Chamber and committees

I am afraid that I cannot take an intervention, on this occasion.

Scottish Liberal Democrats helped to force the introduction of new rules. However, in 2022, they then uncovered that at least 49 public bodies in Scotland were still unaware of the Scottish human rights tests, following those deals. That is a very strange and outrageous place to be, and the bodies included Crown Estate Scotland, which has just run the massive ScotWind auction. We therefore have concerns about how robust the due diligence checks are, in practice.

However, we must also recognise that defence is a reserved matter. It is for the UK Government to set the rules on arms exports, and to ensure that the system is robust and that we are meeting our international obligations. It would be inappropriate and ineffective to create a backdoor system to arms regulation in Scotland.

Although I understand that that is not the aim of the Greens’ motion, I fear that it would be the outcome.

I am grateful to Lorna Slater for making time for this important debate. It brings me up against an aspect of my life that I do not often talk about in the chamber—my Quakerism. I have spent a great deal of my adult life campaigning against aspects and aims of the arms trade. That said, the full-scale invasion of Ukraine added to my thinking on the matter layers of complexity with which I am still grappling, because I believe that, in order for peace to be sustained throughout the world—including that region, in particular—we need to arm Ukraine. It is a nuanced issue for me, and I will unpack some of it later.

However, I absolutely agree with the spirit of the Green Party’s motion on what is happening in Gaza. What the people of Gaza have endured over the past 16 months is unimaginable. Homes have been destroyed, communities have been shattered and loved ones have been lost.

When, last month, the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas finally emerged and was announced, it represented a huge moment of hope after many months of darkness and despair for the entire region. It meant that the work of flooding Gaza with the aid that it had desperately needed and been deprived of for months could begin in earnest. I reiterate my party’s support for that ceasefire, which is so vital to the wellbeing of the Palestinian people. We want the ceasefire to continue and all hostages to be released.

As we have heard today, it has been troubling in recent weeks to hear Donald Trump’s unhinged calls for the Palestinian people to be relocated entirely out of Gaza and for that land to become the so-called riviera of the middle east. It goes without saying that those plans are not only ludicrous but would cause chaos in an already unstable region, and would amount to a flagrant violation of international law.

Instead, we need to redouble our efforts to build a lasting peace, regardless of how remote that possibility feels right now. That begins with the recognition of a Palestinian state that is based on 1967 boundaries and a two-state solution, which is the only way to deliver the dignity and security that both Israelis and Palestinians deserve.

I turn to arms exports. As early as April last year, Liberal Democrats called for the UK Government to suspend supply of arms exports to Israel. For many years now, Liberal Democrats have called for tougher controls on the export of armaments to ensure that they are not used for potential human rights breaches and atrocities. We support the introduction of a presumption of denial for all Governments that are listed in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office—FCDO—human rights and democracy reports as human rights priorities. As such, we accordingly believe that arms exports to Israel should be halted.

In respect of Scottish Enterprise funding, we need to ensure that the current human rights due diligence checks are as robust as possible. It is worth remembering the origins of the checks that this chamber now insists on. A cross-Government human rights due diligence test was introduced only after my party helped to uncover what went on behind a deal that Nicola Sturgeon personally signed with China Railway No 3 Engineering Group during a meeting at Bute house. No due diligence whatsoever was done. It was discovered that CR3 had been blacklisted by the Norwegian state pension fund for gross corruption, and was found by Amnesty International to have connections to human rights abuses.

The barbaric conditions and behaviours at Skye house that were described do not take place in our care homes because of the rigour and reach of the Care Inspectorate, and they do not take place in our prisons because of the rigour and reach of His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Prisons for Scotland.

The “Disclosure” documentary revealed deficiency in the rigour and reach of the Mental Welfare Commission. It is true that the commission visited Skye house on seven occasions, but six of those visits were announced. What more is the minister’s Government doing to examine the powers and reach of the Mental Welfare Commission to make sure that it has the teeth that are necessary to stop such behaviours happening again?

I find myself reflecting on Ross Greer’s opening remarks about reaching for consensus in the Parliament rather than conflict. Ross Greer and I entered the chamber on the same day, eight and a half years ago, and much of those eight and a half years have been characterised by rancour and conflict. In our heart of hearts, we should recognise that it is incumbent on us all to reflect the better natures of the communities that we are here to serve. We do not see tribalism or rancour reflected in those communities.

In that spirit, and moving on from the divisions of the past, Liberal Democrats sought to engage with the Government to make the best budget deal possible. That means that the budget will now deliver on Scottish Liberal Democrat priorities, by which I mean a new Belford hospital for Fort William, a new eye pavilion for our nation’s capital and help for babies who are born addicted to drugs, with further investment totalling £2.6 million.

This is personal for me. I remind members of my interest in that I worked for the organisation that will be the beneficiary of some of those funds. In that time, I saw how important such interventions are. Supporting them is why I got into politics in the first place.

We have also secured the right for family carers to earn more without having their Government support withdrawn. My colleague Sir Ed Davey led the way on that at Westminster, and we followed suit here.

There is the reinstatement of the winter fuel payment for Scotland’s pensioners. Today, we have learned just how timely that is, as millions of customers’ bills will go up from this April, and last month, we learned that record numbers of households in Scotland are still in fuel poverty. That reinstatement is progress, albeit just the start of what is needed for the combination of Scotland’s Governments to answer that challenge.

Then there is the £200 million improvement package for Scotland’s social care, which, in turn, will help to reduce NHS waiting lists and tackle issues such as delayed discharge, which interrupts flow throughout our NHS. There is more money for local healthcare, to make it easier for our constituents to see a general practitioner at the first time of asking, or to get NHS dentistry near them, which is vital to reduce the strain on our hospitals.

There is extra backing for hospices and funding for new specialist support across the country for long Covid, ME and chronic fatigue. I have battled for more than four years to get help for those who are unable to work or go to school and are unable to get on in life, because they are still living under the shadow of what Covid can become. Support in Scotland has lagged behind that in the rest of the UK, so the challenge for the Scottish Government is to get on and improve the lives and care pathways of long Covid sufferers using the new investment that the Scottish Liberal Democrats have secured.

That is not all. We have secured £3.5 million so that colleges can deliver the skills that our economy and our public services need, with new programmes that are focused on skills in care and offshore wind to create the pipeline of skilled workers for the careers of the future.

We have also secured money to provide a brighter future for the young people with complex needs who attend Corseford College in Renfrewshire. My colleague Willie Rennie visited the college a fortnight ago to see how the money that we have secured will make a difference to the students and staff. It should just be the beginning. We need a permanent commitment from the Scottish Government to ensure that no young person there is left without access to the further education that they need, want and deserve.

There is also an extra £29 million for additional support needs to help pupils and their teachers. That is all on top of progress on business rates, in the hospitality sector in particular. Funding to provide more affordable homes is 26 per cent up thanks to extra investment of £172 million. There is also progress on ring-fenced agriculture funding and a new commitment to focus ScotWind revenues on growing our economy, creating jobs, tackling climate change and driving reform. There is more money for local council services, including enhanced support for local authorities that operate ferry services, which will make a big difference to Shetland and Orkney.

Ahead of the infrastructure investment plan, we have persuaded the Scottish Government to look in much greater detail at replacing the Kilmaron special school in Cupar, Newburgh railway station in Fife and the Gilbert Bain hospital in Lerwick. Beatrice Wishart will not let anyone in the chamber forget the urgent need that exists there.

Scottish Labour’s decision to abstain confirmed once and for all that there will be no early election—which was always unlikely. That is why, all along, we sought to shape the budget proactively. This is not a referendum on the performance of the SNP; it is a means of getting things done and of unpicking some of the damage in our communities. Sometimes you just have to sit down and talk things through when you want to get things done.

Lib Dem priorities will now be backed by hundreds of millions of pounds of Government investment. There is a long list of policies and projects that we have won for our constituents and for Scotland as a whole, so we will be voting for the budget today.

Let there be no doubt: we are not afraid to tell the truth to the Government. After 18 years, on many metrics, it has long since passed its sell-by date. We have seen the Government fall short time and time again, and we have called it out on delivery. When it comes to the interests of our constituents, however, I got into politics to get things done, to do right by our constituents and to make good on the promises that I made to them when they sent me here. In large part, Liberal Democrats have succeeded in doing that today.

I welcome what the minister said about oversight, but one of the most troubling revelations in the “Disclosure” documentary was that the Mental Welfare Commission had already visited Skye house on no fewer than six occasions, five of which were announced visits. One of the aspects of concern to Parliament is the fact that the Mental Welfare Commission was not aware of its reach and clearly was not catching the behaviours that were revealed. What more can the Government do to further empower the Mental Welfare Commission so that such things cannot happen again?

I am happy to speak for the Liberal Democrats in this important debate. When the ballots were counted in July last year, it was unsurprising that the members on these benches were delighted with the result. We were delighted that it was the best result for Liberals in more than 100 years, trebling our number of seats in Scotland in the process. We were also very pleased to see the back of a Conservative Government that wreaked such havoc during its chaotic time in office. I had hoped that the new UK Labour Government might embark on a course that would move us, however slowly, in a more positive direction. I am disappointed that that has not been the case.

The chancellor promised to deliver growth but has chosen to raise the tax that all but guarantees that growth will remain stifled. The decision to increase employer national insurance contributions is the wrong one. I wonder whether the UK Government is aware of the damage that this could cause. It could result in increased prices and lead to job losses and capital flight, with fewer opportunities right across Scotland’s economy. It could even lead to many businesses and charities being forced to close their doors entirely. Take, for instance, our hospitality sector. Liberal Democrat research has revealed that the Scottish hospitality industry is facing a £369 million tax bombshell over the next five years due to the Government’s increase in employer national insurance contributions. Our data also shows that, in 2025-26, the additional tax burden for hospitality businesses is estimated to be around £71.8 million. That is an astonishing rise. Those local businesses—restaurants, pubs and hotels—are the beating heart of all our communities, and they are raising the alarm about the damage that this decision will likely do to their industry.

The industry has already had to overcome so much in the aftermath of the pandemic, and after years of Conservative economic vandalism and poor growth under the SNP. To get our economy growing, we should be helping our hospitality sector, not hurting it. That is why Scottish Liberal Democrats were absolutely wedded to securing substantial business rates relief for the hospitality sector in this year’s Scottish budget—it was a red line for us. We also want the UK Government to negotiate a youth mobility visa scheme with the European Union so that businesses can recruit the workers who they need to fill those vacancies. We know that such a scheme would be beneficial for exactly those sectors, such as hospitality, that typically employ a younger workforce and have struggled to find those staff since Brexit.

The rise in employer national insurance contributions will hurt not only businesses. GPs in my constituency have told me time and again just how up against it they are, and their patients feel it too. Not long ago, people used to be able to call their GP in the morning and get an appointment at the first time of asking. Nowadays, they will ring again and again, several dozen times, before their call is eventually answered, only to be offered an appointment weeks hence.

The extra national insurance contributions to be paid by employers and GPs mean that many GP practices will now be unable to follow through with their recruitment plans, which would have helped to ease the pressure and helped them to deliver a better service for their patients. GPs are being punished by a flaw at the heart of the rules: they are being treated as private contractors, but because their work is entirely within the public sector, they are not entitled to the employment allowance that would have reduced their national insurance liability by up to £5,000 per year.

It is not just GPs who are stuck between a rock and hard place; other care providers will be forced to make cutbacks, too. Many dental practices are struggling and might, as a result, be forced to reduce what already limited NHS provision they currently offer. That could, in turn, have serious consequences for already sparse patient access. We have talked many times in the chamber about dental deserts, and the NI increase will exacerbate that problem.

We know that the UK Government made no assessment of its tax hike on NHS dentists before making that change. Now that that industry is raising the alarm, the chancellor does not seem to be listening. The UK Government seems intent on pushing ahead with these damaging plans, even though the revenue that it is set to raise will likely be much lower than has been forecast. The Government claims that the rise will raise £25 billion each year, but the Office for Budget Responsibility is absolutely clear that, after employers change their behaviour in response to the tax, as we know that they do—for example, by reducing pay or employment opportunities—and once public sector employers are compensated, the Treasury will be left with revenue that is closer to £10 billion. Those are not my words—that is the calculation by the OBR.

The Government could have offset the need to bring in this rise by reversing the tax cuts that the Conservatives handed down to the big banks. It could have also increased the digital services tax, as the Liberal Democrats committed to do in our manifesto, or introduced a fair reform to capital gains tax so that the 0.1 per cent of ultra-wealthy individuals pay their fair share, as it is high time they did. Instead, the Government is pressing ahead with a regressive tax that will wreak havoc on Scotland’s economy and have a negative effect on people’s living standards, as it will be passed on to employees through salary cuts or reduced employment opportunities.

That is why Liberal Democrats are urging the Government to listen to the alarms that are being raised, do the right thing and scrap the tax before it is too late.

Oh dear, oh dear, Presiding Officer; it really is pantomime season. Yes, there is a constitutional affairs issue, but that constitutional affairs department within the Government is there to deal with the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020, to deal with dispute resolution and to deal with legislative consent motions.

Because of the Liberal Democrats’ involvement in negotiations, we have abruptly ended the continuance of white papers and, indeed, there is no more ministry for independence.

As it is pantomime season, if Mr Fraser is asking, “Where’s my career?”, the answer is, “It’s behind you.”

This afternoon, I speak from a position for my party that, although not wholly unprecedented, is largely uncommon in the tenure of this minority Administration. We support this budget not just in its general principles but at all stages as it transits through Parliament because, in a Parliament of minorities, Scottish Liberal Democrats will always act responsibly and try to find common ground where it exists.

It was in that spirit that we managed to reach agreement with the Government on the budget. Thanks to the Liberal Democrats, that budget will now include a long-overdue replacement for the Belford hospital in Fort William; a replacement for the Edinburgh eye pavilion; and help for babies who are born addicted to drugs, with further investment totalling £2.6 million. That last issue is personal for me, and I raised it with the First Minister just a couple of weeks ago. When I was a youth worker, I worked with Aberlour, which will benefit from the development of those new services, in its work in helping babies to withdraw from drugs. There have been 1,500 such babies born since 2017. That is one of the reasons that I got into politics in the first place, and we have done some real good there.

Liberal Democrats have also secured the right for family carers to earn more without having their support withdrawn. My colleague in Westminster, Sir Ed Davey, has led the way on that in the UK Parliament, and we have followed suit in the Scottish Parliament. There is also the reinstatement of the winter fuel payment for pensioners, and the £200 million improvement package for social care, which will reduce NHS waiting lists and tackle issues such as delayed discharge. There is more money for local healthcare to make it easier for people to see a GP or an NHS dentist near them. Those services are under pressure like never before; we all see it in our casework mailbags day in, day out.

People should not have to live in pain or wait for weeks for treatment and vital appointments. There is an extra £5 million of backing for hospices, and funding for brand-new specialist support across the country for long Covid, myalgic encephalitis and chronic fatigue care pathways, which Liberal Democrats have been demanding and calling for since the Parliament first convened.

That is not all that Liberal Democrats are delivering. We have secured £3.5 million so that colleges can deliver baskets of skills that our economy and our public services need, with new programmes that are focused on areas such as social care and offshore wind to create a pipeline of the skilled workforce that we need for the jobs of the future. There is also funding to provide a brighter future for young people with complex needs who attend Corseford College in Renfrewshire, and an extra £29 million for additional support needs to help pupils and their teachers.

That is all on top of progress on business rates relief for the hospitality sector, and funding to build more affordable homes, which is up by 26 per cent thanks to an extra £172 million. We have ring fenced agricultural funding and more money for local council services, including enhanced support for local authorities that operate key ferry services, which are lifeline links. There is now a line of sight, through the infrastructure investment plan, to replace the Gilbert Bain hospital in Lerwick and Kilmaron special school in Cupar, and for a new railway station in Newburgh in Fife.

My party and its members will keep fighting to propel those projects to the top of the to-do list, and none more so than Beatrice Wishart, in her pursuit of the new hospital that Shetland so desperately needs. That hospital serves not only the isles but many of the industries that operate in the North Sea, as their first point of call in emergencies.

From early on in the budget process, it was clear that an early election was always very unlikely. Although Liberal Democrats have said many times that we think that Scotland fundamentally needs a change of Government, we will not have the opportunity for some months to come. Indeed, Labour’s announcement a month ago that its members would abstain on the budget confirmed that once and for all. That is why my party has sought to shape the budget and get the best out of it for our constituents. The budget is not a referendum on the performance of the SNP, which, by any metric, is failing the people of Scotland. We have been determined to use the budget to begin to unpick some of that damage. Nevertheless, the people who voted for us and sent us here expect us to act like grown-ups, to put their interests first and to get things done.

Liberal Democrat priorities will now be backed by hundreds upon hundreds of millions of pounds of Government investment. As I have outlined, there is a long list of policies and projects that we have won not only for our constituents but for Scotland as a whole, so we will be voting for the budget today.

Let there be no doubt, however, that we will continue to hold the Government to account. We remain ardent critics of it and of the decisions that it has taken. The funds and the promises that we have secured now need to be backed by delivery. We have handed ministers the resources—it is now for them to prosecute the case that we have laid out. The Government has proven time and time again that it is sometimes incapable of that delivery, but we will hold it to account on our NHS, on social care and on lifeline ferries for island communities. My party is not afraid to collaborate when it is in the best interests of our country, and we will negotiate in good faith, as we have done on this occasion, but we are also not afraid to tell the truth about a Government that, after 18 years, is long past its sell-by date.

I had been under the impression that pantomime season was over, but—how wrong I was—oh no, it isn’t. Clearly, Mr Hoy did not read the letters pages of many august Scottish publications last weekend and did not see the wilder outriders of the nationalist cause bemoaning the fact that Liberal Democrats have secured the deletion of any spending on independence from this year’s budget. He will find that we have kept our word.