Tavish Scott: It is not news that Westminster’s processes are archaic but the elephant in the room is the point that the minister made. The decision to leave the EU has brought about the worst political and governmental crisis for many generations. Therefore, surely, is it not time for his party, for him as a minister, and for this Government to recognise that the particular need here is to put the...
Tavish Scott: It is a good step that the Parliament is taking the powers of the Crown Estate, but I am with Andy Wightman—I am for a much more radical approach to the organisation. I will give John Scott two further examples of why we should do an awful lot more than just adopt an incredibly complicated and highly technical approach—the minister was right about that—to sorting out the issues. When...
Tavish Scott: I will not get into udal law—Andy Wightman, Stewart Stevenson and I might debate it, but not today—although an interesting question needs to be teased out by our learned friends on the bench. If Mr Mountain was referring to that, he will forgive me for not mentioning it today. My point is about local versus national management. Shetland Islands Council and other local authorities that...
Tavish Scott: I, too, thank Mr FitzPatrick for the courtesy of sending out his statement. It would help his front-bench colleagues if they did not spend the entire time shouting at everyone else, given the seriousness of the issue. [ Applause .] Mr Swinney did not like that, but members will reflect that he spent the entire duration of the statement shouting at everyone else. His department is one of the...
Tavish Scott: I welcome that last point. However, the cabinet secretary will recognise that the allocation of PEF is based on eligibility for free school meals and that, in some areas of Scotland—rural and isolated areas, in particular—use of that mechanism can be difficult because of the stigma that is attached to eligibility for free meals. How does he plan to address that point?
Tavish Scott: We have had an abundance of mental health statistics in the debate, but every statistic is a person: a woman, man, child or young person. Few families in Scotland are not touched by some aspect of mental ill-health—mine has been—and such cases are, without a shadow of a doubt, the toughest cases that we deal with as MSPs. I can think of a number of constituency surgeries in which the only...
Tavish Scott: I will finish with this, Presiding Officer. A minister needs to have line of sight between the strategy and what they do on the ground. That is the part that the Government needs to measure up on.
Tavish Scott: 3. To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether the promotion of Scotland as a destination for film, television and other productions is best achieved through Creative Scotland. (S5O-02179)
Tavish Scott: Parliament’s Culture, Tourism, Europe and External Affairs Committee agreed unanimously and on a cross-party basis to support the promotion of Scotland as a film and television location by a separate, standalone organisation. Given the overwhelming evidence that we heard from industry in support of that position, why does the Government not accept it?
Tavish Scott: Deep irony!
Tavish Scott: I am terribly tempted to start with a debate on udal law, but I will spare members that for another day. I am really exercised to lodge an amendment on udal law, but at some stage there will be a bill that allows us do so. I will speak briefly to amendments 2 and 5. I hear what the minister says about bringing a first draft of the guidance to Parliament. I also recognise what he said about...
Tavish Scott: Amendment 4 would require the Scottish ministers to prepare an island communities impact assessment in relation to existing legislation and strategies on waste management. The impact assessment would have to describe the effect of that legislation and those strategies on the recovery and disposal of waste in island communities. I take on board the arguments that Jamie Greene and other members...
Tavish Scott: I thank colleagues for speaking to amendment 4 in the way in which they have. I take John Finnie’s point given his party’s position on what I might call a waste energy plant and what he might call something else. I take the minister’s point about a Government review of the best environmental options. I accept that concession and the spirit in which it was given. I am grateful to the...
Tavish Scott: Amendment 3 would create a “Shetland mapping requirement”. With a single vote, it would stop the practice—intensely annoying to islanders and with which they have put up for too long—of placing Shetland not in its correct place 200 miles to the north of Aberdeen, but in a box off the Scottish coast. Whether that is the Moray coast, the Orkney coast or any other coast, it is not the...
Tavish Scott: I am grateful for that, as—no doubt—are the minister’s officials.
Tavish Scott: I am grateful to Mr Mason for his intervention, but that is the cartographer’s argument. That is the argument that the men and women of maps have made to me and, no doubt, to other members. I just do not buy it. We have put up with this for a long time. The cartographers make an intellectually coherent argument, but if one lived in a different part of the country, or if one was not...
Tavish Scott: I am grateful to colleagues for their support, and to the Conservatives for their change in position on the amendment. It strikes me as ironic that Peter Chapman, being from the north-east, might oppose getting Shetland in the right place. I do not know how many times, when I ran a farm in a previous life, his colleagues from the north-east would come up to buy lambs and would complain about...
Tavish Scott: I thank the minister for his statement and I agree with it, because this is the right decision. I would like the minister to clarify one point. He said that the principle is how the operation is run; my principle is what is in the best interests of the islands. I applaud the decision that he has announced today, but in the future—particularly given that we are about to pass the Islands...
Tavish Scott: The debate that Liz Smith has brought is about subject choice. In some ways, I speak more as a father than I do as an MSP on the issue, because my oldest children have been through that subject choice. I think that the matter is actually very simple. It is not the Government’s fault—Liz Smith and Iain Gray were quite right about that. The Government should take the debate as a sign that...
Tavish Scott: 8. To ask the Scottish Government how it encourages non-departmental public bodies to promote and facilitate public participation in their decisions and activities. (S5O-02094)