Jamie Halcro Johnston: 5. To ask the Scottish Government how Transport Scotland supports and promotes tourism. (S5O-02793)
Jamie Halcro Johnston: Another area in which Transport Scotland has direct involvement is the use of brown tourist signs on roads. VisitScotland research shows that those signs are valued and play a role in enabling visitors to reach tourist destinations safely by car. However, a small business in the Highlands and Islands region has recently been quoted almost £50,000 by Transport Scotland to erect just four...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: We have seen a welcome focus from Governments at all levels on the need to back innovation and I welcome some of the minister’s comments. In what has been far too short a debate, we have heard a number of positive contributions from around the chamber, and I will draw attention to a few of them. My colleague Dean Lockhart highlighted the increasing digital skills gap that is emerging in...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: I do not have time, as we have only a short time for debate. Perhaps more time should have been allowed for what is an important subject. Mr Johnson could also have mentioned that Highlands and Islands Enterprise underspent on its budget for broadband by more than 45 per cent last year. Willie Rennie has seemingly launched the entrepreneurial hamlet of the year awards, coming soon to the...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: My region of the Highlands and Islands is where fuel poverty, by any reasonable definition, is most pronounced. As many members will be aware, a number of factors contribute to the problems that the region faces in that regard, including a slightly less hospitable climate in some seasons, the limitations of the mains gas network, the wider economic challenges of the region and an ageing...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: I would like to get on. Where levels of fuel poverty are that high, fuel poverty can become less visible. Many people in those communities—particularly older people—would not immediately identify themselves as being in fuel poverty, regardless of where statistical definitions place them. High energy costs and lower disposable incomes can often be treated as a fact of life. Policy makers...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: I apologise for having to leave the chamber briefly during the opening speeches. At a length of one side of A4 paper, this is certainly one of the shortest bills that I have been invited to speak on in the chamber. However, within the bill’s short sections, there are a number of sensitive issues that merit discussion today. The bill touches on matters of individual identity and how they...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: 6. To ask the Scottish Government how its budget will impact on Orkney and Shetland. (S5O-02944)
Jamie Halcro Johnston: Ahead of the conclusion of the budget process, the Cabinet Secretary for Government Business and Constitutional Relations, Mike Russell, came to Orkney. While he was there, he spoke about the funding of internal ferries in Orkney and Shetland and the shortfall between what is given to the council and the cost of maintaining services. Mike Russell said: “this is a big issue in Orkney, and...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: The local councillor described that as “Donald Trump politics”. When will Mr Russell pledge to go back and raise this “big issue” with cabinet colleagues? Did he do so, and if so, was he simply ignored?
Jamie Halcro Johnston: People should be treated fairly in the workplace. Our laws recognise that, in taking up a job, employees have certain rights that are inalienable and which cannot be waived or simply signed away in an agreement that has been brought about by unfair or unequal bargaining positions. We have long recognised the need to enforce employment rights, and they have often reflected some of the most...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: As the member knows, there are more disabled people working now than there were before. When we have such conversations, the same questions come from Labour members every time, and the same answers are given. We can certainly monitor effectively the considerable increase in employment levels here in Scotland and across the UK to unprecedented and historic highs. By necessity, fair work must...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: It is often in that sector that we have seen the slowest response to change, given the increased pressures. I am sure that encouraging fairness at work will be welcomed across the chamber, but it must keep pace with developments in the labour market and the workplace. Interventions that the Scottish Government makes in the labour market need to be effective and seen to be effective. I move...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: Will the member take an intervention?
Jamie Halcro Johnston: I thank Liam McArthur for lodging the motion for debate in Parliament. It is on a matter of great poignancy for our islands. On 17 March 1969, if you looked out across the Pentland Firth, you would see a broad strait that had, for several days, been battered by gales, lashed by heavy rain and had snow hurled across it by the winds. My home overlooks the island of Hoy, with Longhope tucked...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: I welcome the opportunity to speak in this final stage of the bill. As members will be aware, I have been involved with the bill in each of its stages: I spoke at stage 1, I was involved in the committee at stage 2, and I am speaking in the stage 3 debate today. The bill’s principles have remained constant. It is right that we make provision to compensate in full those who have suffered...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: As previous speakers have said, student support is a vital area for discussion, so I welcome today’s debate. Far too often, the issue of student support has been drowned out in the noise that is created in the discussion of tuition costs. As others have said, although tuition costs matter, they have not always been represented in the most accurate way. However, there are genuine concerns...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: The IPPR noted in its evidence that in-work poverty cannot be divorced from the economy. The member is a former economy secretary; does he take any responsibility for that?
Jamie Halcro Johnston: I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Social Security Committee’s report on in-work poverty. Last week, the Office for National Statistics released figures that show that Scotland is following trends across the UK, with employment at record highs and unemployment at record lows. That is undoubtedly to be welcomed, but many people in work still find themselves in low-income employment and...
Jamie Halcro Johnston: As I have mentioned and as I will come on to again, a number of areas cause problems and that is one that has been looked at. For those on the lowest incomes or those whose incomes are made up largely of income-assessed benefits, sizeable debt repayments will always have the effect of pushing incomes below tolerable levels. We know that a large proportion of people who face real financial...