Chamber and committees

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. (S6F-03836)

Winifred was an active 87-year-old until she fell and broke her hip. Her family say that they are aghast at what happened next. In the weeks that followed, she experienced a 12-hour wait in an accident and emergency department, an unsafe discharge, a nine-hour wait for an ambulance to take her back to hospital and yet another 12-hour wait in A and E.

Winifred is not alone. The waits for emergency care have skyrocketed since the Scottish National Party came to power. New research that we are publishing today shows that more than 12,000 people aged over 85 waited longer than 12 hours in Scotland’s A and E departments last year.

What does the First Minister have to say to Winifred, to her family and to the thousands of others like them who have been so abjectly failed by his Government?

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.

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.

Do I have time in hand, Presiding Officer?

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.

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?