Chamber and committees

On a point of order, Presiding Officer.

I note that, not for the first time, we have only six Conservative members in the chamber. In other words, 80 per cent of Conservative members are not present at decision time. Do you share my dismay that that shows disrespect for Parliament?

To be subject to flooding, at either your home or business, is horrible and heartbreaking. The Borders, in past times dependent on the rivers and waterways to power the mills, has seen many parts of its communities flooded. I recall several incidents in my early days here when I visited homes in Hawick, Selkirk and Stow and businesses in Gala where all people’s worldly goods were heaped outside in a sodden pile, the floors and cupboards of homes were warped by the floodwater and stock was damaged beyond recovery. What images on the news cannot tell you about is the stench that quickly follows the receding waters and, in summer, the invasions of flies.

The Borders learned the hard way how to deal with that, how to co-ordinate responses and what preventative measures could be taken, including simple measures such as accessing sandbags as well as electronic monitoring of waterways through sensors, particularly upstream, linking the data directly to fire and rescue as an early warning, and, more fundamentally, dealing with water flow upstream.

Today of course, the fall-out that we reap from global warming adds pressures to communities living by waterways in particular, where more are vulnerable as flood risk areas spread. In an area whose economy was, historically, founded on the wool and weaving mills where machines turned through the power of the river, the risk from rivers in spate remains, despite the fact that many of the mills have long gone.

However, I am impressed with the systems that Scottish Borders Council has put in place, supplemented with Scottish Government funding for flood prevention schemes. Therefore, I consider that, in the Borders, where people have developed skills and responses over decades, learning from bitter experience and with excellent inter-agency emergency communication, there is no need for an additional bureaucratic layer. The council already has a functioning multi-agency task force. Category 1 responders in the Borders include the council, the police, the fire service, the Scottish Ambulance Service, health boards and integration joint boards.

There are several phases to an emergency. There is prevention—I will speak about that later—and preparation with pre-warning. Much has improved these days, with local detail forecasts through the Met Office, which enable preparations such as providing places where people can access sandbags, opening rest centres or simply putting staff on standby in readiness to respond.

There is also recovery. Floodwaters subside. Help and assistance have to be provided to communities to get people back into their homes and businesses, clear up debris and signpost residents to funding and other support. Care for people is key in the event that floods manage to invade private and commercial properties. In preparation for that, emergency accommodation must be on standby. People must be prepared to provide food, water and other necessities.

There is transport. We need to utilise the voluntary sector, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, and to provide financial and other assistance.

Much of that is already in place in the Scottish Borders, where we have learned from bitter experience over the decades. Several flood protection projects have been completed or are planned for towns across the Borders. They include, in my constituency, the Galashiels flood prevention scheme, which was completed in 2014. Next on the list is Peebles. Innerleithen, Broughton and Earlston are currently having flood studies undertaken in order to gain an understanding of the flood mechanisms and appraise mitigation options.

Upstream from Peebles, as Willie Rennie mentioned, the Eddleston Water project, which I have visited several times, is already functioning. The Eddleston Water, which is a tributary of the Tweed, has been reshaped to make its route wind more, with the planting of suitable vegetation at the water’s edge, all to slow the water flow downstream into Peebles and to protect, in particular, the vulnerable Tweed Green, which is right at the banks of the Tweed.

To date, much has been successful. I hope not to tempt the rain gods but, on Bank Street in Galashiels, where shops and businesses were once flooded when the tributaries upstream burst their banks and flooded down the brae past the volunteer hall, such flooding has been prevented through interventions and early warning alerts to agencies to unblock any blockages and, therefore, divert a build-up of water. Low-lying parts of Stow used to be flooded by Gala water, but its course and depth have also been altered and, so far, all that has flooded is the park, which protects all properties and businesses round about.

Those are just some examples of places where I have visited flooded properties in the past and seen remedies that work. There has been much progress with local government taking the lead, supported by the Scottish Government and SEPA. With funding and other national mechanisms for emergencies, such as COBRA and the Scottish resilience room, I do not see a need for more bureaucracy. What works in the Scottish Borders could work elsewhere.

Thank you, Presiding Officer—I will be brief. I invite the minister to meet, as I have, with the Dementia Friendly Tweeddale group to learn of its work in supporting carers and those with dementia to continue to enjoy life and their activities after diagnosis, and even add more.

Under the Scottish Government’s vaccination programme, I recently had the Covid and the flu vaccines at a very busy, efficient and, indeed, friendly vaccine centre. However, that is anecdotal. Will the First Minister please provide an update on vaccination take-up?

I think that such an approach would be cost effective.

I note that the cabinet secretary’s statement referred to an increase in weather-related injuries from falls and accidents. I have read the winter plan, but the humble word “pavements” does not appear there. That is not a frivolous observation, because avoidable falls on icy pavements are obvious contributors to winter pressures at all levels of our health and social care service. In the discussions with COSLA, has any progress been made on, for example, providing self-service sand and salt bins by street—say, on request? If not, could that be progressed? It might sound like a silly observation, but there is nothing silly about it. Many people fall on icy pavements.

I add my concerns to those of my colleague Colin Beattie, as I represent Midlothian South, which has substantial population growth in Gorebridge, Penicuik and Newtongrange. I welcome the minister’s answer and I appreciate that the issue involves agreement with COSLA, but the distribution model needs to be revisited.

It is a privilege to speak in this debate, as I have in previous similar debates.

I have direct experience of members of the armed forces and their families through my engagement with Glencorse barracks, which is in my constituency. Just this week, I was back there for a visit with other MSPs, including Mr Sweeney. At one point, the barracks was threatened with closure by the MOD, but it has now been reprieved. Penicuikians very much support the barracks, which is integral to the community. The children of its personnel all attend local schools. The purpose of this week’s visit was generally to be briefed about the Army’s diverse and challenging role these days and its recruitment processes, but it also involved discussing—as it should—the pressures on personnel after returning home from a tour, the pressures on partners and families and the pressures after discharge.

I will give some context about the specific pressures on the armed forces. I spoke to one serving officer who began his service as a teenager in Northern Ireland and then had tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan.

When personnel return to a home where their partner has been running the household single-handedly for months, that brings challenges for both of them, which are compounded if there are young children who are unfamiliar with their returning parent, who perhaps bears the imprint of terrible sights and sounds, which have to be sanitised in our news bulletins. Indeed, I learned that there is a two-week decompression process, so that people who return from conflict, despite their desperation to go straight home, spend time adjusting before going back to domesticity.

That is even more relevant when people leave the structure of life in the forces for good. Yes—they are coming out with skills, and they have been part of a team and might have been a team leader. Some people might have skills, such as information technology and trades, that are immediately transferable to civvy life, but other people might need retraining. In addition, they have to organise basic aspects of everyday life, such as a GP and a home, that the armed forces have done for them over the years. As I have referenced, if they are in a relationship, they have to rebalance responsibilities with their partner. They are coming home every day or might be working from home. That must put pressures on relationships. They have to get acclimatised to general everyday civvy life. They must organise themselves when, as I have said previously, days and years were organised for them. They are also separated from formerly close-knit colleagues.

It is estimated there are more than 200,000 veterans in Scotland, and it is understood that a high percentage of them live in rural areas where, historically, families over generations joined various long-gone regiments, such as the King’s Own Scottish Borderers in the Borders.

Over the decades, the MOD has come a long way in recognising and acting on not just its duties as an employer but its fiduciary duty that extends—in my book—beyond those service years. This Parliament, too, has stepped in. We are aware that, although veterans are assets to our society, many require support, and a small proportion of them find the transition to civilian life more challenging. They are due the right support to ensure that they, too, are able to adapt, realise their potential and live full and successful lives in the community after service.

A small proportion of veterans find the transition too tough. According to Scottish Prison Service figures, in July this year, in Scottish jails, there were around 243 prisoners who had served in the armed forces. However, similar figures have never been collated for those who have been given sentences such as a community payback order, supervision or tagging. People with non-custodial sentences do not get the support that should be—and often is—offered to those in prison. Those veterans fall between metaphorical cracks.

I ask the minister to ask the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs to pursue the recording of that information on veterans who receive a criminal but not custodial sentence—not for its own sake, although that is useful, but to provide support there, too. The armed forces charity, SSAFA, has caseworkers who work with people who are serving community sentences, and Police Scotland has veterans champions at divisional level, but they need to know who and where those veterans are.

Finally, Lothians Veterans Centre in Dalkeith is a small independent charity that supports military veterans and their families. It offers a safe, relaxed and supportive environment, where like-minded people can share experiences and gain professional and peer support in a home-from-home setting, in order to break down barriers of social exclusion and promote comradeship. I have visited its drop-in centre in the centre of Dalkeith, which has a welcoming environment and can provide instant assistance, support and advice in relation to a wide range of services, including health and wellbeing, housing, employment, benefits, pensions, further education and training, access to health services, welfare, comradeship and activities. Veterans can also just drop in for a cup of tea and a chat. Most members of the centre’s professional team have served in—or are, in some way, connected with—the armed forces, so they possess a wealth of experience and offer an empathetic approach to supporting veterans and their family members, in order to make their transition from military to civilian life easier. I commend Lothians Veterans Centre and direct veterans to its website and that of SSAFA.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will commission independent analysis of the impact that its interventions, including the Scottish child payment, carers allowance supplement and the baby box, have had on social justice. (S6O-02605)

The Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s annual “Poverty in Scotland” report, which was published this week, highlighted the significant impact that the increased Scottish child payment is likely to have had on child poverty levels. I thank the cabinet secretary for her answer and ask her how I can access that data, which would be useful in showing the impact that not just the Scottish child payment but all the Scottish Government’s interventions are having on child poverty.