Seòmar agus comataidhean

I congratulate my colleague Brian Whittle on securing the debate. I join the other speakers in congratulating everyone who took part in the Tokyo games on their success, whether they won medals or simply turned up. As a nation, we are deeply proud of what they have done. I am pleased that, next week, we will debate the Paralympic games and its success. All being well, I look forward to taking part in that debate, too.

As we heard from Mr Whittle, the Olympic games is a showcase of what sport is and can be like. For me, the real success of the Olympics is not just about those who turn up to compete or those who win medals; it is about how that affects the grass roots of our society with regard to sporting achievements. I saw the excitement that my daughters got from watching the Olympics on telly over the past few weeks. They learned about sports that they did not know about and were motivated to go back to doing the activities that they were already involved in.

We are all aware from the communities that we represent across Scotland that many activities have been closed down because of the pandemic. Before the pandemic, 313,000 people were attracted by access to sport and other such activities. However, because of the pandemic, a lot of those activities have closed down in our schools and communities. Across parties and across Government, we need to ensure that grass-roots events and sporting activities start again. We need to re-encourage people to volunteer on Saturday mornings and Wednesday evenings, and we need to consider why fewer people are coming forward to volunteer for grass-roots sport.

We need to ensure that our young folk see the physical and mental benefits of taking part in grass-roots sport. As Brian Whittle said, very few of them will become Olympians, but that is not necessarily the benchmark of success in Scotland. The benchmark is our having fitter, healthier and better children coming through the system who can achieve what they can within their limitations. I hope that that happens.

We have to ensure that we do not have a missed generation. For example, up until a few weeks ago, my daughters had not been able to swim for nearly 18 months. There will be children who have not been able to go to swimming pools, who have not gone through basic swimming lessons, and who have not been able to progress to the next level because of that. I hope that, when we are looking at our figures and the system, we will leave nobody behind and that extra time and resources will be provided for those who have missed running, football, swimming or other activities.

I congratulate everyone who took part in the Tokyo games. As I said, they made us proud as a nation, and they have given us hope that we can come through the pandemic. We look forward to Paris in three years’ time.

What assessment—[Inaudible.]—of the current likelihood of meeting the child poverty reduction targets without new and additional action?

What is the Scottish Government’s assessment of the current likelihood of meeting the child poverty reduction targets without new and additional action?

I welcome the First Minister’s statement, particularly the parts relating to the festivals and the fringe, which will start in Edinburgh in a couple of months. Will she confirm that the 1m rule will be introduced for all cultural venues, whether they are standing or seated, and that there will be no restrictions at all for any outside venues? Is she confident that theatres and cinemas will be able to have no restrictions come the autumn, so that they can plan for productions that are taking place?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I would have voted no.

I welcome the Presiding Officer and others to their new posts, and I congratulate Natalie Don on her maiden speech, which was delivered with passion. I suspect that we will disagree on a lot, but her passion was clear, so I wish her well in the next five years.

It is slightly disappointing that the minister who is responsible for social security is not even in the chamber. That might say something about the level of urgency with which the Government has treated that responsibility in recent years. With the cabinet secretary and Ben Macpherson, who is not here today, I had the privilege of being on the previous session’s Social Security Committee and of taking through the Social Security (Scotland) Bill.

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. Unfortunately, my system crashed. I would have voted no.

That is duly noted. I look forward to working with the cabinet secretary and with Mr Macpherson in the coming months and years.

In the previous session of Parliament, we saw lack of urgency from the Government in delivering the social security powers that have been devolved to this Parliament. We could spend a lot of time talking about universal credit and about the powers that we do not have, but we need to spend more time talking about the powers that we do have and the delays that have taken place.

I know that we will probably be told during the summing up that the delays are all because of the pandemic and that all the powers would have been delivered had it not been for the pandemic. That is not the case. We have heard statement after statement from cabinet secretaries and ministers who have told us that the benefits would not be delivered on time and that there was always going to be a delay. That has held back what we could and should have been able to deliver.

There is a total lack of ambition within the Scottish Government. I hope that with the new cabinet secretary we can look at what will be delivered. Just before Parliament rose at the end of the previous session, a consultation was sent out about disability living allowance and personal independence payments for adults. It copied, almost comma for comma, the regulations and legislation from Westminster. We had discussions at committee and in the chamber about people who have conditions that do not easily fit in a box and who therefore miss out on PIP. The consultation was an opportunity to address that. It was also an opportunity to address whether the 20m rule is fair on people who have mobility problems. In all the hustings that I attended during the election campaign, people from all parties said that that must change, but we see that the Government has followed exactly the same rules in its consultation.

I hope that the cabinet secretary will look at what the amendments to the motion suggest and produce radical change in that regard, because otherwise I and—I hope—other MSPs will vote against the motion.

We have power: the Social Security (Scotland) Act 2018 gave us power to create new benefits. If we see gaps in the system, we should use the powers that we have, rather than talk about what we cannot do.

So soon? Yes.

took the oath.