Chamber and committees

On behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats, I echo the good wishes that have been expressed to Her Majesty the Queen on the occasion of her 96th birthday.

To ask the First Minister when the Cabinet will next meet. (S6F-00987)

I am very pleased to bring this motion before the chamber on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats in our parliamentary time.

What began as a struggle to get by during the pandemic is quickly turning into a cost of living catastrophe for thousands of people across Scotland, and it is not clear that there is any end in sight. The 54 per cent rise in energy costs has left millions of people across the United Kingdom unable to pay their bills, and if we think that things are bad now, they look likely to get even worse by the time next winter rolls around. In October, families could face a further £145 a month price hike, which has led to warnings that one in four adults in the UK will be unable to afford gas or electricity at all.

On top of that, there is the rising cost of food. The price of pretty much everything is ballooning, while taxes rise and inflation causes the amount of money in people’s bank accounts to shrink. Many people who have donated to food banks for years are now relying on them instead. This is Scotland. It is 2022. Many people cannot afford to eat or to put their heating on in one of the wealthiest countries in the world. Enough is enough.

Both the Scottish and UK Governments are sitting on their hands while people’s bills skyrocket. The meagre support that has been announced so far will barely make a dent in those eye-watering increases.

Last week, the First Minister urged people to vote for her party in the upcoming elections, pledging that Scottish National Party councillors would

“help ease the cost of living squeeze”.

Putting aside that lack of detail for a moment, I note that Nicola Sturgeon neglected to admit that her Government is exposing people to the crisis by hiking rail fares, by forcing up council tax and by leaving disability benefits up to 6 per cent behind inflation. Those are all devolved powers. Those are the choices that the SNP-Green coalition Government has made. It is hard to see how endlessly slashing council budgets helps to provide people with the support that they so desperately need.

Unlike Scotland’s current Governments, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have a plan to tackle the crisis. Unlike the pitiful action that has been taken so far, our plan would make a meaningful difference. My party’s cost of living rescue package includes proposals to cut VAT to 17.5 per cent. That alone would be worth £600 to the average Scottish household.

Will the minister take an intervention?

I am grateful to the member for that intervention, but, as I said, action is required from both our Governments—the UK Government and the Scottish Government.

The cut to VAT would kill two birds with one stone. It would give businesses a boost by encouraging spending, and it would lower prices for consumers. That would be at the heart of the response to the crisis. We could and should also increase and expand the winter fuel payment and the warm home discount.

The recent 6 per cent increase to several Scottish social security benefits was necessary and welcome, but the Government is not going far enough when it comes to disability benefits, which are being raised by just 3.1 per cent. That is almost 4 per cent less than the figure for inflation that was announced last month, and it could be 5 per cent less than the figure that experts are predicting. That is simply not good enough for many Scottish households.

The latest figures predict that, this year, the country faces a £10.9 billion tax hit due to the Conservatives choosing to increase national insurance. The very last thing that struggling families need right now is more tax to pay.

The Scottish Government must also announce protection for households that are experiencing council tax rises due to the cuts that it has made to council budgets—cuts that should never have happened and which my party has opposed since the start.

Some energy companies stand to benefit from the crisis; they are profiting while people literally cannot afford to buy food. Now is the moment to impose a Robin Hood tax on those energy companies that make superprofits, in order to help fund the support that people need.

While we are at it, why do we not take the opportunity to finally crack down on the tax avoidance schemes that have been going on for far too long? Sadly, one does not have to look far to find people with exorbitant amounts of wealth who go out of their way to bend the rules and avoid paying their fair share. That simply has to stop—I am sure that members of the Scottish Conservative Party will agree whole-heartedly.

The Scottish Government must also reverse its recent 3.8 per cent rail fare hike. The SNP and the Greens should be making train tickets cheaper, not increasing their cost. The Government has known for two years that it would run ScotRail, and the Scottish Green Party had a specific manifesto promise to bring down rail costs. Instead, together, they have driven up those costs, which have risen by 4 per cent. They promise a review—more talk—while they put up the prices, which is a betrayal of everyone who is struggling right now. Make no mistake: a vote for the Government’s amendment is a vote against cheaper rail fares.

The Scottish Government could also activate an emergency nationwide home insulation programme to increase energy efficiency. We can help protect the environment and save people cash in the process. That would be an obvious step to take, and we should be able to agree on it across the chamber today.

I finish with the words of the American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson, who once wrote that

“to know that one life has breathed easier because you lived here. This is to have succeeded.”

Thousands of our neighbours, friends and, indeed, constituents are being strangled and suffocated by this crisis; they have not breathed easy for a very long time. We in Parliament are in the immensely privileged position of being able to take action that would lighten their burden in some way, and it is our duty to do so.

I move,

That the Parliament considers that both the Scottish and UK governments must immediately do much more to tackle the worst cost of living crisis for generations, and that without additional help this will have a devastating impact on household incomes and poverty; believes that every household could benefit from a cost of living rescue package; urges the UK Government to act through a cut to VAT to 17.5%, worth £600 to the average household, the reversal of the National Insurance rise, the doubling and expansion of the Winter Fuel Payment and Warm Home Discount, and a “Robin Hood” tax on the energy companies that are making super profits from the current crisis; urges the Scottish Government to use its wholly devolved powers to reverse the recent 3.8% rail fare hike and, instead, to expand the system of railcards so that everyone is eligible to get the benefit of rail discounts of at least one third off, based on the model that already exists throughout London and the south east of England; further urges the Scottish Government to increase the value of disability benefits, announce protection for households experiencing council tax rises due to the Scottish Government’s cuts to council budgets, and activate an emergency nationwide home insulation programme with reports provided monthly to Parliament on the impact of its interventions to increase household energy efficiency, and considers that together these steps would help insulate households from the cost of living crisis, where recent government decisions have added to their exposure.

I declare an interest in that my family and I have signed up for the homes for Ukraine scheme.

I am pleased to hear about the welcome hubs that were mentioned and the opportunity that they provide to assess needs. The minister will share my deep concern that many of those who are fleeing Ukraine will have experienced untold trauma and will need our support. Many will arrive with profound mental health needs. Some will have suffered deep psychological harm. What reassurance can he offer the Parliament that they will be met with immediate mental health support and a trauma-informed and compassionate welcome on their arrival?

I know that those benefits are controlled in London but that is only because the SNP has chosen not to take full control of the powers, which it has had the ability to do for several years.

The situation at Ferguson Marine has been called many things: a fiasco, a scandal, a farce. It has been described as the height of incompetence and as a complete mess. Although those descriptions are no doubt accurate, it is important that Parliament does not become obsessed with the process and pantomime and lose sight of the real-life impact of the situation.

The reality is that the situation is harming communities every day. This is not a parliamentary soap opera; there are communities to whom promises were made. Those promises were not kept. That is what our debate is about. We should be open about how those communities came to experience years of disruption, with years more still to come.

The stories that they tell illustrate the impact of years of shocking Government mismanagement. Last week, the BBC reported the plight of an 81-year-old couple from Arran and the lengths that the two had to go to in order to attend a hospital appointment in Kilmarnock. What should have been a simple return journey turned into an exhausting 94-mile detour involving three ferry crossings. Those elderly people were forced to choose between making that gruelling journey or paying for a three-day hotel stay to attend a 30-minute appointment

There is also the story of a young couple with a newborn baby. They were forced to abandon their car on the mainland when their ferry home was cancelled. That story becomes more harrowing when we consider that they had just been discharged from hospital, that the baby had been born prematurely and that the mother was recovering from a caesarean section.

Just yesterday, residents on Arran learned that the ferry serving the main route between their island and the mainland will be out of action until at least Friday, following an engine failure.

We must also remember the damage being done to local economies and to the tourism that those islands rely on. Caledonian MacBrayne’s managing director has accepted that services are, in his words, “at a really difficult point”. The average age of a CalMac ferry is fast approaching 23 years, while more than a quarter of the company’s major vessels have passed their 30-year design life. When sailings are cancelled, there are no spare vessels to cover those journeys and to serve customers.

That is why it was music to people’s ears when the announcement came that two new vessels to serve our island communities, including Arran, would be built at Ferguson Marine on the Clyde. The work was originally supposed to be completed in 2018. We are now told that the ferries will be ready in 2023. Our island communities will believe that when they see it.

Even if, this time, the ferries have real windows that are made of glass and funnels that do something other than providing accommodation for seagulls, islanders will still be forced to wait and will still be subject to horrendous delays and cancellations and the uncertainty that comes from those. That story is all too familiar to our island communities. They have been dealing with it for years, since long before the scandal was splashed across our national newspapers.

In truth, this latest debacle is only adding insult to an injury that was sustained a long time ago. Those who dared to believe the Government’s promise to fix the situation have now been left doubly disappointed and angry. To make things worse, it seems that absolutely nobody is being held to account for this failure.

The Scottish Government’s website states that an open Government

“gives the public information about the decisions it makes ... supports people to understand and influence those decisions ... and values and encourages accountability (responsibility for those decisions).”

Scottish Liberal Democrats thought that today was a good opportunity to review the Scottish Government’s progress in those areas and on those aims.

When it comes to sharing information about decisions, nobody can say how the Government came to decide to give the contract to Ferguson Marine in the first place. In fact, Audit Scotland could not get to the bottom of it because there was no paper trail. We are talking about the decision to award a then £100 million contract in the face of warnings from Caledonian Maritime Assets Ltd.

An open Government aims to support people to influence decisions, but no one can claim that islanders have been at the heart of this process. In fact, decisions were reportedly taken because they fitted in with the Scottish National Party’s conference timetable and not because they were necessarily the right decisions for islanders.

What about the lofty aim of encouraging accountability and responsibility? We have had the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy telling us that she could not say who made the decision. The First Minister then danced around the question of who gave the sign-off before conveniently attaching it to Derek Mackay. It is awfully convenient for Nicola Sturgeon that the latest scandal that is threatening her Government and, indeed, her premiership can be neatly blamed on someone who has since departed politics. However, if we are to take the First Minister at her word, Derek Mackay should appear before Parliament to give his side of the story and confirm that the First Minister and the rest of her Cabinet had no input into the deal that is set to cost the taxpayer hundreds of millions of pounds more than was originally scheduled.

The public and our island communities deserve answers and accountability. This open Government is asking us to believe that a £100 million contract was awarded on the eve of the SNP’s conference without the direct involvement of a famously precise First Minister—a First Minister who famously remarked that she

“didn’t say don’t go ahead”,

whatever that means; a First Minister who ranked the Government’s acquisition of the Ferguson shipyard among her proudest achievements; and a First Minister who has refused to apologise to the island communities that have been affected by this calamity. They deserve better. In 2014, Nicola Sturgeon became First Minister. In 2016, she described the Ferguson shipyard as

“going from strength to strength.”

It is now 2022 and there is not a ship in sight.

Scotland used to be the proudest shipbuilding nation on this planet. In the 20th century, more than 30,000 vessels were built in shipyards on the Clyde, whereas, in the 21st century, the Government can barely manage to build two. Oh, how lamentably far we have fallen under SNP leadership.

I move,

That the Parliament condemns the severe delays to the production of vessels 801 and 802 contracted by Scottish Government-owned Caledonian Maritime Assets Limited (CMAL), paid for by the Scottish Government, built originally by a company celebrated by the Scottish Government and, since 2019, by the nationalised Scottish Government-owned company; believes that these delays have left islanders and communities without reliable services that are critical to island life; notes that the Scottish Government’s Open Government Action Plan 2021-25 states that “an open government gives the public information about the decisions it makes, supports people to understand and influence those decisions, and values and encourages accountability (responsibility for those decisions)”; considers that the Scottish Government has breached each of its own tests of open government, to the cost of taxpayers and the islanders waiting year after year for the ferries that they need; notes the impact on their local economies and the impact of the cost overrun on the spending available for other public service priorities; expresses regret that no Scottish minister has either resigned nor considered resigning despite all of these events, and believes that if vessels 801 and 802 are not completed within the revised timescale and cost, as provided to Parliament on 23 March 2022, the latest in a string of revisions, then the ministers responsible deserve to finally be held to account in the form of resignations, and calls on the Scottish Government to give this assurance.

Members will recall that Willie Rennie spoke on last week’s social security SSI, so I will not repeat all the arguments and analysis that he set out at that time. However, I confirm that the Scottish Liberal Democrats cannot support this twinned SSI for the same reason, in that it increases disability benefits by only 3.1 per cent. That is well behind the 6 per cent increase that is being applied to other benefits. Indeed, the Office for Budget Responsibility now warns that inflation could peak at 9 per cent at the end of this year.

If the Scottish Government had got its act together in the devolution of those benefits, disabled people could have got more help with the cost of living crisis. Instead, they remain in the old system, seven years after all parties in the chamber agreed that powers should be devolved. That was the Scottish National Party Government’s choice and timetable, and the result is that disabled people are being left out in the cold. For that reason, Scottish Liberal Democrats cannot vote for the SSI.

Long Covid is becoming the biggest mass disabling event since world war one: there are nearly 120,000 sufferers. Those people need clinics, care pathways and long Covid nurses, yet we are still nowhere. I have asked the First Minister about the issue every month since the funding was announced in September and she said that an action plan was being implemented—six months later, we have just learned that not one penny of that £10 million has left the Scottish Government bank account. Will the First Minister apologise to Scotland’s long Covid sufferers? Will she wake up her ministers on the issue and get help to sufferers fast?

Homelessness in Scotland has long been a national scandal but, shamefully, 245 veterans were sleeping rough or in temporary accommodation last year alone. Many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of their experiences in the line of duty, which makes adjusting to civilian life all the more challenging. Those people have risked their lives in the service of this country and now, when they need our support, they are quite literally being left out in the cold.

The Government’s ending homelessness annual report from last year made no mention of homeless veterans. What is being done to offer mental health, housing and employment support to our veterans so that this terrible pattern is ended once and for all?