Seòmar agus comataidhean

Are members content to take on board Maggie Chapman’s suggestion and ask for more detail?

Members indicated agreement.

Thank you. We will write to the Scottish Government and we will take on board Maggie Chapman’s suggestion.

That concludes our business in public. We will move into private session to discuss the remaining items on our agenda. Thank you.

This week marks carers week. This afternoon, I will host a round table in Parliament to discuss the Family Fund’s new report “The Cost of Caring 2025” and the urgent challenges that it highlights for families who are raising disabled and seriously ill children. With that in mind, what action is the First Minister’s Government taking to better support carers across Scotland?

A lot has been said about immigration in recent days, particularly from podiums in Downing Street, but very little has been said from places where decisions about immigration land the hardest, such as places in my Banffshire and Buchan Coast constituency. There, immigration is not just an abstract debate; it is a practical necessity. Immigration is necessary to ensure that there are enough workers to staff our care homes, to keep seafood processing lines running and to support our public services and the local economy. We are talking about real jobs, real communities and real people, and what the UK Government is proposing will make their lives and livelihoods much harder.

The UK Government’s immigration white paper is not about supporting growth or meeting need, and it is certainly not about fairness. It is a political manoeuvre, dressed up as policy, that is aimed at placating Reform UK. It is not about helping Scotland, and it is certainly not about helping rural Scotland. It proposes raising visa thresholds to degree level, extending English language requirements to dependents, increasing the qualifying period for settlement from five years to 10 and—crucially for us—closing the overseas care worker route. In areas such as mine, that change alone could devastate care provision. Services are already stretched, vacancy rates in social care are at their highest, and now a key recruitment route is to be cut off. There is no plan to replace it—all that we have had are vague promises of training and home-grown staff. We have heard that before.

It is not only care that will be affected. Our essential seafood industry, which feeds the country and exports globally, is again being treated as expendable. Processing facilities in my constituency rely heavily on migrant workers. They are already dealing with the legacy of Brexit, from lost labour to increased bureaucracy, and we are now being told that the very workforce that has kept them going is no longer welcome. Those are not hypothetical concerns; they are genuine concerns that have been expressed directly to me in conversations that I have had with employers.

We are constantly told that migration should be controlled, but what is being proposed is not control; it is restriction for the sake of restriction. It ignores Scotland’s demographic reality. Our working-age population is shrinking, our birth rate is falling and our population is ageing. National Records of Scotland and the Fraser of Allander Institute have both been crystal clear in saying that inward migration is essential if we are to sustain our economy and our public services.

The argument that we need to motivate more people into work falls flat when the evidence—especially in my constituency—shows that the working-age population numbers are simply not there. We need a migration system that reflects Scotland’s needs, not Westminster’s polling priorities and a culture war that sows division. We must reject hateful messaging and work together to ensure peace in our communities.

That is why I support the Scottish National Party Government’s motion, because it not only rejects the damage that the white paper would cause but recognises the positive, vital contribution that migrants already make to our communities, our services and our economy. Their contribution deserves recognising, not scapegoating. I underline the need for urgent and meaningful engagement between the UK and Scottish Governments. We cannot afford to be sidelined. If the proposed rules go ahead without adaptation, it will be Scotland’s businesses, care providers and families who will pay the price.

I plead that we look to the future, including that of our young people, many of whom want the freedom to work, study and travel across Europe. A new youth mobility scheme must be broad, inclusive and shaped by young people themselves. They have lost so much to Brexit, and it is time to give them something back. Scotland’s needs are distinct, and our values are even clearer. Rather than lying down to UK populism, we must use our voice in the immigration debate to stand up for Scotland.

This week, Labour chancellor Rachel Reeves indicated that, although some more pensioners could receive winter fuel payments this winter as a result of the United Kingdom Government’s U-turn, not all will. Although Labour is determined to take away winter fuel payments from pensioners, can the First Minister provide an update on the Scottish National Party Government’s work to reinstate a universal winter fuel payment to all pensioners in Scotland?

Tomorrow will mark the passage of exactly 187 years since a boy was born in a coastal town in the north-east of Scotland—Fraserburgh, which is fondly known as the Broch. On 6 June 1838, that boy, who was the son of the town’s harbour master, was born on Commerce Street. His name was Thomas Blake Glover.

I doubt that anyone at that time could have imagined just how far that Fraserburgh boy would go—that, one day, he would be honoured by the Emperor of Japan, his work would transform entire industries and economies, and his legacy would still live on today, not just in history books but in the shared culture, education and innovation that continue to link Scotland and Japan.

I extend a warm welcome to the distinguished guests who join us in the gallery: the consul general of Japan and the cultural consul to the consulate-general of Japan in Edinburgh. It has been an honour to welcome our guests to the Parliament and to nurture the international friendships that mean so much to Scotland. Just last week, I had the pleasure of meeting the consul general at a meeting of the cross-party group on Japan, where I also met His Excellency the Japanese ambassador to the United Kingdom. It has been a week of making Scottish-Japanese connections.

The scale of Glover’s global impact is truly extraordinary. He supported five young Japanese students to travel to Britain to study. Known as the Choshu five, they went on to help to build modern Japan, and included one who became a Prime Minister who shaped the country’s constitution, and others who made advancements in railway systems, modern engineering and infrastructure, and reform of currency and finance. One made his mark on the education system in several ways, including introducing education for deaf people.

That connection brings this story very close to home for me. As many members will know, my father is deaf, but they might not know that he is also a deaf historian. About this time last year, he introduced me to Dr Manako Yabe, a deaf Japanese academic and postdoctoral research associate at Heriot-Watt University, whose work focuses on deaf studies and communications technology. I am delighted to welcome Dr Yabe to the gallery today. My father and Dr Yabe had connected at a deaf history event in Edinburgh and began exploring historical links between Scotland and Japan. During those conversations they discovered that Thomas Blake Glover had supported the very group of scholars who helped to introduce deaf education in Japan.

Knowing the significance of Fraserburgh to me, my father invited me to meet him and Dr Yabe in the town, to visit the Glover garden on Commerce Street, which is the very site of Glover’s birthplace. The garden has been lovingly created and is maintained by the owner, Michael Mennie, who warmly welcomed us. He also shared with us stories of his own visit to the Glover garden in Nagasaki, where Glover’s former home is now preserved and visited by millions. In Japan, Glover is remembered, respected and celebrated.

After that visit, and our conversations with Michael, I thought, “Why not do something here, in Fraserburgh?” I began speaking to local community leaders and, before long, a festival committee was formed as a branch of the Rotary Club of Fraserburgh. The committee consists of passionate volunteers who have given their time, energy and hearts to creating something truly special for the town that they love, and in an extraordinarily short space of time. Although she is far too modest to take credit herself, I want to recognise Councillor Ann Bell, who, as chair of the committee, has played a central role in co-ordinating the work of all who have been involved.

This Sunday, 8 June, we will come together for the inaugural Thomas Blake Glover festival. The festival is not just about looking back but about bringing people together to celebrate Fraserburgh’s connections with the wider world and everything that we have to be proud of. There is so much talent and creativity in the town. The festival’s afternoon programme will feature performances by incredible local talent.

Sunday will also be a day to celebrate our international friendships. We will be joined by several distinguished guests, including the consul general; the Mitsubishi Corporation’s deputy chief regional officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa; Ronnie Watt OBE, who is a recipient of the order of the rising sun; and Lady Saltoun. I fear listing every person and group in case I inadvertently leave someone out, but I note that the full programme and list of distinguished guests will be available online for those who wish to follow the celebrations.

On the day, we will plant a cherry blossom tree in Glover’s memory, right there on the site of his birth. It will be a living symbol of connection and growth, with roots in the Broch, just like Glover, but looking upwards to the rising sun, and blossoming each year on the lead-up to his birthday, so reminding us of our connections with Japan. That connection continues in ways that feel almost poetic. Anyone who stands at Fraserburgh harbour—where Glover’s father once worked as harbour master—and looks out to sea will see wind turbines that form part of the Ocean Winds Moray east offshore wind project. Those turbines have links with Mitsubishi—the very company that Glover helped bring into being.

Fraserburgh is a town where people simply get on with it, and they work very hard. It is a place with global reach and a thriving fishing industry. The people there continually recognise and act on their potential. There are plans to expand the harbour, a master plan for future growth, and a strong and growing campaign to bring back rail to connect Fraserburgh to Aberdeen.

I believe that those are the kinds of forward-looking projects that would have resonated with Glover. He introduced Japan’s first steam locomotive, he modernised shipbuilding and he supported education and reform. He was a connector of people and ideas and a true visionary. I believe that he would be proud of what is happening in Fraserburgh, not just because we are remembering him, but because we are building something worthy of the legacy that he left behind. It is about making sure that a boy who was born on Commerce Street 187 years ago is not just remembered but celebrated, and that, through him, we remember what Fraserburgh has contributed to the world and what it can still contribute.

I thank everyone who has helped to make this happen, including the festival committee, the Rotary Club of Fraserburgh, Michael Mennie, Councillor Ann Bell, Dr Manako Yabe and, of course, my father, who introduced me to the legacy of Thomas Blake Glover—a wee boy from the Broch.

Thank you. That is helpful. We will certainly take note of that.

I again thank everyone for their evidence today. We will now have a brief suspension to allow for a changeover of witnesses.

Thank you.

Thank you. As you say that, I am aware that if there was a classroom assistant who could use BSL to talk to a deaf child in a mainstream school, that child would still only be talking to an adult in the classroom. What difference would it make to a deaf child if other pupils in the class—their peers—could communicate with them in BSL?

Thank you for that.

Hannah, what do you see as the positives and the challenges of the BSL legislation?