Seòmar agus comataidhean

Jim Stephenson talked about women’s participation in legal services and them dropping out. We recently had a gender-sensitive audit of the Parliament. Maggie Chapman and I were members of the board for that, and we looked into the barriers to women’s participation in politics as a whole. We know that the better the representation of women in Parliament, the better women are served across Scotland. Would a gender-sensitive audit of legal services be considered? A lot of the issues that we are hearing about this morning affect women disproportionately.

Thank you. I am sure that Fulton MacGregor will be able to come in with his other hat on as member of the Criminal Justice Committee.

Since I became an MSP, a few constituents have approached me with concerns that the court system was being used to abuse them further with regard to abusive relationships, whether that abuse be physical domestic violence or coercive and controlling behaviour. The issues range from one partner receiving legal aid and then financially draining the other to—and I have looked into and read a bit more about this—ex-partners being able to cross-examine partners whom they have abused and who might even have taken out a restraining order against them. These things have been allowed to happen in the court system, and it seems that women have been disproportionately affected. Are you aware of and attuned to such matters, and what can be done about them?

I see Jen Ang nodding, so I will pick on her first.

Good morning to the witnesses, and thank you for your testimony so far, which has been enlightening.

I am curious about your expectations of the proposed agriculture bill. Have they changed from when you first came into the process? If so, in what way? Perhaps Vicki Swales can start.

I open with a quote:

“So often, when I am being harassed by a man on public transport, no one intervenes. Then, when I am off the train, returning from work or a night out, there is no one to help. I have lost count of the number of times I’ve been followed home, terrified of being raped or murdered.”

Those are the words of one woman—Sally—who spoke to my office as I prepared for the debate. They are sobering to hear, and the experience is, sadly, one that most women in the chamber and watching at home will recognise in one way or another.

Many women and girls will be familiar with sending a friend our live location when we transit to or from home. Some of us change how we dress, in order to avoid attracting unwanted attention from would-be harassers. Alternatively, we take a different longer or more convoluted route to our destination, to ensure that it is well lit or busier. Some of us do not take the risk at all, and spend a fortune on taxis. Those are just a handful of the actions that women are taking, day in and day out, to avoid harassment in public. Sadly, that extends to our transport system.

Another woman told my office:

“Every time I get on public transport, I have a flashback to a time that I was harassed. I thought I was going to die. One of the reasons I bought my car and learned to drive was to avoid encountering creeps on public transport. If I couldn’t drive and needed to take public transport to get somewhere at night, I would choose not to go.”

No one should live in such a state of constant fear, excluding themselves from public life for fear of their safety. I thank the women who shared their testimonies with me and my office. Their courage and honesty have left me dwelling on a number of questions in the lead-up to international women’s day tomorrow.

How can women thrive at work, for example, when, too often, their commutes are spent in a state of hypervigilance? How can we tackle the climate crisis through encouraging the increased uptake of public transport when so many of us fear for our welfare, and even our lives, on our buses and our trains? How can we tackle the scourge of harassment when, for too many women, there are still too many barriers to understanding and reporting harassment on our public transport? Women’s safety and wellbeing should underpin all that we do in this area, but it is important, too, to recognise that these matters have an impact on our economy, our climate and our justice system.

It is also important to reiterate that the voices and perspectives of women must be front and centre in any effort to resolve this on-going problem. It is vital that we have women representatives who are proportional to the population to ensure that there is parity of attention to women’s issues in the Scottish Parliament. Women make up 46 per cent of the Scottish Parliament, so there is a wee way to go yet, but we are closer than we have ever been to equal representation.

I had the privilege of being the SNP representative on the Scottish Parliament’s gender-sensitive audit board and playing my part in the large body of work that has been undertaken to recommend action both in parties and in the Parliament. I hope that that will make a significant difference to women’s participation in politics and elected office, because it is essential to have women’s voices and perspectives at the heart of Government.

We are fortunate to have had our first female First Minister, who has ensured that, under her leadership, our Scottish Cabinet has been gender balanced for seven years. Our Minister for Transport—a woman—has talked about her lived experience of harassment on public transport.

We know from Transport Scotland’s social and equality impact assessment that women are more likely to be a victim of sexual assault, and we are also more likely to have concerns about safety and security issues on public transport at night and a fear of being harassed or sexually assaulted.

The report that has been published today makes a number of recommendations to tackle those issues, and I want to highlight and endorse one in particular. I welcome the fact that the report specifically recommends that awareness be raised of the immediate and intermediate support that is available to those who feel vulnerable at any point before, during or after public transport journeys.

Many of the women who I have spoken to about harassment on public transport have said that any effort to tackle harassment must be door to door; it must not stop at the boundary of the train station or bus stop. I commend the work of organisations such as Strut Safe—a free, non-judgmental service that is dedicated to making women, LGBT+ people, people of colour and others feel safe walking home.

We know that misogyny and the violence against women and girls that it perpetuates are not confined to public transport. Sadly, we see them throughout our society. Eradicating the pervasive and deeply ingrained inequalities in our society will require radical and holistic efforts, but with a gender-sensitive Parliament and a gender-balanced Cabinet, I know that we can prevail.

I vow to do all that I can to ensure that the voices of women from a wide variety of backgrounds are heard in this place, hopefully working alongside colleagues in a cross-party and cross-gender way. It is only by calling out misogyny and creating a culture where the perpetrators of it are like social pariahs that we will be able to radically change the culture in our society.

To ask First Minister whether she will provide an update on the Scottish Government’s response to on-going food shortages currently affecting Scotland. (S6F-01851)

Former chief executive of Sainsbury’s Justin King has said:

“I hate to say it ... but it’s a sector that has been hurt horribly by Brexit”.

Liz Webster, chair of Save British Farming, said:

“The reason we have food shortages in Britain—and they don’t have food shortages in Spain or anywhere else in the EU—is because of Brexit”.

The views from industry are clear. The shortage of basic nutritional necessities is attributable to a deliberate act of Tory policy. Does the First Minister share my utter dismay that the Tories refuse to acknowledge and apologise for the fundamental harms they have visited on people?

I welcome the update from the cabinet secretary. Just this week, new statistics have shown that attainment numbers for positive destinations are at a record high, with more than 95 per cent of school leavers in education, employment or further training three months after leaving school. Although that is testament to the hard work of our teachers and young people, does the cabinet secretary agree that the figures also prove that this Government is delivering in education?

Thank you, convener.

I am grateful to Sandra Docherty, the petitioner, for bringing the petition to the committee. She has done an exceptional amount of work to get it this far. I think that she has also widened the conversation around Makaton. The petition has made many people, specifically elected representatives, aware of the issue.

My only concern with regard to the petition is that I feel that its scope is so narrow that it could limit the potential for what the committee could do with regard to Makaton. I would like us to do a broader piece of work, and I am not quite sure that we can do that with the petition.

I congratulate Joe FitzPatrick on securing the debate.

With this year’s theme of LGBT+ history month being “Behind the Lens”, I begin by paying tribute to the writers, actors, directors, producers, composers, choreographers, costume designers and so many others who have played a part in telling the stories and histories of LGBT+ people through the media of film and television. I particularly want to thank the screen journalists who have taken the time and care to learn the too-often tragic stories of our diverse community—in particular, those who have given trans people the space to tell their own stories in their own words.

Cinema and television play crucial roles in telling our stories. On-screen representation matters and has the power to change our communities for good or to do serious damage. How our stories are told can change how we feel about ourselves by altering what we feel capable of being and becoming. Positive representation has the power to create positive change, but the opposite can lead to tragedy.

I do not think that we need to be reminded of how much the media have capitalised on fear of trans people in recent months, so I want to take a moment to remember Brianna Ghey, who was a 16-year-old transgender girl, whom my colleagues have also mentioned and whose name we cannot say enough. Her brutal killing is being investigated as a possible hate crime. Her parents described her as

“a larger-than-life character who would leave a lasting impression on all that met her.”

The deadnaming and misgendering of Brianna in the wake of her death were unacceptable and must have caused unnecessary anguish to all those who knew and loved her. I hope that the society that we hope to build will respect the dignity of all, especially within the walls of Parliament, where we should set an example.

Since devolution, Scotland has been building, on the world stage, its reputation for holding liberal values and ensuring human rights. Our Scottish Government has delivered the most progressive and extensive equal marriage legislation, and has opened up adoption and in vitro fertilisation to same-sex couples and reformed blood-donation rules. Scotland was the first country in the UK to approve provision of pre-exposure prophylaxis on the national health service and to deliver a pardon for historical homosexual offences. The First Minister gave a categorical unequivocal and whole-hearted apology for that wrong, which had been committed by the state.

After years of scrutiny, several public consultations and an avalanche of disinformation, our Parliament voted to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004 to make the process of obtaining a gender recognition certificate simpler and less invasive. It was an historic vote that was welcomed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. I am proud of the work that we on the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee did in scrutinising the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. I am also proud that a supermajority voted for the bill at its final stage.

Scotland continues to forge a distinct identity of unapologetic progressiveness on the world stage. I believe that it is for that reason that Westminster has used a section 35 order to, once again, deny democracy and stifle progress. Come what may, I promise to continue to do all that I can to defend the rights that we have won and to fight for those that we have not won.

LGBT history month provides an opportunity for us to look back and, I hope, to take some comfort in the knowledge that, just as we prevailed in relation to decriminalisation, the age of consent, section 28 and equal marriage, we will prevail again.

It is the responsibility of us all to advance our human rights. In the words of LGBT freedom fighter Marsha P Johnson,

“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.”

It makes sense, and I am really grateful for your contributions, because we need to know whether recontextualising is enough. Zainab, you made the point that you feel that statues are erected in honour of somebody and are not just a reflection of history in a moment in time. Even if we are looking back on these things, looking forward in how we give honour and show history is important so that we do not repeat mistakes. It was really interesting to hear your views on that, so thank you.