undertaken of how those funds were spent, and say whether he is confident that all funding was used exclusively for relief work?

Given the current ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, can he advise whether there have been any discussions within the Scottish Government over providing further funding for use in Gaza?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 29 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

To ask the Scottish Government what percentage of the constitution, external affairs and culture budget for 2024-25 was spent outside of the United Kingdom. (S6O-04257)

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Highlands and Islands)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

I thank Rhoda Grant for bringing this debate to the chamber. Along with debates this afternoon on the A9 dualling and on rural healthcare, it begins a very welcome focus to the Parliament today on issues that impact on the Highlands and Islands region—the focus on those issues is welcome because they are being discussed, rather than because of the underlying reasons why they are being discussed and the failure to deliver rural and island services.

This evening, I will speak in my colleague Tim Eagle’s debate on rural healthcare, so I will not focus on that now, other than to say that the impact of pressure on our health services is often felt more acutely in our more remote rural and island communities. Distance to care, and the impact of healthcare services being further away from those who use them, is a real and growing concern. When that pressure includes the downgrading of maternity services and a lack of social care, it challenges the sustainability of many of our communities.

The deterioration of health services is far from being the only challenge. After 18 years of this Government, we have a housing emergency in Scotland—a crisis that the Scottish National Party responded to by cutting the housing budget by nearly £200 million. Added to that, the dedicated rural and islands housing funds were not fully utilised, with millions of pounds left in Government coffers in Edinburgh despite the schemes being extended and there being a clear and desperate need for more affordable housing in our communities.

Transport connectivity was also highlighted in the commission’s report, and the crisis faced by our ferry-reliant communities has been raised in Parliament on too many occasions to mention. It is not only islanders who suffer; residents and businesses that are reliant on the ageing and unreliable ferries that serve the Corran Narrows route in Lochaber have been extremely vocal on just how great a threat the lack of a reliable service is to the sustainability of their communities. When I visited that area as part of my summer tour, many people were quite clear that, without action—soon—they would be forced to move away from the area that they call home.

Many Highland roads are not much better. Last year, I dealt with the case of a household who were stuck in their property because the condition of their road left them isolated in their home. There were potholes so large that the local delivery drivers refused to deliver to them. Thankfully, after a letter to the council on their behalf, work was done on the road and they can enjoy their home again, but also leave when they want to.

That issue of enjoying one’s home leads me on to another issue that I would like to raise, although it is not included in the report. People across my region are faced with the prospect of increased industrialisation of their communities, but they see little or no gain from it, and they feel powerless to have their say on it. New pylons, substations and other energy infrastructure are being forced on communities across the Highlands and Islands without their permission, and too often with only the most token amount of consultation—consultation that many see as almost a fait accompli. That is a clear democratic and moral deficit.

That leads me to my last point, which is about how decisions are made and their impact. Island residents have seen the introduction of legislation on island proofing to allow the consideration of unique island needs, although many are understandably sceptical about whether it is anything more than a tick-box exercise. However, rural communities are not afforded the same protections, despite many being as remote as—and, in some cases, more remote than—some of our island communities.

The report is interesting but, for many of us who live in the Highlands and Islands, it tells us little that we do not already know. There is a lack of affordable housing. Healthcare services are becoming more distant for some and inaccessible for too many. There is fuel poverty in communities that are circled by machines that heat the homes of others many miles away. Many people in the Highlands and Islands feel a long way from the decisions that are made here in Edinburgh but those decisions impact greatly on their lives. Although the Highlands and Islands are still a great place in which to live, work and be brought up, it is getting harder for many people to do that.

13:06  

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care (Rural Scotland)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

As other members have done, I thank Tim Eagle for bringing the debate to the chamber. The number of speakers and the pressure that is being brought to bear highlight just how important the issue of access to health and social care is to those of us who live in rural Scotland and, of course, on our islands, and to our constituents and communities.

There are a number of areas that I would have liked to cover today, but I am very conscious of time, so I will not be able to go into detail on all of them. However, I hope to cover some key areas of concern. As Tim Eagle did, I will start with GPs.

I recently met GPs in Orkney, who raised some of the challenges that they face, which have only increased over the years, seemingly with little response from the Scottish Government. The waits to see a GP have grown, as has the paperwork that they have to deal with—they spend hours on repeat prescriptions or meeting data requests from patients. Because all of that has to be delivered by GPs themselves, they have less time to spend dealing with patients, which only increases the pressures on the system.

I know from personal experience the pressure that social care is under. There are not enough carers, and there are not enough places in suitable accommodation for people who need care, so our hospitals are full of people who simply do not need to be there. That situation is not getting better; it is only getting worse.

Only last year, the Moss Park care home in Fort William was threatened with closure. The residents were prepared for resettlement in new homes. Understandably, they and their families were concerned that those new places would not be local and would not be in the communities that they grew up in, where they wanted to stay. There was also understandable concern in the community that the loss of places at the Moss Park care home would mean that staying in Fort William or even Lochaber would be impossible for local people in the future.

Although it appears that there has been a reprieve for the home, for how long will that be the case—a few years or slightly longer? That community in Fort William—current residents of the home and those who may need it shortly, and their families—deserve to know that care places will still be available locally in the future. At present, they cannot be confident that that will be the case.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care (Rural Scotland)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

Saved for how long? That is the problem.

What will the loss of care provision mean for the Belford hospital, which is itself in need of replacement? I joined the local community, campaigners and other politicians in Fort William last year to highlight the increasingly desperate need for the much-promised but much-delayed replacement finally to be delivered. A clear message was sent to the SNP that Lochaber would not accept more delay. There has been positive news about the Belford recently, but, like many in the community, I will not accept that real progress has been made until we see spades in the ground as work on the build begins. That community has been let down too many times before by SNP ministers in Edinburgh who are big on promises but not so big on delivery.

Colleagues have spoken about the long journeys faced by young mothers in Caithness and Moray and those are also faced by many living on Skye. A former paramedic described to me a high-speed drive, with blue lights on, from Skye to Inverness. It was winter, it was dark and the roads were unsuitable for anything other than careful and often slow driving. That situation is not acceptable and I am sure that even those on the SNP front benches will recognise that.

That story also highlights the pressure that the Ambulance Service is under. I held my own members’ business debate just a few years ago on the pressures faced by the Ambulance Service and its crews and I know that the service continues to be called on to help or provide cover in areas outwith what should be its remit. That is only exacerbated on Skye when promises to return 24/7 urgent care to Portree hospital fail to be delivered time and time again.

I must conclude, but I could have spoken, as others have done, about the pressures on mental health provision, the loss of local dentistry, a lack of the physio support that is important for many older residents, nursing shortages and the lack of accommodation. I hope that this debate will leave the health secretary under no illusions about the severity of the pressures on our rural health services and the desperate need and public demand for a reverse to the running down, centralisation and loss of services that we have had during the SNP’s 18 years in power.

17:31  

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Highlands and Islands)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

My apologies. The minister said that the Government would give due consideration to the report and would come back in due course. When it comes to timescales, “due course” means nothing. When does the minister expect to come back with the Government’s response?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

A9 Dualling Programme

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

Goodness—follow that!

As others have done, I thank the committee for all its work. I also thank the committee clerks and, of course, Laura Hansler for her work and commitment to this vitally important cause. The debate is undoubtedly important for me and for my constituents, but it is a disgrace that we are having to have it again. It is a shameful indictment of the Government’s abject failure to deliver on its promises to my constituents.

At the beginning of 2025, the original target date for delivery, we should be preparing for the final stretch of dualling to be completed. Instead, we are here in Parliament, listening to more excuses from the Scottish Government on why it is not complete.

Many of us on the Conservative benches, along with the stalwart campaigners, some of whom are in the gallery today, have been campaigning to get the road dualled between Inverness and Perth for far too many years. My colleague Murdo Fraser and I launched our campaign for the dualling as far back as 2006, when we were both young, fresh-faced and full of hope—that should give you an idea of how long ago it was. Our petition attracted well over 20,000 signatures and clearly played a role in encouraging the SNP, which included the A9 dualling in its 2007 manifesto. However, here we are, 18 years later, still waiting.

I have been using the A9 all my life. I still just about remember heading up the old road on the way home to Orkney via the Kessock ferry and the long and winding route up to Scrabster. There have been major improvements since then, including new bridges and new stretches of dualled road. Between 1979 and 1997, under the Conservatives, 25 miles of the A9 were dualled between Inverness and Perth, and 12 miles of it were dualled between 2007 and 2022 under the SNP.

Although that work has undoubtedly made the journey shorter and safer than it was, the SNP promised us a fully dualled A9 between Inverness and Perth—and a safer road. However, travelling on the road last year, particularly during the summer, it felt as though almost every journey was disrupted by an accident. There is, of course, inconvenience in a journey delayed, but far worse is sitting in stationary traffic as emergency services pass or an air ambulance flies over, desperate to get as quickly as possible to the scene of another accident—sitting in the car with the fear that, just ahead, yet another incident may have been serious enough that another family or community will have to be told of the loss of a loved one. Too many have already lost their lives, and too many will probably experience that in the next few years.

We did not need to be here. All major projects face challenges and issues with the terrain or economic factors, as other members have said. That must always be considered. However, dualling the A9 is not some engineering marvel. Put simply, it is the building of a road where there is already a road; it should not challenge, as it has done, the abilities of a country with the engineering heritage and expertise of Scotland.

What galls most about this shameful saga is the dishonesty of the Scottish Government. The communities that are most reliant on the road could have accepted some delay to the project if real progress had been made or been obvious but, time and again, they were told by SNP ministers—or by SNP MSPs quoting SNP ministers—that all was fine and on track and that dualling would be completed, as promised, by 2025. Nothing has changed.

The deception went to the very top. Following his budget statement to the Parliament on 15 December 2022, I asked John Swinney, the then Deputy First Minister and Acting Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy:

“Will the cabinet secretary finally admit what my Highlands and Islands constituents and his Perthshire constituents know, which is that the promised dualling of the A9 between Inverness and Perth will not be completed in 2025 or, indeed, any time soon?”

He responded:

“The Government’s position on the completion of the dualling of the A9 remains intact.”—[Official Report, 15 December 2022; c 86.]

To some people—possibly more charitable people than me—that response might be acceptable, if, ignoring the evidence of his own eyes on the lack of progress on the dualling, John Swinney was still naive enough to think that an engineering miracle could happen and the project could still be completed as promised.

However, that was not the case, because more than a week before John Swinney gave me that response in the chamber, the Scottish Government had been told that the dualling would not be completed by 2025. An email had been sent that said:

“it should be made clear that the current published completion date of 2025 will no longer apply to the Programme.”

That email was sent directly to the then Deputy First Minister, John Swinney. When John Swinney told me that nothing had changed, that was not true. He knew that the 2025 date would not be met, but he kept the deception going that it would. John Swinney, the then Deputy First Minister and now First Minister, misled the Parliament when he said that the SNP promise to dual the A9 would be delivered.

If John Swinney is confident that he did not mislead the Parliament—or the communities or campaigners who will have heard his comments—he should refer himself to his own newly appointed independent adviser on the ministerial code, surely confident that they will clear him of any breach. Of course, I doubt that he will, because this Government does not do accountability or transparency. Even when it knew definitively that the dualling would not happen as promised, it refused to be honest with Parliament and the public. As has been the case far too often with this Government—the ferries fiasco is an obvious example—no one has lost their job.

This has been a shameful saga that has involved endless broken promises, deadlines missed, communities lied to, lives ruined and, of course, lives lost. Too many families now mourn loved ones who have been lost on the A9. So, my message to the SNP Government is simple: no more failures, no more excuses—get the A9 dualled.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Highlands and Islands)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

The point that was being made is that a lot of the planning decisions on energy infrastructure are being passed by the Scottish Government.

You said that—

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Highlands and Islands)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Jamie Halcro Johnston

I thank Rhoda Grant for bringing this debate to the chamber. Along with debates this afternoon on the A9 dualling and on rural healthcare, it begins a very welcome focus to the Parliament today on issues that impact on the Highlands and Islands region—the focus on those issues is welcome because they are being discussed, rather than because of the underlying reasons why they are being discussed and the failure to deliver rural and island services.

This evening, I will speak in my colleague Tim Eagle’s debate on rural healthcare, so I will not focus on that now, other than to say that the impact of pressure on our health services is often felt more acutely in our more remote rural and island communities. Distance to care, and the impact of healthcare services being further away from those who use them, is a real and growing concern. When that pressure includes the downgrading of maternity services and a lack of social care, it challenges the sustainability of many of our communities.

The deterioration of health services is far from being the only challenge. After 18 years of this Government, we have a housing emergency in Scotland—a crisis that the Scottish National Party responded to by cutting the housing budget by nearly £200 million. Added to that, the dedicated rural and islands housing funds were not fully utilised, with millions of pounds left in Government coffers in Edinburgh despite the schemes being extended and there being a clear and desperate need for more affordable housing in our communities.

Transport connectivity was also highlighted in the commission’s report, and the crisis faced by our ferry-reliant communities has been raised in Parliament on too many occasions to mention. It is not only islanders who suffer; residents and businesses that are reliant on the ageing and unreliable ferries that serve the Corran Narrows route in Lochaber have been extremely vocal on just how great a threat the lack of a reliable service is to the sustainability of their communities. When I visited that area as part of my summer tour, many people were quite clear that, without action—soon—they would be forced to move away from the area that they call home.

Many Highland roads are not much better. Last year, I dealt with the case of a household who were stuck in their property because the condition of their road left them isolated in their home. There were potholes so large that the local delivery drivers refused to deliver to them. Thankfully, after a letter to the council on their behalf, work was done on the road and they can enjoy their home again, but also leave when they want to.

That issue of enjoying one’s home leads me on to another issue that I would like to raise, although it is not included in the report. People across my region are faced with the prospect of increased industrialisation of their communities, but they see little or no gain from it, and they feel powerless to have their say on it. New pylons, substations and other energy infrastructure are being forced on communities across the Highlands and Islands without their permission, and too often with only the most token amount of consultation—consultation that many see as almost a fait accompli. That is a clear democratic and moral deficit.

That leads me to my last point, which is about how decisions are made and their impact. Island residents have seen the introduction of legislation on island proofing to allow the consideration of unique island needs, although many are understandably sceptical about whether it is anything more than a tick-box exercise. However, rural communities are not afforded the same protections, despite many being as remote as—and, in some cases, more remote than—some of our island communities.

The report is interesting but, for many of us who live in the Highlands and Islands, it tells us little that we do not already know. There is a lack of affordable housing. Healthcare services are becoming more distant for some and inaccessible for too many. There is fuel poverty in communities that are circled by machines that heat the homes of others many miles away. Many people in the Highlands and Islands feel a long way from the decisions that are made here in Edinburgh but those decisions impact greatly on their lives. Although the Highlands and Islands are still a great place in which to live, work and be brought up, it is getting harder for many people to do that.

13:06  

Meeting of the Parliament

Rural Economy (Impact of United Kingdom Government Budget)

Meeting date: 19 November 2024

Jamie Halcro Johnston

Will the cabinet secretary give way?