Seòmar agus comataidhean

I draw members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests. Will the cabinet secretary accept that the £4 million homelessness prevention fund that she announced will not even cover the work that is needed in Edinburgh, never mind across the country? The Everyone Home statement was clear:

“Not enough has been done. The measures taken have been insufficient, the ambition too modest and the urgency lacking.”

In our capital city, people have to wait years to access affordable social housing. Does the cabinet secretary think that that is acceptable? We are talking about tackling homelessness and enabling people to access affordable social housing. Will the cabinet secretary acknowledge that the sector is massively underfunded?

I welcome the cabinet secretary’s reference to the importance of renewables manufacturing at the port of Leith, and the need to have a joined-up approach to delivery and to invest in skills and training. However, will she acknowledge the need to tackle the significant problem of planning delays, which the renewables sector regularly raises with us? Projects can be in planning for more than two years. That affects not just low-carbon projects; it affects all the supply chains and jobs that come with them.

I might go slightly further than that one minute and 41 seconds.

This has been a really important debate, because it has been quite a cross-party and cross-experienced debate. There have been jokes about how long people have been here. I have experienced the different dynamics of being a Cabinet member and a committee convener. We should be thinking about the role of committee conveners, because they are critical to the effectiveness of this Parliament.

People have talked about the nature of what our committees do, which is central to how this Parliament was designed. Given the number of bills that we consider, it is increasingly important that we engage with stakeholders, hold ministers to account and carry out post-legislative scrutiny.

In this parliamentary term alone, some pieces of legislation that are before us still need a huge amount of work. Some members’ bills, such as my own, have not yet gone to committees. An awful lot of work will be needed on those. We need to reflect on our approach to post-legislative scrutiny, too.

Members have made really useful comments about the importance of committees carrying out inquiries. Again, that is a really important part of their work. It should be about not just shadowing what ministers do but deciding, over the next few years, which important issues need to be discussed and which recommendations need to be made.

On committees doing cross-cutting or parallel work, a good current example is the work on Grangemouth and project willow, on which both the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee and the Economy and Fair Work Committee are taking evidence. There are various topics that cross over committees’ basic subject areas.

We could do more post-legislative scrutiny, and do it better. We could also do more joined-up, cross-government or cross-policy thinking. However, that is often difficult for committees, because they are so busy. There is a huge amount of work to do across the Parliament.

As a couple of members said, the nature of our job has changed, with regard to not only our digital capacity but that of our constituents. The ways in which we can communicate with people have greatly increased.

Overall, a huge amount has changed, and we need to reflect on how our committees could do better. Therefore, the timing of this piece of work by the SPPA Committee is really important. For me, many of the issues come down to capacity and leadership and how we can learn lessons on those aspects. Things have changed a lot over the past 25 years, so such lessons are there to be learned.

Other key aspects that members mentioned included committee structure, having elected conveners, committee size and committee responsibilities. We must ask whether we should have short-term committees or ones that are set up to deal with a particular piece of legislation. That could happen if, for example, a committee that should be dealing with a bill was simply too busy. We have lots of challenges ahead of us as we move into year 5 of this parliamentary session.

I turn to members’ views on committee size. There were good comments in favour of there being a role for smaller committees. One point that occurred to me is that we need not have that as a requirement for all committees. We have a lot more Government ministers than we have ever had, but some members of the Parliament are not on committees at all and others are substitutes rather than full-time members. That raises questions about capacity, which we should consider.

I strongly support the points that have been made about ensuring that there is a good gender balance on committees. I say that as a former planner. We need to have women involved in every policy area of life. It is not only committee members who will deliver that; important work is done by groups such as the women’s budget group. We need a balanced Parliament in terms of both representation of women and supporting other forms of diversity. Richard Leonard commented on diversity in committee membership, and others spoke about both urban and rural sectors being represented. Our approach should extend to having members from different professional backgrounds as well. We should draw on all members’ experience.

A lot of good comments were made about the need for committee conveners to be elected. I think that the time has come for that.

I have been a member of committees that were critical of the Government; I have also been a Government minister who received massive criticism from a committee.

I thank the cabinet secretary for advance notice of her statement.

Given the concerns about the need to address the climate and nature crisis, will she commit to discussing with Falkirk Council solutions to deliver effective environmental mitigation and compensatory measures to address the potential impact of the current design, which objectors have raised concerns about?

Will the cabinet secretary clarify whether the objections that Forth Ports submitted have now been addressed, given the importance to Scotland’s economy of access issues and the development of Grangemouth? What additional communications will take place to address residents’ concerns?

Will the cabinet secretary clarify why the council will have to justify flood management measures, when we know that rising sea levels and extreme weather events will increase the need for effective flood management, and that five flood warnings have already been issued in recent years in the area? Can she put on the record how many homes and businesses would be put at risk if costs and delays continue to spiral out of control?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Although I welcome the opportunity to hear from the Acting Cabinet Secretary for Net Zero and Energy on the Scottish Government’s plans to update its climate change plan, should we not have had the opportunity to hear from the Scottish Government after it had properly considered the United Kingdom Climate Change Committee’s Scotland carbon budget advice report, which I understand is due to be released tomorrow? Why did the Scottish Government not change the timing of the statement, not least because this has happened before?

I thank the cabinet secretary for providing advance notice of her statement.

I agree that the climate emergency is now having a negative impact on communities, so when are we going to see action across Scotland to reduce our damaging climate emissions? None of this is new, and the Scottish Government has been rolling back on commitments and continually missing targets. How, therefore, can our constituents have any confidence that the progress that they need will be delivered?

Will the cabinet secretary acknowledge that the climate change plan needs to focus on using the Parliament’s powers to the max, and publish a working draft now? Can she tell us what the Government is doing to get the 17 indicators that are off track back on track and to make people’s existing homes warmer and energy efficient?

Given that the Government has dumped its car reduction target, what is it doing to ensure that people have access to the buses that they urgently need across our urban and rural communities?

Supporting the most vulnerable people in our society at the early stage of their lives is vital if we are going to improve the wellbeing and living standards of people across Scotland, so I thank Michael Marra for bringing the debate to the chamber.

Unfortunately, children with additional support needs are paying the price for a lack of funding by the Scottish National Party Government. Our councils have faced a decade of underfunding, which means that there is massive pressure on education and on local support services in the third sector. Parents have raised the issue with me directly, and I heard from them at an Inspiring Scotland event about the pressures that local charities, our services and parents face.

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child says that children with ASN, as well as their carers, have the right to special care and support during the child’s growth and development. As Michael Marra highlighted, the need for support does not stop once the school year is finished—if anything, children with ASN and their families or carers require more, not less, support outside term times. However, they suffer from a significant lack of consistent, accessible and affordable summer activities for children with ASN.

I thank the Edinburgh REPAIR—robust engagement with parents for ASN and inclusion reform—network for its excellent briefing. The City of Edinburgh Council organises the holiday hubs scheme, which is fantastic, but we do not have that support at the scale at which it is needed. Last year, only 260 of the 460 applicants were able to get places, and they received at most 16 days, from 9 to 3, of holiday hub care. That means that parents are struggling to balance childcare responsibilities with work obligations. There are massive pressures in that regard, and—as Michael Marra commented—the need for more information and support is key.

Studies have shown that children with ASN mostly just want to feel included, but the summer holidays bring isolation, boredom and social exclusion. The lack of support means that those young people and their working parents are going to struggle to get the opportunities that they need, and working parents are struggling to work around their jobs to care for their kids.

Carers of children with ASN often experience burnout and isolation as a result of those increased pressures. A 2020 report by Shared Care Scotland, “‘Holidays or Isolation?’ Research into holiday activity provision for disabled children and young people in Scotland”, noted that

“96% of respondents said that the summer holidays were when they needed most support.”

As Jeremy Balfour said, we need action, not warm words. The adult carer support plan was introduced under the Carers (Scotland) Act 2016, which states that local authorities “must provide support to” unpaid carers. However, the “State of Caring in Scotland 2024” research

“found that just 20% of unpaid carers said they had received an ACSP in the last 12 months.”

We need action now, and the lack of funding is a key reason why parents and their children are not getting the support that they need. Michael Marra’s point about having clarity on the additional funding that has been mentioned is absolutely critical. I want to know what that means for the councils in my region, because the holidays are weeks away and parents and their children need support now. We need increased investment, training and support for our carers, recognising and amplifying the vital role that they play in safeguarding Scotland’s public health, keeping our economy going and, crucially, giving our young people the support that they need now so that they can achieve their potential. Everybody should be signed up to that, and the Government needs to give that support now.

I start by drawing members’ attention to my entry in the register of members’ interests.

The SNP has now been in power for 18 years, and my constituents are being failed every day, whether that is failures in the NHS or the deepening housing emergency in Edinburgh. It is unacceptable that the First Minister was in complete denial about the housing emergency when we have 10,000 children who are homeless, as Mark Griffin pointed out.

We are also seeing a lack of action on the climate emergency. We need more investment to support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to tackle forest fires, and we need to support people to make their homes energy efficient and affordable. There is a lack of support for solar panels, there has not been action to fix the incredibly complicated process to enable people to get new heating options and there is a lack of action on affordable heat networks. Those failures are bad for people’s health and wellbeing. Those repeated failures to tackle the climate emergency mean that we are missing out on the thousands of green jobs that could be created right across our communities.

We have particular problems in the Lothians. Jackie Baillie made a powerful speech about the Scottish Government’s failures in the NHS. The Lothians will have 84 per cent of Scotland’s population growth over the next five years but NHS Lothian and the councils are underfunded. The integration joint board cuts that are being made now mean that essential services that keep people healthy are under threat. I raised that issue during oral questions last week and I got a disappointing answer from the minister. Our councils provided core funding for third sector groups, but really important services are now under threat, with services being reduced by £100 million in value in the past three years, partly through underfunding and partly because of unfunded increases in demand. Those services are not nice to have; they are essential in keeping people healthy.

Yesterday, I visited the Scottish Action for Mental Health Redhall walled garden, a therapeutic horticultural project for people who are struggling with mental health problems. It is now at risk of closure because there are plans to cancel the contract due to cuts in Government funding. That leaves highly vulnerable constituents with nowhere to turn, some of whom have been on waiting lists for referrals for well over a year. That will cost us all, because, if people’s mental health deteriorates, they will not be able to work. I call on the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to acknowledge those challenges and to commit to working with NHS Lothian and the City of Edinburgh Council so that those essential services, which people rely on, are not lost.

We are not seeing the approach of investing in prevention that was highlighted by the Christie commission, and we are not getting the joined-up thinking that our constituents urgently need and deserve. That is really what motivates my member’s bill—the Wellbeing and Sustainable Development (Scotland) Bill. The issue is about more than public health; it is also about the climate emergency. The failure to act has left Scotland repeatedly missing our climate targets. Disruption to plans in relation to heat in buildings has affected supply chains and caused a lack of confidence among those who could be recruiting, expanding and investing in infrastructure to deliver the jobs right across Scotland that our communities urgently need.

The First Minister highlighted Grangemouth, but, as we argued last week, people knew for years that action was needed to save the jobs in that refinery. We need to learn lessons from other countries and deliver the jobs that are now highlighted in the willow review.

I will, briefly, yes.

Okay.

I welcome the action on Labour’s call for the abolition of peak rail fares, but we need joined-up transport planning and delivery for trains and buses, and we are not getting it. There are new homes in places such as Winchburgh, which should have had a railway station, for example, so if we do not get that joined-up planning, we are not getting the action that people urgently need after 18 years of failure. It is simply not good enough.