Chamber and committees

Will the member take an intervention on that point?

I very much concur with what the member has said. There is no doubt that there is frustration from many members across the chamber that time constraints sometimes do not allow us to get through the questions that are set by the Parliament on working days. I believe that there is an opportunity for us to take more urgent and topical questions during the week.

The importance of local bus services, which can be a lifeline for rural communities, cannot be overestimated. Mark Ruskell’s motion acknowledges that rural communities are especially vulnerable to the loss of routes.

The X53, which covers the wee county of Clackmannanshire, Stirling and Kinross, was the catalyst for this debate. At its most recent full council meeting, Stirling Council proposed an action plan to protect bus services, and I suggest that Clackmannanshire Council do something similar.

The debilitating effect of the Covid-19 pandemic, including the impact of previous lockdowns and controls on numbers of customers, has led to less use of buses and other businesses. We have already heard about initiatives to ensure that people get free bus travel, but a bus is required before that can be taken up. If the X53 service goes, individuals will be left with no bus to use.

We are dealing with management decisions. It is management who decide which routes are lesser used or more susceptible to change. It is essential that bus operators work to meet the requirements of all the communities in which they operate. This is the second time that we have had difficulties with the X53 bus route, which is mentioned in the motion. There was talk of its removal 18 months ago. It was reinstated then, but it looks as though the route will be removed this time.

Many individuals have told me about serious difficulties, especially for those who are disabled, elderly or young. One resident told me about the effect of changes to bus services for someone who, like her, is disabled and single. She currently uses the X53 to get to Stirling, so she might no longer be able to get to her employment. Although she used a car in the past, she can no longer do so following cancer surgery. The bus service is her lifeline to employment. The anxiety of ensuring that she can keep her employment without the support of a bus service is also very difficult. Another resident who does not drive moved to Muckhart specifically because they knew they could catch the bus that goes from Alloa to Stirling. If that service is removed, there will be no link between Kinross and Stirling.

Many people have described First Bus’s planned removal of that route as callous. It will cause difficulties not only in the local area but across the central belt. If the X53 is removed from 10 January, some pupils may not be able to get to school. That will have a major impact. There will also be no service from Muckhart to Dollar, Stirling and Kinross. New housing development is taking place in Muckhart and there are other developments across the region. Such housing normally attracts young families who are interested in living in the community, but that may wane if people cannot get to work or school.

In a debate that I called for, we talked about Strathclyde Partnership for Transport and decided that a task force should be set up to look at vital services. In a debate in the previous session, I was fully supportive when we talked about dealing with cuts to bus services. Back then, I asserted the vital importance of ensuring greater urgency on the issue.

We have already heard that the pandemic has had a devastating effect on many routes in the region, so it is particularly important that we focus on the task force that was set up and its urgent recommendations. I hope that the minister will touch on that point, because, last year, the Scottish Parliament backed plans for local authorities to run their own services. At that time, I certainly believed that we needed greater protection for under-threat services in order to help local people.

My colleague Liz Smith has done a huge amount of work in supporting buses across Mid Scotland and Fife. At the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26—there was an emphasis on the issue.

It is vital that FirstBus reconsiders its decision on the X53. I encourage Stirling and Clackmannanshire councils to use the powers that they have to protect the service for the future.

To ask the Scottish Government how it plans to improve the support that is available for people who are affected by strokes. (S6O-00519)

A vision report on stroke is one thing, but delivery of real change on the ground is quite another. What additional funding will be attached to the progressive stroke service? Who will be held accountable for its delivery? Will the minister put in place a reporting framework to ensure that the necessary improvements take place?

I welcome the fact that a survivors forum will be established early next year. What mechanisms will be put in place to ensure that the forum’s views and opinions will be acted on, along with any recommendations for improvement? Will the Deputy First Minister provide any further information on when the forum will be launched?

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate, which, at its core, is about the importance of protecting young people’s education. We know that even though young people are unlikely to become seriously ill from Covid, every day of school that young people miss due to the virus does yet more damage to their education. Given the lengthy periods of school closures that young people have already had to endure, further potential losses of education are unacceptable.

As with many aspects of the pandemic, those who are from the most deprived backgrounds are most likely to be affected. In this case, it is the children from the most deprived backgrounds whose education is most likely to be affected by Covid. When schools reopened last year, analysis found that the percentage of the most deprived children who had been off school was double the figure for the least deprived children. Around 4 per cent of the most deprived pupils were affected for Covid-related reasons, compared to a figure of 2 per cent for the least deprived pupils. There is often a school attendance gap between the poorest pupils and those who are most well-off, and Covid has resulted in that gap growing wider.

All that demonstrates the importance of ensuring that school settings are made as safe as possible. On that issue, the Scottish Government has a rather mixed record. The introduction of asymptomatic testing for teachers last year was much welcomed. However, regular testing of school pupils, which should have followed on from that, did not arrive until much later.

Similarly, on ventilation, which is the topic of the debate, the Government has failed to take definitive action, despite concerns having been raised repeatedly for months. One teachers union has indicated that the Government’s guidance on ventilation consists of nothing more than telling schools to open windows. We have heard that schools should have had CO₂ monitors much earlier, and the guidance on those is still causing concern across the school estate.

Of course, it is true that some evidence suggests that school environments are relatively Covid safe, in terms of community transmission. However, that evidence predates the alpha and delta variants, and we do not know how the new omicron variant will work. Given that much more evidence is required before we know about ventilation and the preparation that is required, it is important that the Government takes action and does not fail our pupils and schools.

This time last year, the Scottish Government was facing numerous calls on school safety. There were calls for more testing and for a national strategy to protect school staff who have chronic or underlying health conditions. Parliament even debated and passed a motion on that this time last year, but not much action has been taken since then.

If we fast forward to today, a year on, we see that the evidence has changed, but we are still spending parliamentary time debating the SNP’s failures to keep schools as safe as possible. We want our schools to be safe and our pupils to be protected. We have already seen changes in the virus and changes in what is happening. It is important that the Government listens to the evidence and to Parliament, and that it takes action to ensure that the virus is not given yet another opportunity to damage young people’s education.

I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak in this debate, which is, as we have seen today, on a subject on which all parties can unite. I acknowledge that we have heard many powerful and excellent speeches, and I will, of course, support the Government’s motion.

Every year, international day for the elimination of violence against women marks the start of 16 days of activities against violence against women and girls. We have already heard that this year is the day’s 30th anniversary.

This year, the focus of the campaign will be on strengthening the worldwide response to violence against women by advocating for strategies that we know are effective in stopping it. It aims to ensure that women and girls have the opportunity to participate in democracy around the world. Initiatives along the lines of the ask her to stand campaign have a role to play in that promotion. However, it is clear that there is much more to be done to increase the number of women and girls in positions of power.

This year’s campaign also emphasises the impact that the pandemic has had on the worldwide problem. There are many risks associated with violence against women and girls, including poverty and isolation, which have been exacerbated during the Covid-19 pandemic. Social media have a role to play. Online abuse has exacerbated things and become a massive problem. Sadly, UN Women has already reported significant increases in violence against women and girls in countries such as Cameroon, Kenya and Thailand. Further data on other developing countries will be available soon. I fear that we will see a repeat of that pattern.

However, the sad truth is that Scotland has not been immune from the effects of the pandemic in this regard. We know that, in Scotland, domestic abuse charges are now at a five-year high, with an average of 91 cases per day over the past year. Alarmingly, organisations such as Scottish Women’s Aid and Rape Crisis Scotland have reported huge increases in demand for their front-line services since the start of the pandemic. To that end, I welcome the additional £5 million of funding that has been committed to support those front-line services, because—as many members have said today—they are vitally important and are a lifeline to some individuals.

Organisations in my region, such as Fife Women’s Aid and Kingdom Abuse Survivors Project, have received such funding, and they work tirelessly to ensure that people are protected. However, as many of those organisations have told us, the effects of the pandemic will be felt for many years to come, and they will inevitably need financial assistance to support them in future.

We also know that there is a massive court backlog of around 7,000 cases of domestic violence against women and girls. Around 70 per cent of those cases involve sexual violence. Some victims currently have to wait up to three years between reporting their abuse and seeing their abuser in court. Scottish Women’s Aid has warned that, because of the length of time that the process takes, we risk women losing confidence in the justice system. I hope that I am wrong, but I fear that I am right, in saying that the backlog will continue as we progress.

However, although domestic violence is a global and a Scottish issue, it is, for me, a personal one. As a three-year-old child, I witnessed the devastation and traumatic impact of the violence to which my mother was subjected by my father, and that has never left me. She accepted the abuse for years and blamed herself, before she had the courage to take her three small children out of that situation before she became a statistic and lost her own life. However, many women do not have the courage to do that. They find it very hard to leave an abusive partner or an abusive relationship.

This devastating situation needs to be discussed in Parliament, and we need to be debating it this afternoon. It is to the Parliament’s credit that, every year, we have taken time to deal with the problem. However, although I welcome the Parliament debate this afternoon, it is disgraceful that we continue to have to debate the issue. Although the debate itself is important, it is positive action that is required to change people’s attitudes. In that regard, the onus is on us all, as politicians and as men, and across society, to tackle the issue. The issue covers many aspects of society, including culture, race and inequality, and only through society acting as a whole can we finally eliminate the violence and ensure that women and girls can live without fear and trepidation, wherever they are and whatever they are doing.

A constituent in my region has contacted me in distress, as her 16-year-old vaccinated daughter has now contracted long Covid. She is struggling to access treatment for the condition and has been absent from school since September. Her general practitioner wrote to NHS Forth Valley and was advised that it could not treat her, as

“they do not support Long Covid”.

That is a shocking situation for any constituent and any child who feels that they are being abandoned by the health system. What action can be taken to ensure that the situation is rectified as a matter of urgency?

On safety concerns, more than four years have passed since the Grenfell tragedy in 2017, but the Government has only just confirmed a consultation on whether it will ban combustible materials on high-rise buildings. When will action be taken on that issue? Will the minister confirm that any future ban on combustible materials will be truly comprehensive?