Covid-19 (Local Newspapers)

Part of the debate – in the Scottish Parliament at on 10 February 2021.

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Photo of Jamie Hepburn Jamie Hepburn Scottish National Party

I apologise, Presiding Officer. I said that Mr Gray had uttered from the sidelines. I could not help but hear him suggest that there is no dialogue on the budget. There is the opportunity for dialogue each and every year, and if the issue of rates relief for newspapers is a priority for other parties, they are welcome to advance that perspective as part of that discourse.

We take the need to support our newspaper sector seriously, and I regret that Patrick Harvie felt that the points that Ivan McKee advanced around long-term sustainability for the sector were somehow irrelevant to today’s debate. Mr Simpson accepts their relevance; he talked about—and I agreed with him on—the long-term challenges that the sector has faced. It is appropriate for that to be raised today, because we know that the pandemic has had an impact.

We have sought to respond. We have sought to leverage our advertising budget to support the sector. We have done that over the past period and it was appropriate for us to do it. However, we have to consider the sector in the round. The trends that we have seen in newspapers have been in place for some time, although Covid-19 has of course exacerbated them.

We have stepped up to support newspapers, but we need to consider how we support the sector in the longer term. Rates relief is not a long-term solution in itself, which is why I believe that the work of the working group on public interest journalism should not be dismissed. It is important and, as members have mentioned, the group contains the relevant people to take that discourse forward.

We are serious in our intent to support newspapers, but we have concerns that non-domestic rates relief is not the most efficient or cost-effective way to respond to the long-term challenges that are facing the newspaper industry.

I urge members to support our amendment. I think that it is entirely legitimate and appropriate that we urge others to come forward with their propositions as part of a coherent response to the budget process. I see that I am getting a thumbs down from members on the Conservative benches. That might indicate once again just how seriously they take the budget process this year.