Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid)

Meeting date: Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Official Report 899KB pdf

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Business Motion

The next item of business is consideration of business motion S6M-01914, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a change to this week’s business.

Motion moved,

That the Parliament agrees to the following revision to the programme of business for Wednesday 3 November 2021—

after

2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Health and Social Care;
Social Justice, Housing and Local Government

insert

followed by Ministerial Statement: Action by Legal Aid Solicitors

[Interruption.]

I ask Mr Golden to move to another desk as the microphone at his current desk does not seem to work.

17:04  

Presiding Officer, I seek your guidance on how Parliament will allow members to scrutinise the Scottish Government on whether it operates with the transparency that is expected of a Scottish Government.

Members will have noted the Government’s intention to provide a statement on incineration and deposit return, but not until after the 26th United Nations climate change conference of the parties—COP26. The Government has all the evidence now, so why the delay? We can only assume that it is because it is going to deliver bad news that could embarrass it in front of the world at COP26. Why are the two equally important environmental issues being bundled into one statement? That can only mean less scrutiny. It is to spare the blushes of the Scottish National Party and Green Party coalition.

In fact, incineration could have been dealt with two years ago. That is when Zero Waste Scotland forecast that the SNP was headed for more than 1 million tonnes of incineration overcapacity. That overcapacity could see the SNP-Green coalition not only importing waste to burn, but—which is perhaps more important—constraining future Scottish Governments to do the same. The Greens promised a ban on new incinerators in their manifesto, but now they announce a nonsensical review. That means that more incinerators can be built, which will make Scotland the ashtray of Europe.

There has been little on the deposit return scheme that has been promised for 1 July next year. [Interruption.]

I remind members around the chamber, including Labour members, to listen to Mr Golden.

There has been very little on the scheme, despite the fact that the Government has been working on it for a decade.

My letter to the minister is still unanswered after a month. The Government is hiding from parliamentary scrutiny. It is time that the SNP and the Greens took their responsibilities seriously and allowed Parliament to question them on their shambolic record on tackling climate change.

17:07  

In answer to Mr Golden’s questions, I say to him that there is no conspiracy in this scenario; there is no lone shooter on the grassy knoll. It is, in effect, just a case of getting through parliamentary business.

I am trying to be reasonable with all members, as always. When Opposition parties make requests, I try to work with them. Incidentally, I am trying to be a better person as well; I am trying to see others’ points of view and to work with them for the betterment of the people of Scotland.

The issue in question is purely a matter of process, as is the case with much of my job as Minister for Parliamentary Business. The Scottish Government has accepted requests for two statements this week—one from Labour and one from the Conservatives. The motion proposes that a statement on action by legal aid solicitors will take place tomorrow. The statement covering the incineration review has been scheduled for Wednesday 17 November.

I will tell members about the arguments that the Conservatives have made at the Parliamentary Bureau on a number of occasions. First, they requested that we lessen the pressure and intensity of parliamentary business for the duration of COP26. The bureau accepted and agreed with that proposal.

Secondly, they repeatedly requested that we maximise scrutiny of Government policy. To have the statement on the date that we propose will give the Conservatives the opportunity to get more publicity and to ask their questions because, currently, the whole world is rightly looking at Glasgow and COP26.

I have listened to the Conservatives and, on the basis of both their suggestions, I have scheduled the statement on the incineration review for the week immediately following COP26, in order to allow all members to participate without conflicting commitments. That is me being reasonable; that is me trying to help colleagues to ensure that the flow of parliamentary business can be as easy as possible. It is purely about process, and is not about the conspiracies that the Conservatives believe.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I point out that my offer in the Parliamentary Bureau to accommodate this special period in the history of our country, when we are hosting perhaps the largest gathering of world leaders ever in the United Kingdom, was intended to be in the spirit of working across the Parliament in order to facilitate that. At no point have any of my overtures to the Minister for Parliamentary Business been intended to convey the idea that we were anything less than keenly interested in scrutiny of the Scottish Government. I therefore hope that the Minister for Parliamentary Business understands what he has insinuated by his remarks, and the consequences that will flow from that.

That is not a point of order.

The question is, that motion S6M-01914, in the name of George Adam, be agreed to.

Motion agreed to,

That the Parliament agrees to the following revision to the programme of business for Wednesday 3 November 2021—

after

That the Parliament agrees to the following revision to the programme of business for Wednesday 3 November 2021—

after

2.00 pm Portfolio Questions:
Health and Social Care;
Social Justice, Housing and Local Government

insert

followed by Ministerial Statement: Action by Legal Aid Solicitors