It is not just me who thinks that. Today, Mike Robinson, chair of Stop Climate Chaos Scotland, a respected organisation with more than 60 member organisations, said:
“the Scottish Government has lost its position as a climate leader and we would like to see the First Minister make an emergency statement to Parliament to set out his response.”
Will the cabinet secretary agree that the Scottish Government has lost its position as a climate leader since our first climate act was passed, 15 years ago? Will the Government bring an emergency statement so that the First Minister can respond in full to Parliament?
]]>We cannot ignore the issue of how much waste we export from Scotland, and we know that our consumption emissions have increased. I hope that the minister will commit to supporting amendments to address that issue at stage 2 and commit to effective monitoring, because the principle of carbon consumption targets and the analysis of our international carbon footprint are key if we are to deliver a just transition. That is not currently in the bill, which needs to change.
I want to hear from the minister about the Office for the Internal Market work to ensure that the regulations will be deliverable. That is critical, particularly given the deposit return scheme fiasco.
There must be support and encouragement for businesses, because, if we are to have a circular economy, we need more than what is in the bill. The Scottish Government could take a lead by ensuring that its own purchasing procurement works to incentivise products that are designed with circular economy principles baked in from the start.
The principle of building a circular economy has to be what we deliver in the bill, with sectoral approaches and action from day 1, such as reducing our reliance on single-use products and ending food waste. The waste hierarchy is key: we need to redesign products to prevent waste in the first place; we need to prepare for reuse, recycling—
]]>When the minister goes into detail is when we get worried, is it not? In the way that she presented what she would change at stage 2, I clearly saw it as addressing the concerns that many MSPs have raised. The challenge is that people who live in flats or tenements and in city centres could be incorrectly blamed for somebody else’s failure to address the concerns about the bill properly, so we need more consultation on that point and more discussion at stage 2.
]]>ome of my time back.
]]>very brief.
]]>co-operation, partnership and funding. That is the critical issue that I want to come on to. I have welcomed the work of the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, but the Finance and Public Administration Committee was pretty blunt in its comments, as we have heard. We must ensure that the proposed addition of new responsibilities is funded, otherwise it will be incredibly damaging to our councils, not to mention ineffective from an output perspective.
In its report, the Finance and Public Administration Committee said:
“The Committee is concerned that this lack of clarity concerning the funding required for local authorities to align with a new, upgraded, mandatory code of practice could render the approach unaffordable and unsustainable.”
Worryingly, as we have heard, it commented that the financial memorandum is “not adequate”. As I have said, although the minister gave us some nice warm words, we need more detail. As well as hearing about what might happen, we need to see the adoption of a much more co-ordinated approach.
Because the bill is a framework bill, it creates major concerns about a lack of effective parliamentary scrutiny, especially if the minister intends to react quickly. We need proper consultation for parliamentarians, for stakeholders and for businesses. We need targets that will be deliverable, because that is critical for the creation of a circular economy. At the moment, the focus is on recycling. More needs to be said about the potential for redesigning products so that more reuse and repair opportunities can be created in our communities. There needs to be investment to enable that to happen. That means clarity in relation to recycling.
We need an approach that reflects the different challenges across the country. Ensuring that there is accountability for separating waste and for effective recycling is important, but we need communications from the Scottish Government and local authorities.
In my area, city centre residents who live in flats or tenements and who are doing the right thing by separating their waste and trying to reuse products could still be fined if it is deemed that somebody has put the wrong waste in the wrong box and it is their fault. I welcome the fact that we have heard today from the minister that she intends to remove the penalties in the bill for individual constituents; I am glad that that approach is being taken.
]]>First, I thank the Net Zero, Energy and Transport Committee, its clerks and all those who gave evidence. I also thank the organisations that have sent us briefings in advance of today’s debate. I note that the change of timing means that we might not have considered them all in detail, but they will be very useful in the run-up to the stage 2 amendment process.
I want to be up front about the fact that the stage 2 discussions on the bill will be crucial, because there is so much in the bill that needs to be amended and clarified. It is a framework bill, and there are key areas in which we need more detail and in which a respectful partnership with local authorities needs to be developed and investment needs to be provided to ensure that the aspirations of the bill will be met.
We heard some nice words from the minister about the relationship with local authorities, but we need to see the detail. With regard to progress, we need to see the key milestones and the dates for reaching those. We also need to know how the code of practice will be produced and how the Parliament will be consulted. That has been mentioned already.
I know from talking to my colleagues in Wales that the approach that has been taken there shows what can be done when the Government and local authorities work together. Over the past decade, the Welsh Labour Government has invested £1 billion to enable local authorities to gear up and deliver the infrastructure that is needed in communities across Wales. The Welsh Government’s approach works. Crucially, its investment has led to a recycling level of 64 per cent being achieved, and a statutory target of 70 per cent has been set for next year.
]]>Investment in cultural cinema is vital in supporting film makers, providing access to cultural cinema, as the minister mentioned, and ensuring that cultural cinema is a key part of Scotland’s cultural offer. With the Edinburgh international film festival forming part of our Edinburgh festivals, we have huge opportunities. Therefore, will the Scottish Government work with Screen Scotland and Creative Scotland to ensure that the Edinburgh Filmhouse’s “Open the Doors!” campaign, which has been incredibly successful thus far, gets the final amount of capital that it needs to open the doors of the Filmhouse and put us back on the map?
]]>Although the NHS is struggling across all of Scotland, I highlight the pressures that services in Lothian face. Our hospitals are already under huge pressure there, and waiting times for vital operations are increasing. Those pressures will continue as our population grows, as 84 per cent of Scotland’s future population growth will be in Lothian, so its NHS services urgently need investment.
Nowhere is that clearer than in the case of the Edinburgh eye pavilion. The building was declared unfit for purpose in 2014—that is a decade of unsuitable facilities for people who need vital, life-changing services such as eye surgery. How did the SNP Government respond? With yet more broken promises and, ultimately, by freezing capital spending on the desperately needed new eye hospital, along with other national treatment centres that are urgently needed across Scotland.
It is an issue not just for Lothian residents. A quarter of people with sight loss in Scotland are having to rely on facilities that are not fit for purpose, with zero reassurance and nothing in the way of timescales from the Scottish Government to give them any confidence that things are going to change.
The end result for patients is that life becomes significantly harder and treatment often becomes inaccessible. People experiencing sight loss are often more restricted in their transport options, yet they are being made to travel to Clydebank or even to Newcastle, at personal cost, if they want to receive NHS treatment for their eye condition. That is not acceptable, because every patient on that waiting list is a real person with a real experience, not a statistic.
We spoke to a constituent who was facing a 17-month wait for treatment. She simply could not wait that long, as her sight was deteriorating. When she wrote to my office, she was about to take on significant debt just to pay for simple but life-changing treatment in the private sector, because she could not wait for that NHS treatment. That is unacceptable. It is an unthinkable choice—going into debt or losing your sight—and it is a choice that she never should have faced. It is a direct result of the failed promises of the SNP Government, which continues to let down patients across Scotland and, as Carol Mochan highlighted, is undermining the key principles of our NHS. Such stories are commonplace, and I am sure that members across the chamber have similar tales to tell.
In Lothian, waiting times have trebled over the past nine years and the number of people waiting more than 16 weeks has increased from 156 to more than 9,000 patients. As Jackie Baillie and Carol Mochan highlighted, the pressures that our NHS faces have been created and compounded by the lack of support offered by the SNP Government. It is not enough just to blame the UK Government—that is a refusal to take responsibility for the problems on our doorstep over the past 17 years. It is not just the eye pavilion that is not happening, but the national treatment centre in Livingston and our urgently needed new cancer centre in Edinburgh.
The SNP Government needs to act now to bring down waiting list times, to ensure that everyone in Scotland gets the treatment that they need, when they need it. Waiting time delays are not “regrettable”, they are utterly unacceptable, and our constituents deserve better.
]]>that the effects of the climate emergency are now having a real impact on our roads and railways. The storms and increased rainfall in October last year saw pre-emptive rail line closures for the first time. Those closures led the editor of
Rail Engineer
magazine, David Shirres, to comment:
“infrastructure that had shown itself to be resilient to the UK’s past weather may now no longer be so.”
Will the cabinet secretary outline what discussions she has had with Network Rail on ensuring that rail infrastructure is resilient to climate change across Scotland?
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