Seòmar agus comataidhean

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I very much enjoyed the minister’s response to Fergus Ewing, and also Fergus Ewing’s deadpan face as he did not receive an answer. Therefore, I ask the minister again: will the A9 and the A96 be dualled in full as planned?

In the past few days, I spoke to a nurse whose workload is now focused away from their normal duties and solely on providing flu vaccinations and Covid boosters. Although that is obviously extremely important work, as we have heard today, it takes members of staff away from other vital areas of our NHS and risks putting additional pressure on our already under-pressure nursing staff. How many existing NHS staff have been diverted to providing vaccinations and booster jags as their primary role? Given that Scotland already has a shortage of 3,400 nurses, what efforts are being made to recruit vaccinators from sources outside of existing NHS staff?

Scotland’s workforce has faced unprecedented challenges in the past 18 months. The nature of work has changed or, more accurately, change that was already taking place has been accelerated.

The effects have fallen on employer and employee alike. While businesses were shuttered, employment seemed more precarious. Some businesses stopped trading, while others limped on as their customer base collapsed under the weight of the public health emergency. Many enterprises survived; some, regrettably, were lost. Key workers had to manage and adapt to risk, ensuring that vital services could continue. The pressures placed on them have been immense and in too many cases are still on-going.

It is therefore a welcome step that we are discussing fair work and sustainability in procurement today. I hope that we can all recognise the need to drive forward positive change and to continue or even redouble our efforts, despite the impact of recent times.

We must also recognise that the nature of work is evolving and must evolve if we are to meet the challenges of tomorrow. There is an important role for this Parliament and the Scottish Government in responding to those changes by adapting, leading by example and ensuring that fairness is promoted.

Many of the worst possible outcomes of the pandemic have been averted. Thanks to the furlough scheme and other support mechanisms, our economy carried on and many jobs and livelihoods were protected. UK growth projections look increasingly solid and the threat of huge rises in unemployment has been averted. We should all welcome that legacy.

Moves have gone further. Despite challenges, the UK Government last year surpassed the SNP’s ambition of an £8.70 per hour minimum wage by 2020. Next spring, as announced by the chancellor in last week’s budget, the national living wage will rise to meet the Living Wage Foundation’s recommendation of £9.50 an hour.

Good, fair work involves fair pay but goes beyond that too. In relation to procurement, there is an opportunity to expand the promotion of skills and retraining, an aspiration that the Scottish Government has said is a priority. Part of that, as colleagues have observed, is about including support for apprenticeships, but it should also recognise the parallel needs for reskilling and upskilling, building bases of expertise and providing the support for transition. The Procurement Reform (Scotland) Act 2014 also recognised the merits of sustainability. This week in particular, environmental sustainability should be at the forefront of our minds.

We should also recognise the need for an inclusive approach in pursuing those aspirations. It would be easy to use procurement to drive those ambitions forward, but in a way that was exclusionary and created a narrow door through which only the few could enter. Avoiding that outcome was another principle of the 2014 act and is one that we should take seriously in turning principle into action. It is no great stretch to see how an outcome that limits potential sources of procurement limits the utility of the measures that we are discussing. It would also, just as importantly, strike at the very fundamentals of Government procurement, which involve finding value for the money that the public has entrusted us to spend.

Scotland has an incredible diversity of innovative and inventive SMEs that are trailblazers in new areas and drive competition in others. That is particularly true in regions such as mine, the Highlands and Islands, where smaller enterprises are the life-blood of our economy, and where Government procurement can make a great deal of difference. We know that there are barriers of access for smaller businesses already, as other members have pointed out, but we must be in the business of lowering rather than raising those walls.

There have been a range of useful contributions from around the chamber today. My colleague Tess White spoke of this as a time to take stock and to ask ourselves the sometimes difficult questions about what we as a state and a society can do to improve. Sustainability is an often-used term but is one that encompasses a great deal, and it depends both on clarity of purpose and an understanding of the effects of our interventions.

Tess White highlighted the importance of suppliers to an organisation’s overall social and environmental footprint, as well as emphasising the importance of education and innovation. She also spoke about the importance of engagement. We know all too well the consequences of a failure to engage, as can be seen in this Government’s anti-business approach and the problems that that has created. Attempts at making positive change must be on the basis of working with employers and other organisations, not against them.

Liz Smith spoke about the issues that have been raised by committees of this Parliament, as well as the Auditor General, in relation to the transparency of procurement. Among other things, she mentioned the current issues that are faced at Ferguson Marine on the Clyde, which were brought up in detail in my members’ business debate on ferries just last week. Although we recognise the issues around commercial sensitivity, it is clear that there remains a lack of openness on important and high-value procurement and support for businesses from the Scottish Government. As Liz Smith pointed out, openness in that regard is a vital part of good governance and effective management.

Liz Smith also touched on the issue of support for small businesses, a point that was also raised by Willie Rennie and my colleague Stephen Kerr, who highlighted some of the challenges that are faced by small businesses and operations in accessing public procurement.

The member is trying to deflect the point. How many businesses in his Moray constituency have commented to him about the difficulties that they have had in accessing Scottish Government support and the confusion, lack of clarity and other problems that they face?

I clarify that I was asking whether the member’s Labour colleagues support a £15 national living wage across the board and how that would be paid for.

I am sorry if my letting the member intervene surprised him. He tried to intervene on me, so I am surprised by his reaction.

The UK Government has supported business and, if the member goes out into communities, he will hear businesses saying how important that UK Government support has been. He will also hear them say how difficult it has been to access some of the Scottish Government support, how there has been a lack of clarity and delays in getting that support through and how there have been far too many different pots of money, which has made everything much harder. I am sure that the member will have heard that message himself.

There is an important role for this Parliament in promoting sustainability and positive employment practices in a changing world, but it must be an approach that is collaborative and responsive to change. Without those key requirements, the influence that the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government has will be greatly diminished.

In furthering the principles of sustainable recruitment, we should look to the future and to the coming needs of wider society and consider whether, in the round, public authorities in Scotland are making a positive contribution.

The continued issue of late payment, which is something that should be simple to correct in today’s world, remains one such challenge, but it is one that can make the difference between a business succeeding or failing.

I give way to Mr Fairlie.

Paul Sweeney is part of the small and dwindling group of actual socialists left in the Labour Party. A number of people in his party support a £15-an-hour national living wage. Is he one of them? If so, how would he pay for that?

I apologise for being unable to attend in person. I thank all members who supported my motion and made the debate possible. I also thank all the crews, engineers, mechanics, catering and shoreside staff, and others, who have worked so hard during the past few years, often in extremely difficult circumstances, to keep ferry services running where they have been able to, despite growing challenges.

I am an islander. My home is one of 90 inhabited islands in Scotland, each with its own rich cultural heritage. Those communities are valued parts of our nation. They remind us of Scotland’s internal diversity: we are a place of many traditions. They are also living communities of people who depend on transport links, just as anyone on the mainland would, to find sustainable work, reach a hospital appointment or visit friends and family. We also depend on those links to bring people, services and supplies to our islands. No island is fully self-sufficient or exists in isolation.

Many characteristics of the islands are shared by remote mainland communities such as Knoydart, dubbed Britain’s last wilderness, or the Kintyre peninsula, divided in its own way by the sea. The importance of our transport links to one another, to the rest of Scotland and the United Kingdom, and to the wider world cannot be overstated. They are our lifelines.

That communities depend on our ferries also reminds us of our fragility. For much of our history, in common with other parts of remote and rural Scotland, the rural Highlands and Islands have faced the threat of depopulation. Some have not survived. On islands such as St Kilda and Stroma, we can see the echoes of societies that have been lost and the abrupt end of human stories that had endured for centuries, often against the odds.

I say that as a reminder of how important it is to get the operation of our lifeline links right and because, regrettably, things are going very wrong. We see a ferry crisis that has been unprecedented in its impact rumbling on with little sign of abating. Communities have been cut off at a time when economic recovery is most needed after the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic.

If Glasgow or Edinburgh faced such challenges, that would be considered a national emergency or even a national scandal. However, even at the height of the crisis in the summer, our calls for a statement from the Scottish Government were rejected because the transport minister was on holiday. The minister is entitled to a holiday, but surely his boss, the cabinet secretary, could have stepped in.

Such a dismissive response from the Scottish Government suggests that Edinburgh was not taking the growing issues seriously. That was disappointing, given that, in the previous parliamentary session, there were some signs that the Scottish Government was starting—albeit belatedly—to recognise the unique challenges that our islands face, through partial support for interisland ferries in Orkney and Shetland, albeit with annual fights for funding, and the extension of road equivalent tariff, although, as far as Orkney is concerned, the Scottish Government is now three years overdue on meeting its pledge. The Islands (Scotland) Act 2018 also promised new respect for island communities, although I would argue that many islanders feel that that respect is nothing more than rhetoric.

Not enough work has been done to address the backdrop of ageing infrastructure. Whether in our local interisland ferries or the CalMac Ferries fleet, vessels that are long past their operational lifespans are creaking under that load. The consequences are there for all to see.

Procurement must be a major part of any forward-looking strategy but, sadly, that is where the Scottish Government’s failings have been most visible. Since the Rural Economy and Connectivity Committee concluded its damning report on the problems at Ferguson Marine, things have gone from bad to worse on the banks of the Clyde. On 30 September, Ferguson’s turnaround director warned the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee of further potential problems and an “unquantifiable risk” that components in hulls 801 and 802 had further deteriorated. The situation has become a farce and I suspect that other members will focus their time on that.

What is lacking generally is a unified strategic approach to Scotland’s ferries that dares to examine, spell out and cost how the long-term sustainability of those vital services will be guaranteed. That requires an acceptance that the current position is expressly unsustainable. Earlier this year, The Times noted that

“at the present rate of construction ... it would take more than 85 years to replace the entire CalMac fleet.”

I am sure that all of us—even the minister—would agree that our communities simply cannot wait that long.

My concern is that the problems that we see now, which are largely on the west coast, are a vision of the future for other island communities as the ferries that serve them continue to be pushed to operate well beyond their projected working life. When we hear that the ferry industry advisory group has not met since October 2019, it is understandable that there is real concern.

The Scottish National Party Scottish Government has a manifesto pledge to introduce an islands connectivity plan. That is welcome but, so far, the details have been scant. An integrated approach is positive, but it must be one that considers ferries in the round and addresses the weaknesses of the ferries plan for 2012 to 2022.

From a northern isles perspective, the continuing questions of fair funding and RET for Orkney and Shetland must be resolved. We must also address the importance of ferries for the carrying of freight. For many farmers and fishermen, ferry links are what brings their produce to market and makes so many businesses viable. There should be a clear role for, and a supportive approach towards, those independent operators that are also an essential part of our ferries fleet.

A great deal of anger is being felt in communities at the extent of the crisis. That anger is justified by the real and present failure in Scotland’s approach to ferry connectivity, and the many promises that have been made as easily as they have been broken.

Today, I have tried to be constructive and to outline what is needed for change to happen and the questions that will have to be tackled. However, I urge the Scottish Government not to think for one minute that the present situation has escaped the notice of our constituents. They have paid a heavy price in business, opportunities and jobs. They see the threat of closures and depopulation looming and will not be bought off with easy promises of help down the line.

What needs to happen, and what we can expect, is for the Scottish Government to take ownership of the crisis by admitting that there is a crisis, and one that risks getting worse, and to set out to Parliament and to people in the communities that our ferry network serves, how their links will be sustained, not for tomorrow or the next financial year, but for the long term.

Will the member give way?