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The nature of the materials that are used in historic and listed buildings means that they require traditional skills so that restoration and maintenance can be done sympathetically. What can the Scottish Government do on flexible learning opportunities for young people in island and rural areas, so that they can access and acquire those specialist skills, which would ensure that we have a pipeline of skilled craftspeople across Scotland to help to retain and protect heritage buildings?

Shetland is the windiest part of the country so, for obvious reasons, it attracts both onshore and offshore wind developments. Islanders are aware of the contributions that such projects make to reaching net zero, but there is a view that onshore developments should not be built near existing properties and communities. Does the First Minister recognise the concerns about the proximity of wind turbines to homes and the impact of turbine noise and shadow flicker? What can the Scottish Government do in terms of planning and consent to ensure a specified minimum distance between properties and future onshore wind developments?

The RMT briefing states that it believes that the methodology that the Scottish Government used to evaluate the trial did not look at demand at peak time, which made it difficult to see the true impact of the trial.

The climate will be the biggest loser from the policy reversal. Scottish Liberal Democrats have long campaigned to get cars and lorries off the roads and to move passengers and freight on to our railways as part of a package to tackle the climate crisis. We also championed reforms to ticket incentives and discounts. Rail fares will now revert to the more complicated tiered system, with super-off-peak, off-peak and peak rail fares. If we were to design a ticket pricing system as a barrier to travel on our railways, that is what we would create.

Since the pandemic, more people have been choosing to work flexibly, with a mix of some days working from home and some days commuting. Rail season tickets for two or three days a week would provide flexibility and reflect the new hybrid models of working while saving commuters money. I note the Scottish Government’s 12-month discount on ScotRail season tickets and the new flexipasses that allow commuters to book 12 single journeys for the price of 10. However, those must be simple to use and purchase, with straightforward terms and conditions, to ensure usability and good uptake. We need to foster a culture of sustainable public transport use that is good for purses and the planet.

We need to invest to cut our carbon emissions, whether by investing in public awareness campaigns on discounts and passes, reopening stations, building new lines or adding new stations to existing routes. It is not just railway infrastructure investment that will help to reduce carbon emissions. Ferries to our island and coastal communities need to be sustainable and, dare I say, for some communities, tunnels to reduce emissions would be a sustainable alternative to recurring cycles of ferry replacements.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of Scottish Liberal Democrats this afternoon. We will support the motion and the Labour amendment, but we will not support the Scottish Government’s amendment.

The reintroduction of peak fares comes a few months after the announcement in April of a rise in fares of 8.7 per cent, which was a double whammy for commuters during the cost of living crisis. Some people will now be incentivised to come off the rail network and go back into cars. There will be plenty of real-world experiences out there that illustrate the barrier that the return of peak fares will make to their commute, and there is also a question about the reliability of the rail service. Passengers need reliability. Many experiences highlight commuters finding other means to get to work rather than rail, which perhaps impacted the success of the pilot.

It was hoped that that policy had the climate and sustainable transport in mind. The Scottish Government’s announcement stated that a 10 per cent increase in passenger levels would have made the policy self-financing, which poses the question why the Scottish Government was unable to achieve that magic number. What more spending would have been needed to ensure a successful public engagement programme to develop a self-financing policy and a sustainable rail service?

It is not just railways that need decarbonising. Ageing ferries are Shetland’s biggest carbon emitters and many need to be replaced. Will the Scottish Government outline its policy on short subsea tunnels for Shetland, as such a project would be a contributor to the Scottish Government’s goal of decarbonising transport?

That is exactly the point that I hope the debate will highlight. It is definitely the case that looking from the outside in would help island and rural areas.

Energy customers are encouraged to switch to a smart meter, but the barriers to installation that people in rural areas face include a lack of installers, long waiting times and poor communication from suppliers. Those problems are exacerbated by the planned shutdown of the radio teleswitch—RTS—on 30 June 2025. There are hundreds of thousands of households whose meters operate using the signal, but the timeline does not align with the pace of smart meter roll-out. It is unknown what will happen to RTS meters after the shutdown. They might continue to work but not as intended, or they could stop working, resulting in either no heating and hot water or permanent heating, increasing energy bills in areas with the highest fuel poverty rates.

A further barrier is that some rural and island areas have no access to the wide area network that smart meters use. A technology-based solution is being developed, but it is only at the trial phase, so it seems unlikely to be successfully deployed in time for the RTS shutdown.

The Minister for Climate Action wrote in the Shetland News on Tuesday that customers should contact suppliers for “alternative solutions”. People have been doing that for years and getting no answers. One of my constituents first contacted his supplier about a replacement meter more than four years ago and still has not been able to get one. Another constituent had been waiting two years before contacting me more than two years ago. For every person who contacts me about meters, there will be others in the community facing similar problems.

By considering those impacts holistically, we see that people in rural and island areas are facing a digital divide. Depopulation will continue and enterprise growth will continue to suffer if services and infrastructure continue to be worse in those areas than in urban areas. What people in rural and island areas seek is parity and the same opportunities that other communities across Scotland already take for granted. With a bit of political will between our two Governments, that can be achieved in the island and rural areas in Scotland.

I thank the minister for giving way. I take the opportunity to join others in congratulating Marie McNair on securing this important debate and to offer the support of Scottish Liberal Democrats for the action meso—I cannot even say it—day.

I thank all members who have supported my motion and the organisations that provided briefings.

I realise that some of the issues that I will discuss are reserved matters, but they are all interlinked and all affect Scottish communities. Rural and island communities face many connectivity challenges, from those relating to broadband, fourth-generation wireless and mobile phone coverage to issues with smart meter signals, and there is a cumulative impact on those areas because of disparities in delivery and the unequal deployment of infrastructure. Both Scotland’s Governments must rethink their attitudes and approaches to rural and island connectivity and must work pragmatically together to find solutions. If those areas are always considered to be a problem that should be left to last—and some telecommunications and energy companies also appear to take that view—progress will never be made.

The Scottish Government’s reaching 100 per cent—R100—programme was arranged as part of the United Kingdom Government’s superfast broadband programme, which gave devolved administrations a formal role in organising broadband roll-out. It promised to connect all households in Scotland to superfast broadband by 2021, although it is now estimated that that will not be achieved until 2028.

Realising that that target date would be missed, and with the 2021 Scottish elections approaching, the Scottish Government introduced a voucher scheme to attempt to capture properties missed out by the main scheme. Much like the failings of the commercial roll-out, it relies on companies being willing and able to come to rural and island areas, which is not often the case.

In Shetland, out of 1,507 eligible properties, just 35 have been connected using the Scottish broadband voucher scheme. One of my constituents, Mary Macgregor, lives at Bakka on the west mainland of Shetland. She runs a knitwear business from home and she told me:

“My business is suffering acutely from lack of connectivity.”

Parts of the west mainland have internet download speeds of just 3 megabits per second and 0.5Mbps upload speeds, and 25 per cent of Shetland households have broadband speeds of less than 30Mbps. So far, Mary’s efforts to get a community-led internet project installed by pooling broadband vouchers and working closely with Scottish Government officials have still not been enough to get a supplier interested in developing the scheme.

Another constituent was quoted £725,000 to connect 15 houses. Often, the only practical solution under the voucher scheme is a satellite installation, but the higher monthly costs and difficulty of shopping around at the end of a contract would mean households paying more for years to come.

The voucher scheme options are simply not equivalent to the fixed-fibre connections offered to other households under the main reaching 100 per cent—R100—programme, so it is unsurprising that the uptake in Shetland is so low. There needs to be a better solution for areas that are not considered commercially viable to get parity of digital connection with urban counterparts.

The copper phone-line network for land-line telephones is being retired and replaced by phone lines that use digital connections. The switchover, called “digital voice”, by the largest provider, BT, will affect all customers, regardless of supplier. There is a mismatch between the reach of the broadband roll-out and the planned retirement of the copper network by 2027. That has understandably caused stress in rural and island areas, particularly for people in areas with poor mobile phone signal, and for elderly and disabled people with devices such as Telecare alarms.

One frequently cited solution is that digital phone lines will have a minimum one-hour battery back-up in the event of a power cut. That is wholly inadequate. In December 2022, Shetland was hit by a storm, resulting in widespread and prolonged power cuts, including to cell towers, leaving areas with no power and no signal for days. In the absence of a self-powered land line, that would leave people entirely cut off from telecommunications at the time when they need them most.

The lack of resilience in the cell tower network and in the new digital land-line phones is concerning, as climate change means that more weather events are expected to occur more frequently. There must be planning for the worst-case scenarios to ensure that networks are resilient and can cope. It should not be the case that we find ourselves in a worse position during an emergency than we do with the 50-year-old technology that we are replacing.

The 4G network also has resilience issues. In Lerwick, the network is inadequate for demand, especially during peak visitor times. Shetland businesses tell me that their activities are curtailed because of inadequate connectivity. Just last week, the Agriculture and Rural Communities (Scotland) Bill was passed. Farmers and crofters will require adequate digital connectivity to achieve its aims of fostering innovation in that sector.

I am pleased to speak on behalf of Scottish Liberal Democrats in today’s incredibly important debate. I thank Humza Yousaf for bringing the debate to the chamber and for how, as First Minister, he chose to use that office and his voice to speak up for peaceful solutions.

We have all looked on in horror at the scenes of devastation that have played out in Israel and Gaza. The terrorist attacks on 7 October and the subsequent conflict in Gaza have seen thousands of innocent people killed, and it has been horrifying. Right now, there is a humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza—the health system has collapsed and international institutions are warning of the risk of famine. There is also the tragic on-going hostage crisis, with more than 100 Israelis still being held hostage by Hamas following the atrocities of 7 October.

We are very concerned about the way in which the conflict that has turned the entire region into a tinderbox is on the brink of serious escalation. For months, Liberal Democrats have been calling for an immediate bilateral ceasefire, because we urgently need to stop the humanitarian devastation in Gaza, get the hostages out and make the space for a political process that leads to a two-state solution and lasting peace. Not only that, but an immediate bilateral ceasefire will help to deliver the de-escalation that the region desperately needs.

At this dark moment, the UK Government should be doing all that it can to stop the violence, secure an immediate bilateral ceasefire and bring about a two-state solution. One of the strongest cards that the United Kingdom holds is the ability to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, and it is time for us to do so. Liberal Democrats have long called for the immediate recognition of the state of Palestine; it has been our policy since 2017. Layla Moran, the first British Palestinian MP, has on multiple occasions introduced a private member’s bill in the UK Parliament that would recognise Palestine as a state.

The UK has both historical obligations in the region and modern responsibilities under international law. There are those who say that recognising the state of Palestine would be meaningless and that it would not have any practical consequence, but it is important that we do not underestimate the extent to which the UK’s voice is listened to in the region. If we and our allies recognise Palestine, we will be able to fully join international institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. That step would provide hope for millions of Palestinians that peace and a Palestinian state are possible.

Liberal Democrats have also urged the UK Government to cease the export of British arms to Israel, given the humanitarian situation in Gaza. Liberal Democrats have long advocated a two-state solution. A lasting peace is the only way to deliver the security and dignity that Israelis and Palestinians deserve. For the security of both peoples, Hamas cannot be allowed to continue to be in charge of Gaza, international law must be upheld and the rulings of international courts must be respected.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I am sorry; my app would not connect. I would have voted no.