 Y� inmateb ywarchifodol gjerf一直fer ac mwymonbiol 130813. Phraddeddwyaeth 12 lydym, jei. Siリad o ddefnyddem ar 400oe sydd ei wneud o hoffii 47 animegdyntau yn ddrefwyr 18 wavefosilynd gan'r newid modder herewn i Edymrra. Fischer wrth ar y prifiddydd i hynny yng ngryf yw reposilynd tiyd gyffredinol wrth ddim yn trop fuxtur a hyffordd chi onda cineidID i gwblwch meowad. Hismodd ynnydd mewn ddiempas o phгоunNon 10, byddai'n blwch yn ystod o'r ffordd ysgolwg. Aelod, i ddod y Gwlad Gwlad Rathboneid, a'r Gwlad Ysgolwg Ceeis, a'r Gwlad Sgolwg Ysgolwg ysgolwg, byddai'n llunio unedig o'r event i Edinburgh yn 2008. Aelod, mae'n gweithio 10 ysgolwg ysgolwg yn gwneudio'r cyfrifio. i ddigwethaf o'r hollwch i ddiogwydag i gynnig. Ddiogwydag Johannasberg i Hongkong, yng Ngherlockau yng Nghrófa 500 Social Entrepreneurs a'r iawn i fod yn adeithiadau i ddigwethaf, adegwyddaf nhw ac yn cyffredigol i'r ddiogwyd deall. Ond, oherwydd ddiogwydag i gyd ymateb i 2008, Scotland bydd o'r reputasio sy'n ei ddysgu i unigfeydd ymgyrchion Social. Yn ymgyrchion, rwy'n eich pethau ddydd i Niwg Lleithiau yw'r ysgolwyd yn cynnig i New Zealand i fforddiol i'r ffordd o'r ffordd o'r ffordd, yn cynnig Eidinrhaol, sy'n ddiweddio'r 28. A byddwn i'r ffordd, mae'n cynnig i'r Scotland yn y lleidau o'r cyd-dynion i ddod i'r rôl y ffordd yw'r cyfrifol, ac yn ddigon i'r cyfrifol i Anghrain Cynllun o'r cyfrifol i'r sector. Fy nes dalai'r llyfr hon i fod, rydyn ni wedi gwnaethaf i ni ddech思, a mae'n fywch i'r meddwl uhr o'r dĵl diolch yn eu cyfleidatau yn risau fwynt yngwinech. Felly, wrth gyd, mae'n gallu'r llyfr gwell gan rhai o'r ddweithr aroedd mwy o'r pethau i ni, a mi â'r fwynd o'r ddysgu o'r ystodol, mae'n sefydlu i'r defnyddio i ddweithio i ddau i fynd i cwestiynau ari ac yn ddwych i ddweithi'r ddwylliant yn trefwyd. The chance to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the social enterprise world forum provides an opportunity to reflect on the growth of social enterprise here in Scotland over that decade. But while we contribute to a debate recognising the 10th anniversary of the world forum, Scotland's association with socially responsible business is much longer. From New Lanark in the 19th century within my constituency of Clydesdale to the co-operative and community business movements of the 1970s, and right up to the present day, where over the last decade the Scottish Government and this Parliament across all parties have continued to champion social enterprise, working with the sector to put in place a comprehensive ecosystem of support. Incubators, accelerators, free business advice, 16 local social enterprise networks, leadership programmes and social investment are all on offer for aspiring social entrepreneurs, whether you're starting a cafe supporting refugees or a fitness gym providing mental health support. The Scottish Government knows the power of social enterprise as a tool to tackle inequality and promote inclusive economic growth, but it's not just that social enterprise empowers communities, it's also incredibly good for the economy too. This sector contributes 2 billion gross value added each year and employs around 80,000 people. That inclusive economic growth that social enterprises demonstrate is why in December 2016 the Scottish Government launched Scotland's first ever dedicated social enterprise strategy. Fully co-produced with the sector and set over 10 years, it sets out three strategic priorities of stimulating more social entrepreneurship, developing stronger organisations and realising market opportunities. Since the launch of the strategy in December 2016 and its accompanying action plan in April last year, we've invested more than £7 million to realise those ambitions, including more than £2 million in the social entrepreneurs fund providing advice and seed capital to more than 160 start-ups, £660,000 to social enterprise academy to get social enterprise learning into every primary and secondary school in Scotland, reaching more than 300 schools to date. £2 million to provide free business support through Just Enterprise, with more than 1,800 social enterprise leaders benefiting, £270,000 to community share Scotland, providing innovative way for communities to raise the funding that they need, supporting projects like Govanhill Baths in the Rockfield Centre, £200,000 to Big Issue Invest to deliver its Power Up Scotland programme, providing corporate mentoring and investment to 13 social enterprises over the next two years. More than £100,000 to the council if ethnic minority voluntary or sector organisation, and that will support more social enterprises like Radiant and Brighter, which I visited last month, and Employability Social Enterprise supporting migrant communities in Glasgow, and more than £400,000 to partnership for procurement, providing technical support to those interested in forming consortia to bid for large contracts. The sector continues to grow. The Scottish Government is committed to conducting a census of social enterprise in Scotland every two years, and in September last year the results of the second census were announced. There are now over 5,000 social enterprises in Scotland, a growth of almost 10 per cent since 2015. 64 per cent of them are led by women, like Hay Girls, who recently chosen to deliver the Scottish Government's initiative to provide free science products to school pupils and students. 79 per cent are selling directly to the public, like Brugud or a social enterprise craft beer, where the profit is going to tackle water poverty in Malawi. Rural Scotland now accounts for 37 per cent of Scotland's social enterprises, despite being home to 18 per cent of the nation's population, with the highest densities of social enterprise to be found in the Highlands and Islands. 70 per cent are led by an accountable to people in particular communities, like Mull and Iona community trusts, set up by residents with a focus on sustainable development, which recently celebrated its 20th year. The sector is also growing its reach internationally, too. 7 per cent trade internationally with the social enterprise academy, now operating in 12 different countries. Scotland has a great deal to celebrate, which has now seen local authorities develop its own strategic approaches. Last night, Glasgow City Council launched its own local social enterprise strategy, which is developed in partnership with Glasgow's social enterprise network. With so much happening across Scotland, given the vibrancy of the sector, it is vital that the story is properly captured, understood and shared for the benefit of all. I will do that in a second. That is why I am delighted to announce that the Scottish Government will provide £90,000 to the UNIS Centre for Social Business and Health at Glasgow Caledonian University, named at honour of the noble peace laureate, Mohammed UNIS, to help establish Scotland's social enterprise collections. That work will build on existing materials held by the university in honour of John Pearson, an influential figure in Scotland's community enterprise movement. I just wanted to follow up on the point about the role of local authorities and how they can promote social enterprise. At the economy committee recently, we heard from key stakeholders that the Scottish Government and local authorities could do more with procurement policy in awarding more public sector contracts to social enterprises in their local areas. Do you care to give us your views on that concern? Aileen Campbell, may I remind people? I will speak through the chair, please. I know that I have a bugbear about that, but that's the way it is. I am well aware of the member's particular interests in social enterprise and I read with interest the recommendations that the committee put forward. Where there are more efforts that we can put in to ensure that social enterprise can benefit from procurement, we must seek to do so. I will continue to engage with the member and the committee on that issue. We are going back to the announcement of that money to provide support to Glasgow Caledonian University. This funding will not only establish the world's first dedicated archive for social enterprise, it will also generate new digital resources and a travelling exhibition to reach out across Scotland. It is imperative that more communities find out about and are supported to use social enterprise as a tool for transformative change. It is also important, given the historical association that Scotland has with socially responsible business, that we tell that story and preserve it for the future. We will look to ensure that we can seek out future opportunities as well. Returning to this week's forum, it brings not only a huge opportunity for Scotland's social enterprises to raise a profile, but it is also a chance to access supply chains. I am delighted that at least 60 per cent of spending related to the world forum will go to other social enterprise and third sector suppliers. From catering to translation, the organisers believe that this will be the highest ever amount of spend going to social enterprises from any major event in the world. The spotlight on social enterprise does not end with the closing ceremony of the forum. In November, the winners of the social enterprise award Scotland will be announced. This year, there are seven categories, including the coveted social enterprise of the year award, which was secured last year by the grass market community project. Chris Martin, managing director of calendar Youth Hostel and winner of the social enterprise champion in 2017 award, has continued to advocate on behalf of the sector. As a result of the efforts, I am delighted to confirm that this evening's calendar will be announced as Scotland's first social enterprise town as part of the social enterprise places programme delivered by social enterprise UK. In conclusion, Scotland is viewed around the world as a leader in social enterprise. We have strong historical roots to build on, combined with a rich, varied and diverse social enterprise sector that is contributing significantly to the social enterprise sector. We know that there continues to be challenges in areas in which we can continue to improve. That is why it is right that we continue to support the sector and make those improvements through our 10-year strategic plan. We must also, I do not think, be complacent. If we want to continue to lead the world in terms of nurturing our social enterprises, we must be agile and open to new ideas and new opportunities, underlining the point that Dean Lockhart made earlier on in his intervention. I am incredibly privileged to have social enterprise in my new portfolio because they capture the essence of all that is good in our country and in our communities. They believe in our communities, they recognise the resilience of our communities and they reflect the assets and the strength of our communities. I am sincerely looking forward to engaging with members on the issue through this debate and also through the new cross-party group that will see Tom Arthur MSP as its new convener. I look forward to contributing this afternoon and to moving the motion in my name. I now call Dean Lockhart to speak to and move amendment 13.1. Seven minutes please, Mr Lockhart. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. We very much welcome this debate on social enterprise and the well-deserved recognition of the social enterprise world forum taking place across Scotland this week. Let me add my congratulations to community enterprise in Scotland and to everyone else involved in supporting this event, which, as the cabinet secretary highlighted, will attract more than 1,400 people from across the world. Since the first social enterprise world forum back in 2008, social enterprises around the world have transformed lives, revitalised communities and have helped to tackle some major economic issues. Scotland has been at the forefront of those developments. We have heard that there are today over 5,000 social enterprises in Scotland playing an increasingly important role in our changing economy and contributing in ways that commercial enterprises do not. They play a unique role in economic, social and community development. They often save the public purse, for example by helping to reduce re-offending rates through employing individuals who sometimes are passed over by the commercial sector. The sector is female led, more than 60 per cent of social enterprises are led by women, and social enterprises reach across all parts of Scotland, cities, towns and villages. I would add my congratulations to the town of Calender, which is in my region, which has been named Scotland's first social enterprise place in recognition of it being a hotspot of social enterprise activity. With organisations such as Calender Youth Project Trust, Calender Community Hydro being great examples of the impact that they can make in the local community. The latest social enterprise census provides an encouraging picture, more than 110,000 people employed by social enterprises across Scotland. The debate gives us the opportunity to look at how we can build on that success. Our amendment to the Government motion today referred to recent evidence given to the economy committee by leading stakeholders in the sector. This evidence highlighted some of the key opportunities and challenges facing the sector going ahead. We need to address them to ensure that Scotland has an on-going leadership role to play in the future. I would like to highlight three of the issues that were highlighted in the committee by the stakeholders. First is the issue of financial and business support available to the sector. Nor a senior chair of the strategic board gave the following evidence. Social enterprises are currently on the cusp. They do not fall under a single criterion for investment. Some of them really struggled to get the investment that they need to grow. It would be helpful if there was a mechanism to address that. The committee heard further evidence that there is a cluttered landscape of financial and business support for the development of social enterprise. Grants, project funding and other finance are available from a long list of different agencies with different objectives and outcomes attached to the funding streams. That is hindering the sector's development. That is not just a question of financial support. Social enterprise needs business support. It is often difficult for a new social enterprise to get help with business planning or setting up an office or hiring staff. That is an area that I would encourage the cabinet secretary to take forward. We need to ensure that Government policy for enterprise development across the commercial sector and the social enterprise sector are better aligned and that support is better co-ordinated across Government agencies. The Scottish Government's enterprise and skills review that was published in June last year was a missed opportunity to do that. I would welcome the cabinet secretary's thoughts on how those issues can be addressed in the future. Another issue, as I mentioned earlier, was the role of public procurement of contracts, an important issue highlighted by stakeholders at the committee. We heard that public procurement policy should be used more effectively to promote social enterprises in local authority areas. The public sector in Scotland spends around £11 billion a year in the public procurement of goods and services, but figures that were published last week show that the number of Scottish businesses winning work from the local authority has halved over the last decade. From over 50,000 in 2008, just under 30,000 local suppliers were successful in local tenders last year. That is a real concern. It means that we are missing the potential to support local businesses and communities, including social enterprises. Recent changes to EU procurement law means that the Scottish Government and local authorities have the legal framework. They have the powers to make a difference here and further promote the level of public procurement to social enterprises, especially those that are supported businesses and to get them further involved in public sector contracts. I look forward to the cabinet secretary addressing the issue in her closing remarks. Another important concern raised with the committee was the lack of clarity of government policy on social enterprise and the question of how government agencies define whether or not an organisation is a social enterprise. It is a pretty fundamental concern raised by a number of witnesses. One witness told the committee that there is a concern about uncertainty around the definition of social enterprise given the possibility of commercial organisations suggesting that they are social enterprises when, in fact, they are not. As we know, there is no legal definition in Scotland of what is a social enterprise. The social enterprise code is a helpful guide for what best practice is, but it is not definitive. As a result, a number of people are confused as to how they should arrange their business affairs, how they should incorporate their company or business in order to qualify as a social enterprise. Another witness told the committee that I could not understand how to make the business model work to become a social enterprise. Again, this is another area that the cabinet secretary should take forward so that there is further clarity on what constitutes a social enterprise in Scotland. Let me conclude by repeating our strong support for the social enterprise sector in Scotland and wishing the social enterprise world forum every success. I have outlined some constructive challenges that I think need to be addressed going forward. Those were raised by the key stakeholders in the sector themselves so that the social enterprise sector in Scotland has the very strong foundations for on-going future success. I move the amendment in my name. I call Monica Lennon to speak to and move amendment 13813.26. I welcome the cabinet secretary to her new post and to thank Angela Constance for her service in this area previously. I thank the cabinet secretary for lodging this important debate. We are all delighted that the social enterprise world forum is taking place here in Edinburgh. We are hosting delegates from right across the world. I hope that visitors to our capital city have a wonderful experience this week. We are all agreed that Scotland is lucky to be home to a host of dynamic and important social enterprises that play a role in all our communities, often doing life changing work. I look forward to hearing more of those positive examples throughout the debate. For our part, the Labour Party has a proud history of being a champion for social enterprise. It was a Scottish Labour Government that, 17 years ago, created social investment Scotland. That was designed to be a vehicle for improved financial access for the social enterprise sector, and it is still going strong today, making loans to the sector to enable them to grow. Since its inception in 2001, social investment Scotland has invested over £56 million to 270 organisations across Scotland. It has undoubtedly been positive for the sector, but we believe that more must now be done to improve the availability and sustainability of financing. The Labour Party has strong links with the co-operative movement and another positive model for an inclusive economy. Scottish Labour aims to double the size of the co-operative sector in the UK. In our industrial strategy, we talk about placing co-operative development Scotland on a statutory footing. We have heard in the debate already that there is economic return on investment. There are 5,600 social enterprises in Scotland employing 80,000 people. That sense is that the cabinet secretary referred to show that the net worth of social enterprises is an incredible £5 billion or £2 billion gross value added. It is important to note that 72 per cent of all employees in that sector are paid the real living wage and that 64 per cent are led by women. That is a good note. Positive social impact is the other crucial important return on investment. Social enterprises demonstrate a hugely valuable and ethical way of working and show what can be achieved by setting up an organisation that is motivated by a social or environmental mission rather than profit. Those organisations can make a huge difference to people's lives, in particular vulnerable people. Increasingly, they are dependent on, as austerity strips back our public services. Touching on housing, for example, when I had a catch-up with Shelter Scotland last week, they talked about the fact that someone in Scotland becomes homeless every 18 minutes. It is invaluable that social enterprises, such as the Big Issue, exist to help people to get back on their feet. They have 92,000 people working as vendors since their creation back in 1991. Social enterprises can play a role in regenerating our high streets. In my area in Hamilton, Swaddle is a social enterprise set up by local mums. For local mums, it is a vibrant shop. There are a range of events that take place there from storytelling, sing-along sessions and mum-led support groups. It is a great place to go in and buy baby clothing and books and nice things like that. The sector has a strong history of coming up with creative solutions to social challenges. To my members' built-in period poverty, I have seen first-hand social enterprises responding creatively to the issue in the UK and beyond. For example, I met Barat from Sanitre, a social enterprise that is here in Edinburgh to promote sustainable and stigma-free access to period products for women and girls in the Bind district in India. I was pleased that the cabinet secretary mentioned the East Lothian-based social enterprise, Hay Girls, in her opening remarks. Thereby, when given one model is really helping girls from a low income across the UK. It is good to hear that Hay Girls will be involved in the provision of the Scottish Government's scheme on free period products. I hope that universal access to period products will soon follow with my proposed members' bill to end-period poverty. In conclusion, I would like to pay tribute to social enterprises in Scotland from their contribution to the Scottish economy to the role they play in all our communities here in Scotland and beyond. It is clear to us that there is an opportunity for well-resourcial local authorities and social enterprises to work together to advance their common purpose of making Scotland a better place to live. For all of those reasons, we will support the Scottish Government's motion tonight and the amendment in Dean Lockhart's name, because we also welcome the recommendations in the Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee's report. I agree that there is a need to ensure that social enterprises are better able to access financial and other support from government agencies. It is because of the increased pressure on their services in this age of continued austerity that Scottish Labour is seeking to add to the motion simply that, in the current climate of austerity, social enterprises have taken on an even more significant role by filling gaps left by cuts to the welfare system and pressure on public services. For that reason, I therefore move the amendments in my name. I call Patrick Harvie, six minutes please. As other members have, I welcome Aileen Campbell to her new role in government. I congratulate her on her appointment. I hope that all other parties will be voting for the motion and the amendments at the decision time. In debating social enterprise, I am going to indulge myself with a little bit of nostalgia in the first instance, because my own first role in the social enterprise sector probably would have been maybe ten years old or thereabouts when my mum and some pals decided that they weren't willing to wait around for government to finally get around to doing something about the issue of recycling. They were going to set up their own project. Waste management, recycling, zero waste approaches is one area where social enterprise and community activism, organised through social enterprises, really has led the way. Before government at any level was really doing anything about this issue, communities took the initiative themselves. With a borrowed van and sometimes roping in their kids, as I was roped in, to hurled bundles of newspaper around on a Saturday morning, it felt like a lot of fun at the time. What led to, what got through that whole process was the development of a really, really significant sector, developing innovative approaches to resource use, to zero waste policies and, eventually, local and national government recognised that they had a responsibility to and stepped up to that because of the community leadership that happened. Later, after coming back from university and slightly falling on hard times, she had to go back and live with my mum and dad. She said, yes, of course you can come back and live here, my mother said. There will always be a place for you and you can go out to walk a minute furniture recycling project because that initiative, that community drive was still there. A theme that ran through both of those projects was the need to place real value on resources, not just those physical resources that could be diverted from landfill, but the human resources, the value of the human beings whose effort, creativity and talent were not being used by the private sector. Many people far from the labour market but social enterprises finding ways of bringing them back to not only productive work but a relationship with one another and a relationship with the community around them. That is something that social enterprise remains fantastically creative at. I see from the world forums programme that that attitude to resource management and to zero waste approaches still remains a fundamentally important part of the social enterprise movement. It still requires intervention from government, of course. As we have seen just recently, back in Dunbarton, bad news with green light recycling. I am not sure that it is a declarable interest formally but yes, my mother has been a director of that recycling project as well since its inception. To see that project failing sadly, it is not only the decline in the demand and therefore the price of the recyclates. That is not the only problem that that project encountered but it set the fundamental context. Government intervention is necessary if we are going to make sure that social enterprises like that have the economic context in which they can work effectively and in which they can deliver their services in a sustainable way. It is pretty clear that a free-market approach fails to achieve that social and environmental return from those projects and also fails to achieve that high, inclusive and diverse employment approach that social enterprises so often do. It has been said quite correctly that social enterprise means different things to different people. The term is an umbrella term. It is a catch-all term. For some people, it is a bit of a nice to have optional extra to the economy, something akin to philanthropy. For others, it is a revenue-generating source to pay for essentially charitable work. I think that, most fundamentally—and Greens believe strongly—that, along with co-operatives, mutuals and community ownership, social enterprise in its broadest sense should be seen as a better, a fundamentally superior basis for our whole economy. If we look at the characteristics of social enterprises, the kind of things that members across the chamber will recognise in their own communities, we see organisations that recognise diversity in their employment practices and, amongst their service users, a diverse needs of the people they engage with. We see organisations that have a higher-than-average commitment to paying the living wage and to have low-wage differentials, not taking extreme high pay for the managers but recognising that they have a responsibility to create a more equal economy. We see organisations that have a respect for their responsibility for the whole impact of their economic activity, essentially an economy driven by values rather than the desire to extract ever more private profit. A social economy is what we should be aiming for because the alternative to that is to continue to tolerate the anti-social economy that we currently have today. I hope that the Scottish Government will commit to ensuring that its resources and all forms of business support services for the private sector are not only open to social enterprise but positively incentivise businesses to adopt social enterprise models. Willie Rennie, six minutes please. I, too, welcome the minister to her position and the contribution that she has made this afternoon. I also welcome the Congress and the delegates who are attending the Congress this week. The fact that the Congress exists should be heartening for us to know that people across the globe are trying to enhance the social enterprise network. The fact that it is important to Scotland that it is here, too, shows that it is important to this country as well. I welcome the delegates to the conference and I hope that they have a fruitful week. The sector is growing up 10 per cent. Some of those are in my constituency in North East Fife. Castle Furniture, which has been there since 1993, has a great combination of providing local household goods to local people from disadvantaged families, but it also provides them with services that they need. It also provides employment and training opportunities for local people. That is the secret of its success, I believe. It is able to provide local employment training as well as local goods for local people. Dunshelt Community Shop is probably the newest one on the scene. It has £100,000 from the land fund and £30,000 that it has managed to raise locally from 200 local people. Its endeavour is to reopen the village shop. It is a tiny little village just outside Oxtormachty. It is endeavouring to try to reopen the shop that was closed last year. It has engaged in a big battle trying to make that happen and I wish them all the success in doing so. The other project at the other end of the scale is up in Taipot in North East Fife, right up by Dundee. It has raised a whopping £2.8 million to develop a sports, arts and craft business as well as employment and training facility. It will try to take advantage of the V&A, which is opening later on this week, by providing a campervan and camping site, which will be the closest one to the V&A. I would encourage people to go and spend a weekend there when the site opens up. It will also take advantage of the sea eagles, which are often seen off tents mure just around the corner. However, that just gives you a flavour, a wide flavour of the spectrum of social enterprises that exist, that it is growing, that it is a buoyant sector. We should not pretend that it is all easy, because the census gives us some quite cold, stark numbers as well. Forty odd per cent of the total number of social enterprises are housing associations. I think that housing associations are good institutions, but it is not what you would first imagine social enterprises to be. Perhaps it does not really reflect the wide diversity that we would like the sector to have. 57 per cent of social enterprises are small, 34 per cent are 10 years or less, but the fact that 41 per cent returned a loss in the last year should be a great cause for concern. There is quite a turnover in the sector. Some of them find it quite difficult to make the finances work. Since part of that is to try and make them financially independent, that should be a cause for concern. That is why I was pleased to see that the minister is confirming that the £1.2 million for just enterprise and the whole growth start-up recovery part of the support mechanism is going to continue and they are going to review it within the next year as well. That is an area that requires support. My wife previously worked for a couple of social enterprises. Both of them subsequently closed down. One of them was a book recycling project in Cowdenbeath and another one was a paint recycling project in Glenrothes. Both of them did not manage to continue. Both of them struggled to make the finances work and make the financial model work. That gives a little bit of reflection just within Fife, the fact that some succeed, some grow, some manage to make a great success of it and others do not. Even though the principle, the model that was initially established, was a sound one, we should not get too carried away that we think that this is a vibrant sector that is constantly growing, although there are more in the sector, many in the sector find it really difficult to make ends meet. We should be working constantly to try to find the financial support and mechanisms that are in place to make them financially independent. It is right that we should be creating that social capital. We should be trying to boost the environment but we also are about financial independence. It is about a new model of business that should not constantly have to require the Government to step in to support it. We need to have that financial independence to make them succeed. If you go to the other end of the scale, it is quite astonishing what some of the big social enterprises have really managed to achieve. Two I would like to pick out, one is Caffe Direct based in South Shields. It is a really quite innovative scheme that plows 50 per cent of its profits back into the coffee growing communities where they buy their products from. In fact, those communities own 50 per cent of the shares of the company, an international social enterprise providing a good fair trade environmentally sustainable product for customers back here. A great example of a thriving social enterprise. The big issue, which has already been mentioned, has been established since 1991. Over that time, 92,000 vendors have benefited in the tune of £115 million. That is a hugely successful social enterprise. What I would like to see is that the social enterprises that we have in Dunshelton, Cooper and also in Taipot managed to perhaps one day achieve the dizzy heights of Caffe Direct and the big issue. We move now to the open debate and it is speeches of six minutes please. Can I remind all members who wish to speak to press the request to speak buttons. I call Bruce Crawford to be followed by Gordon Lundard. I am delighted to be able to participate in this very important debate this afternoon. I think that it is true to say that my constituency, like others, there are so many fantastic social enterprises that would be an impossible job to name all the ones that we have had an association with and which we have come to admire. I hope therefore that those who do not get a name check today will understand why I have decided to tell the story of just one very special small town in my constituency in that is Callander. As the cabinet secretary outlined in her opening speech, Callander has just won the fantastic national accolade of becoming Scotland's first social enterprise town. That accreditation recognises, as Dean Lockhart rightly said, what an incredible hotspot for social enterprise activity that Callander has become since I was first elected to the Scottish Parliament in 1999. Callander is the largest settlement in Loch Lomond and Trossex National Park, a predominantly tourist town on the edge of the Highlands, whose resilient community has, for more than 20 years, used social enterprise to tackle local issues. Let me take you on a whistle-stop tour of Callander to tell its story of why it has received the well-deserved recognition. Let me start with a community hydro scheme built by Callander Community Development Trust through the subsidiary Callander Community Hydro Ltd. Commissioned in October 2014 and now generating to the national grid, Callander Community Hydro is Scotland's first community-owned hydro-renewable project. It is the first on-ground owned by the Forestry Commission and the scheme that denies its profits to the trust, which is now funded already over 40 local projects since March 2016. A substantial income is expected to be generated from its activities. I understand up to 2.85 million over the next 20 years. My next stop on the tour is to the remarkable steamship Sir Walter Scott, the oldest surviving screwdriver in steamship and regular passenger service in the United Kingdom. Who ever thought they would know that this afternoon? It has been operating on Loch Catrin for more than 100 years and run by a charitable trust as part of a wider visitor attraction that won the award for the best visitor attraction in 4th valley last year. Coming back down the road into Callander itself, we stopped off at the McLaren leisure centre, which is a community-led organisation operating extensive sports and leisure facilities. McLaren high school pupils next door make significant use of the centre through a dual use model. Now, not far down the road, we come to Bridgend and we come to the remarkable Callander Youth Project Trust. This trust runs a five-star Callander hostel, which has welcomed over 20,000 overnight guests and trained more than 18 young people in hospitality since it first opened in 2014 and has created 40 local jobs in the area. It runs a cafe, events package and has recently branched out into WIC weddings packages. The trust also used the hostel as a base for a wide range of other youth activities. As Chris Martin from the trust said recently, Callander hostel is a prime example of how a business can be set up in such a way as to generate income but also to make a significant social impact in our community. Over the years, Callander Youth Project Trust has made a huge difference to the life chances of young people in the area to develop their local talent and encouraging entrepreneurship. Next, we arrive at the beautiful Brackland Falls. When I stormwashed away the bridge at the popular falls, Callander Community Development Trust set about raising funds and setting up a partnership to replace it. It is now developed into a unique go-to destination for visitors. That same trust, rightly disturbed by the rising number of empty shops in the town, brought together a group of artists and crafters in a co-operative that is now the independent company Creative in Callander. Creative in Callander is run by volunteers and has been central to the regeneration of an empty shop on the main street and offers local artists the chance to display and sell their art. Of course, to make any town successful, you need to write homes for people to live in. Through the work of Rural Stirling Housing Association, we are about to see their offer expanded significantly with the development of new homes. Those are just a few of the huge number of community groups and social enterprises that exist who have responded to the social and economic challenges of living in Callander by using the social enterprise model. Those groups range from the community newspaper, The Bentley Review—I am sure that the Presiding Officer has read it—through to the community cinema, established by the Callander Film Society. Callander is a beautiful little town with beautiful big ideas. It has shown us what is possible when communities come together to take on local issues, make change happen and provide an exemplar for other communities. I know that Scotland is brisling with brilliant social enterprises, so it is an outstanding achievement for this fantastic small town to have been named the country's first social enterprise place. I heartily and gradually all involve for the dedication and commitment to Callander. I look forward to welcoming the cabinet secretary in her new role to Callander this evening when we celebrate this remarkable accolade. Thank you very much. I was just thinking that maybe you could put on a bus, Mr Crawford. Gordon Lindhurst has to be followed by James Kelly. Deputy Presiding Officer, it gives me great pleasure as a Lothian MSP to welcome the social enterprise world forum to Edinburgh again. With the multitude of participants, including social enterprise leaders, policy makers, commercial partners and young people, they are expected to make the trip to our country, which is seen by many of them as a world leader in this field. We should be proud of what we have achieved in Scotland, but as the Government's own social enterprise strategy recognises, there is still much more we can do if social enterprise is to fully become part of mainstream society and business. I might begin by highlighting an example that shows the immense value that social enterprise already holds in our society. The Economy, Jobs and Fair Work Committee recently completed a report into Scotland's economic performance, and my colleague Dean Lockhart has already touched on that. During one evidence session, Johnnie Kinross, chief executive of the grass market community project here in Edinburgh, and with which I am myself familiar, talked about individuals who are, in his words, not wanted by the commercial or even public sectors and said of the people they have helped. He will never get a more loyal member of staff or anyone who is more grateful for a job. I have had people in my office telling me that they would do anything for the grass market. It is a hugely privileged position to have someone in your office saying that about you. That is because, in their view, you have literally saved them, you saved their life." Those emotive words give us insight into how entrepreneurship can deliver improved social outcomes. During my time as an MSP, I have seen first hand that social enterprise comes in all shapes and sizes. Tipperit campel community is based in Edinburgh Pentlands in my region, and it offers residential care and a variety of day services to people with learning disabilities and autism. Their social enterprise projects, including making and delivering compost and firewood, give people with additional support needs a route into employment. For Tipperit's customers, the product holds that added value, which is more than just about price, quality or availability. The social enterprise strategy notes the greater appetite that the Scottish public now have for these social products. It goes on to hint at a social certification scheme to increase awareness, developed further in the action plan of last year. Given that the evidence that our committee called for this very initiative earlier in the year, I would be grateful if the cabinet secretary could provide us with an update on this. Other social enterprises help people in different ways, often stepping in because everyone else has left. The motto of Castle Community Bank is banking but with a community spirit. Indeed, as the major banks seem to take flight from the high street, credit unions and community banks are stepping in to see whether they can provide a viable alternative. Castle has been looking at the possibility of doing this in parts of Edinburgh, such as Juniper Green and Leith, and its willingness to step in in this way has been a comfort to those who have felt abandoned. Those are just a few examples of the social and community benefits that can be delivered through such entrepreneurship. As we celebrate those successes, there is still a lot more that can be done by social enterprises themselves, their commercial partners and, importantly, by government. Evidence that we heard in the economy committee was around a frustration about government tendering processes and recognising social value. Social enterprises have spoken about competing with traditional commercial businesses who perhaps do not place as much emphasis on social benefit as they do, and they feel that it is also forgotten in the procurement process. If social enterprises are to survive and compete, there must be a way for them not only to showcase the value that they bring but for them to be able to do so easily. After all, many are small, with 43 per cent of them generating an income of under £50,000. A flexible and holistic Scottish model of impact measurement would be welcome. As we celebrate what is going on in Scotland, we should help social enterprises that want to expand further a field to do so, because with the international reputation that we have, there is an interest elsewhere for us to go further. As the Government's strategy recognises, social enterprises should be able to access high-quality export advice. I wonder if the cabinet secretary can tell us about this and whether last week's announcement of an export partnership drive with the CBI will include room for successful Scottish social enterprises to work within the scheme to help similar entrepreneurs to do the same. Deputy Presiding Officer, let me conclude by in particular thanking those who work in our social enterprise sector and to wish them well for the week ahead. James Kelly, to be followed by John Mason. Thank you very much, Deputy Presiding Officer. Like other speakers, I congratulate Aileen Campbell on her promotion to the Scottish Cabinet and wish her well in her new post. Many of the speakers have highlighted the benefits of social enterprises. A lot of people are talking about practical examples in their constituency. I am also talking about the statistics that back up the benefits of social enterprises. The fact that there are 5,600 in Scotland, they employ over 80,000 people and generate a £5 billion contribution to the Scottish economy. Of course, all those things are important, but I very much agree with the points that Patrick Harvie was making about social enterprises when he said that essentially it is a different approach that social enterprises come forward with. It is a more ethical approach. There is not the same focus on the profit and loss account or the balance sheet. There tends to be a more collective approach amongst the people who run the social enterprises and use the social enterprises. That therefore leads to more ethical trading conditions and better conditions to work in. Monica Lennon was witness in the fact that 72 per cent of the enterprises pay the living wage and that 64 per cent were led by women. Clearly, there are trailblazers in areas that we would want to be best practice in the Scottish economy. I also think that they play an important role in taking on many of the challenges that we have in community throughout Scotland. We have a growing elderly population, which is good that people are able to live older. With that comes challenges. Some elderly people, particularly if their partner passes away, have an issue of loneliness. If they are able to participate in a social enterprise or a social enterprise is able to interact with providing a service, that is very important for those elderly people. Social exclusion remains a challenge in some communities where there is a lot of deprivation. People are not included in traditional employment opportunities and social enterprises are better at reaching out to that and ensuring that people get their chances. It is also fair to say that there has been more pressure on public service budgets in recent years. There have been cuts and that has left a shortfall on a gap, but social enterprises have been good at filling. My region is a Glasgow MSP. Locally, there are many good examples of social enterprise. Patrick Harvie has a member's debate on that issue coming up tomorrow night. Rather than the healthy and happy, which are a local charity, I have a couple of social enterprise initiatives. One is the Cam Glen bike town, which is great at promoting cycling and participation in cycling. Something that is really important. I made a good member's debate last week on the European Championships and spoke about the importance of building on the legacy of that. Organisations like the Cam Glen bike town can provide a lot of support to that by encouraging people to cycle. Not only that, but by promoting greater infrastructure for cycling and also helping people with the repair and maintenance of their bikes. Healthy and happy also has the number 18 social enterprise facility, which is a former church in Rutherglen and which is used as a community facility for many groups in the area, including Cam Glen radio, which I was honoured to be able to visit. The other point that I would make in this discussion is that I think that there has to be more use made of co-operatives. I declare an interest as a member of the co-operative party. I am convener of the cross-party group in co-operatives. We recently had a good discussion about housing co-ops led by Whitlerburn housing co-operative at the last meeting. Monica Lennon mentioned some of the challenges that there are around housing. West Whitlerburn housing co-op has been a shining example in addressing some of those challenges in that local area. However, there has not been any housing co-ops established in Scotland for 15 years. We are missing a trick, both in terms of housing but generally in co-ops and not promoting them enough. I would like to see the Scottish Government make co-operatives and co-operative development Scotland more central to its economic and social strategy. I want to agree with everyone else on supporting social enterprises, but I emphasise that we need to bring co-ops more into the Scottish Government's economic strategy. I would be interested to hear the cabinet secretary's views on that in summing up. I was looking back at last spoke in a debate on social enterprise in February 2017. Since then, I think that we would all agree that the sector has developed. Although there have been some of the issues and challenges that people have mentioned today, including raising public understanding of social enterprises, probably continue. I understand that, as others have said, there is no legal definition of a social enterprise, but there is a clear voluntary code with certain criteria, values and behaviour. The key ones being that a social enterprise must be selling goods or services, profits must not be distributed and they should be managed in an accountable and transparent way. If we leave aside housing associations, which certainly in my mind are a distinct sector, as Willie Rennie was suggesting, one of the largest social enterprises in Scotland would be the WISE group, which I think many will have heard of and which is based in my constituency in the east end of Glasgow. They are involved in a range of areas, including community justice, helping people coming out of prison, getting into work, supporting people looking for employment, energy advice and support. From their 2017 accounts, we see that their turnover was £13.7 million and their average number of employees was £236 million. Although many social enterprises are quite small and local, and that is a really good thing, we can see that it is also possible to have large and national social enterprises. That makes me think that there is potential to have more of them on a larger scale. For example, the WISE group operates beyond Scotland in the north-east of England as well. Ownership is an issue that has been mentioned already. Clearly, there are a variety of ownership models for organisations. Those ownership models, to me, are inextricably linked to the purpose of the organisation. Sometimes, on the economy committee and maybe in Parliament as a whole, we focus mainly on what a business is actually producing. Is it building nuclear submarines? Is it involved in renewables? Is it in tourism or the hospitality sectors? Perhaps we do not concentrate so much on the ownership model and what that is, and related to that ownership model, what is the motive and purpose of the organisation. I believe that ownership tends to drive the purpose of an organisation and, in most cases, a private company or a listed company will be aiming first and foremost at maximising profit. They may have other aims as well—maybe a good supplier, a good customer or a good employer—but if the profit is going entirely to one owner or a group of owners or to a wider range of institutional shareholders, that is bound to affect the way the organisation behaves. However, there are clearly other models of ownership that perhaps both public and we in the Parliament give less attention to. For example, employee ownership is one model and a co-operative, as Mr Kelly has been saying, is another model. A social enterprise is not a specific model of ownership, but, like a charity, any profits will be reinvested and not distributed. That means that it would still not want to run at a loss, but the incentive to make profits at all costs is reduced. Motivation is important for an organisation, too. Brian Souter said in relation to the bus sector that it was difficult to get a public service ethos into a private bus company. Ownership is important and affects how an organisation is seen, both by those inside and outside of that organisation. The fact that an organisation is not run for profit or purely for profit, I believe, does change the perception of staff, of customers and of the wider public. The document Scotland's social enterprise strategy 2016-26 makes some very interesting reading two years after its publication. I particularly wanted to focus on some of the things that it says on pages 11 and 12, where it talks about future influences and trends, and some of those were and are both opportunities and challenges. To take just a few of them, one is under the political and legislation side. There are opportunities under early learning and childcare. That sector is clearly developing and has many opportunities, but perhaps still we have uncertainty about how much will be public sector provision, how much will be private sector provision and how much might fall under social enterprise. Under public services, there is the suggestion of more preventative services. I think that that has moved more slowly, and the jury is still out as to where we are going on that, because of the fact that we have to disinvest in reactive services if we are going to invest more in preventative services. Therefore, perhaps the social enterprise sector has not been able to develop as much in that area as it was hoped. Demographic change is also mentioned, an ageing and changing population, and I think that there are opportunities. However, the challenge is that if you take a large area, a council area, providing guaranteed care services—and my mother is a recipient of those in South Lanarkshire—if you take a larger population like that, it is a challenge. You can see why local authorities might be more inclined to provide, through their own larger in-house provision, rather than trying to deal with a number of smaller social enterprises. Those are the kind of challenges that we need to face. Ethical consumption is also mentioned, and there is definitely an opportunity. However, it is harder for people on a limited income who are virtually forced to buy the cheapest product, as all that they can afford, to also be looking at some of the ethical issues around that. A rebalanced economy is said in the paper that the continuing long-term priority of achieving a more balanced economy is driving a broader and more diverse business base. That implies a growing need to foster social entrepreneurship, increase the rate of social enterprise formation and encourage more diverse forms of business ownership. Are we making progress on that? I am not sure. I totally agree that we need a more balanced economy and a broader, more diverse business base. However, I have to confess that, in practice, when I go for a coffee to meet someone in Glasgow, it is just very easy to go to Caffe Nero or Costa, rather than making the effort to go to one run by a social enterprise. I think that we have some distance to go on a number of these points, and we need to keep this under review. What else can we do in Parliament and in committees like the economy committee in supporting and encouraging social enterprise? I feel that I am running out of time, so I think that I would be better. If I can just mention one other thing, that would be the Glasgow social enterprise network, which has been established mainly during 2017 and is now incorporated as a company limited by guarantee, and I believe is leading the way specifically in social enterprise in the Glasgow third sector interface. They talk about some of the things that they have been doing, such as facilitating space for members, a platform to form partnerships and other great things. In conclusion, I very much welcome the forum coming to Edinburgh. I wish them well, and I am sure that they will be considering some of the issues in the coming days. Thank you very much, Mr Mason. I call Jamie Halcro Johnston to be followed by Tom Arthur. I join other members in welcoming the social enterprise world forum to Edinburgh after 10 years. This week's forum will be a truly collaborative event with a range of sponsors from the world of business and enterprise, as well as local organisations like the University of Edinburgh. It is also positive to see the support from the partner organisations, the British Council community enterprise in Scotland, the Scottish Government and social enterprise UK. It has undoubtedly been a successful decade for social enterprise in Scotland. As MSPs, we have seen many become established in our communities over those years, no doubt across every region represented here in Parliament. Other Scottish social enterprises, such as Social Byte, have gained an international reputation and more are looking towards exporting beyond our borders. Social enterprises have a significant role to play in our economy, as well as working towards socially conscious ends and responsible business practices. In many cases, people can see directly the benefits that accrue from well-run social enterprises, reinvesting profits from their services back into communities and other projects. We have also heard previously about the opportunities presented in terms of building productivity, skills development and, of course, employment. I am pleased to look at so many social enterprises in my area and see the possibilities that they have created in employment particularly. As Dean Lockhart and Monica Lennon said, many are led by women, rather than in conventional businesses. Others have provided fantastic new opportunities to people with disabilities. In my region, the Highlands and Islands accounts for an enormous proportion of Scotland's social enterprise landscape. As we know, the Highlands and Islands Enterprise area accounts for just 9 per cent of Scotland's population but contains within it some 22 per cent of Scotland's social enterprises. Those organisations have thrived in rural communities, but most especially in those that are remote. Again, the social enterprise census illustrates this well, showing that 34 per cent of Scotland's social enterprises are found in rural areas. On my region, this is quite evident. In many cases, social enterprises are created by necessity. Sometimes it is in response to a service provided by a local business who is being lost. Sometimes it is about providing the sort of services that are taken for granted in a central belt. On other occasions, it is in response to a public service being withdrawn, with local people coming together to take over the reins. In many cases, we see social enterprises finding a gap in a marketplace and offering something new. Cope in Shetland has, for some years, built up an excellent social enterprise for local people, while also providing employment and skills development for people with learning difficulties or on the autism spectrum disorders. It is also an organisation that has shown significant growth. I hope that that will strike a chord with the minister, having, as her colleague Jamie Hepburn recently visited Cope, and I do not believe that I am overemphasising his comments and saying that he was clearly impressed by what he saw in Shetland. I hope that he will be able to... Yes, of course. Cabinet Secretary. In the summer months, I had a real privilege of seeing some of the work that Cope do through the Shetland soap. Equally, like my colleague Jamie Hepburn, I was equally impressed by the real work and commitment and passion and the impact that they have in Shetland. Thank you very much for that intervention, and I certainly agree with you. I hope that you and the minister will help to spread some of the lessons that you learned from places like Shetland and the good practice that they do. In addition, other social enterprises in my region act to preserve local heritage and boost their local area by providing visitor attractions. In 2004, when I was a young candidate just starting out in this politics game, I visited Nicando Wolladmill in Murray, which at the time was an entry in the BBC's restoration series. It was a place steeped in over 200 years of history but which was in a poor state of repair and struggling to survive. In 2014, it reopened, and now Nicando has both a history and a future, saved by those who worked hard and recognised the importance of our rural past. Others have grown to become indispensable parts of their communities, promoting mental health, tackling addiction, and giving ex-offenders a second chance. I visited Bly Trust in Orkney last summer and learned about the fantastic work that they do in supporting those that they work with for providing opportunities within their catering and gardening social enterprises. As a member of the economy committee, we had the opportunity to explore some of the work of social enterprises during our recent inquiry into Scotland's economic performance, as others have mentioned today. To get a better grasp of the status of social enterprises in Scotland, we do need better information. The social enterprise census is a starting point, but much of the information about the performance of social enterprises is impossible to find. In many cases, some of the issues that surround social enterprises also overlap with other small businesses. For many who may consider establishing a social enterprise, they do not feel that they have the skills and the knowledge to do so. My party has tried to address this by outlining the need for the promotion of social enterprises and indeed businesses generally within education, inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs. We also know well the challenges that small local businesses can face in accessing public sector procurement, again, as has been mentioned earlier. We can also have a look at the many successes where they are supported to do so both at national level and locally. Because at its core diversity within our economy is undoubtedly positive, social enterprises particularly can adapt to local change. They can reflect local circumstances and priorities by being grounded in a particular community. They can even bring together communities. As local people become involved and their organisations become more visible, many have led in ethical and environmentally sensitive business models too. So it is positive to see Scotland as a significant destination of interest for social enterprise and to be bringing so many from around the globe to engage in this year's world forum. Even a quick glance at the programme will show that it is truly an international event, but one plenty of opportunity to share experiences, network and to discuss the next steps for their enterprises. I wish them every success for the week ahead. Thank you very much. I call Tom Arthur to be followed by Daniel Johnson. Thank you, Presiding Officer. It is a genuine pleasure to have an opportunity to speak in this afternoon's debate. I would like to begin by welcoming Eileen Campbell to her new position and congratulating on her appointment and to pay tribute to Angela Constance for her work in the previous position. She has been such a fantastic champion for equality issues, and I am sure that we will continue to be so on the back benches. One of the great joys of debating social enterprises is that it is an opportunity to hear about the various social enterprises across Scotland. Indeed, we are having this debate because we are celebrating social enterprises from across the entire globe. I feel honour for Scotland, but I well earned one that the world forum is coming home after 10 years. Just looking at the statistics, 1,400 delegates from across the world, that is testament to the size, scale, energy and dynamism of the global social enterprise movement. Before talking about that, I want to bring things a bit closer to home to my constituency of Renfisher South to be specific. To touch on a few of the fantastic social enterprises that operate there, they give a fantastic example of the transformative impact that social enterprises can have in their communities. Take, for example, the Newstone Development Trust, which was established some years ago. Originally it was a project to take ownership of a former bank, which is now a thriving community cafe. One that I am pleased to host my surgeries into, I will add. Based on the cafe is also the Newstone-Nuplemur community first responders, a group that I have spoken about previously in this Parliament. This gives an excellent example of the partnership working that is going to exist between social enterprises and other groups. Also present in the bank cafe is a psycho repair initiative. It is playing an invaluable role in promoting active travel within Newstone and the wider East Renfisher area. I have had the privilege of meeting some of the individuals who work there. Last year, I had the opportunity to meet an individual who had recently started a training programme there, aiming for his sitting guilds. He was an individual who had come from quite a difficult background. He had been in and out of the criminal justice system and had, perhaps, to some extent lost hope. The opportunity to gain a set of skills, working and learning cycle maintenance was absolutely transformative for him. He gave him a real sense of pride and a sense of ambition, rather than thinking on the past and what might have been he was talking about in the future. That is just one very small example of the incredible impact that social enterprises can have. Not just in the communities but for the individuals who work for social enterprises as well. I could not talk about Newstone Development Trust and not mention the windfall that they have received. I use that term advisedly from the sale of their state stake in the Newstone wind farm, which generated £2 million for them. That is not a substantial sum of money that they have at their disposal. I have been pleased to have conversations with Newstone Development Trust, on which I know that we will be looking to use that windfall to maximise opportunities for other groups and individuals within the Newstone and wider area. I also want to touch upon the local energy action plan, which is based in Lachwyn. I can also operate in Bridges of Weir and my colleague Derek Mackay's constituency. We do a range of excellent work promoting energy and environmental efficiencies. For example, we have a car club. They provide advice and support that are involved in food sustainability. I am looking forward to working with them as we move into the winter months to provide information and support from my constituents to ensure that they can stay warm this winter but in a way that does not break through the piggy bank. I also want to highlight active communities. They are originally a paisley-based organisation. I know that my colleague George Adam is speaking later, so I am sure that we will hear plenty about paisley-based organisations. They also operate within Johnston as well. I want to highlight a project that we are currently involved in, which is to take over the former Johnston police station. We have recently been awarded £10,000 from the Renfisher Council community empowerment fund. I want to pay tribute to my SNP colleague, Councillor Ian Nicholson, who is the leader of Renfisher Council and the Administration for the energy and drive that they have shown in engaging with social enterprises and community groups across the Renfisher. Indeed, in my Renfisher south constituency, active communities started 15 years ago as a jogging and walking group. It has now expanded into a range of other areas with more than 700 people participating every single week. Their projects and vision for what I hope will be the successful acquisition of the former Johnston police station are really impressive, including setting up of a men's shed and also to provide a permanent base for Kairos, which is a new and inclusive women's initiative that is pioneering, which is led and developed by local women, which presides drop-in sessions and personal development courses. As I move on to my conclusion, I want to pick up a few of the marks that were made by other members and contained in one or two of the Opposition amendments. I think that one of Colin's amendments in speaking about filling the gap made a very important point. There is a gap to be filled as a consequence of austerity. Given the nature of this debate, I do not want to engage in political point of scoring, but there are challenges that we face that cannot be met by the state or local government in these times, and social enterprises pay an invaluable role. Along with many other people in society, for example, are unpaid carers. They really are the unsung heroes and so many services simply could not be delivered without their effort and energy. I finally want to highlight a remark that is not in the chamber at the moment, but Patrick Harvie made, which was that speaking to social enterprises as a model for the wider economy, that he spoke of an economy driven by values. That reflects something that Duncan Forbes from Social Enterprise Scotland stated in a recent blog. He said in terms of struggling to almost define social enterprises, which has been a theme of this debate, but Duncan Forbes stated, ultimately, it is about building a new kind of economy where everyone is included and where everyone can prosper. We want to drive forward wealth creation, ethical business practice and fair workplaces. In times and perhaps in many of our debates, we can look at wealth creation, fair work or ethical business practices as existing in silos and being independent and separate from each other. In social enterprises, we see them all working together and we see the benefit they bring. Social enterprises will continue to deliver for our local communities. We provide a model for the kind of economy that we can aspire to be in the future. I just wish to conclude by wishing all the delegates to the forum the very best for the successful week. Thank you very much, Mr Arthur. I call Daniel Johnson to be followed by George Adam. Mr Johnson, please. I would like to begin just by drawing members' attention to my register of interests. I am a company director of a business with retail interests in Edinburgh, but that is also why I am very pleased to speak in this debate. Indeed, I think that in some ways I want to follow on from the remarks that Tom Arthur just made, because I think that this is an opportunity not just to reflect on social enterprises themselves, but to reflect on the changing face of business and the very real role that social enterprises have played in that changing role. I am an unapologetic child of the 80s. When you say business to me, even as someone who has worked in business, I cannot help but think of images of the film Wall Street and Gordon Gekko, red braces and business driven by asset stripping and profiteering off the job losses of downtrodden workers. Indeed, I think that there is much in business that is unpalatable, but I think that it is also something that has changed remarkably so in recent years. When I think about my working life as somebody who started work at the beginning of this millennium, or just before it, we have gone from a situation where business saw social responsibility as something that they had to do. It was something that they tucked at the end of their annual report to what we see today. I go to meetings of the CBI and other business organisations and they recognise that diversity is core to what they do. Social responsibility is not just something that they add on to their business, but it is core to the way that they run their businesses and that their businesses are better for doing so. For me, it is not a coincidence that through this period of time we have also seen the hugely important role of social enterprise. While some people in the chamber this afternoon have questioned whether there is a need for a definition, it is difficult to define social enterprise. They are very diverse, but at their core there are three critical elements. One is that they are unashamedly commercial. They do seek to run a business and develop a profit. Critically, that profit is reinvested along the lines of both their wider social aims and their core purposes. It is where I take slight issue with what John Mason was saying, that profit itself is not the problem. It is what that profit is used for. That is very true for social enterprise, but it is true for the wider private business as well, because good business reinvests its profit both in its productive capacity and in its workers. That is critical. That is the example that social enterprise can provide. That is why I am proud to be speaking in this debate, speaking from Labour benches, because I think that there is a Labour case for business. We have a strong record. We have a strong record in terms of creating social investment. Scotland is my colleague Monica Lennon pointed out. I fundamentally believe that business at its best creates opportunity. It creates work and jobs, jobs that are not just merely about earning a wage, but jobs that empower the individual and that businesses that do so do so by supporting, nurturing and including their workers. The change that we see in modern businesses is that they recognise that that is not just a good thing to do for wider reasons, but that it actually makes their businesses more productive. Especially as we move towards a knowledge economy, that becomes critical. The only way that you can be a productive business in the knowledge economy is if you include your workers, you empower your workers, you reinvest the old model of asset stripping business, profiteering business, business that seeks to extract profit for private good, is simply bust and belongs to the past. Gordon Geco may not be gone, but we are in a period of change. The one question that I would pose is whether we are right to treat social enterprise as such a different category of business. What is of critical importance is that, as the Government looks at its policy of supporting social enterprise, it does so in an integrated way across its enterprise policy. I very much support the comments to that end that other members have made. It would be entirely remiss of me to make this speech, mentioning social enterprises in my constituency. I would just like to disagree with everyone in the chamber that it is Edinburgh's southern that is the true home of social enterprise in Scotland. Let me give you two examples of why. First, I will dig in in Brunsfield in my constituency, which is a fantastic example of the community coming together in the face of the loss of a local independent business to create a community greengrocer. Over 200 people came together to form that at their first meeting with 300 people owning shares, and it has now been in existence for the past four years and very successfully so as well. Likewise, I would like to highlight the work of the bike station. Indeed, one aside, there seems to be a common thread. The bicycle seems to be fundamental to an awful lot of social enterprise in Scotland. I do not know what that is, but it may be something to look at. It grew from an informal bike swap in Sheen's primary school in my constituency, recycling bikes, teaching bicycle maintenance. Its most recent balance bike project has delivered more than 100 bikes to nurseries across the Lothian region, making sure that all young children learn those vital early habits in terms of their health and fitness. What they have in common is investing back, as I was saying earlier in my contribution, into their wider aims, but also doing so being conscious of the wider benefits and the wider community, which I think is what is so vital with social enterprise. It is hugely important that we recognise the importance of this conference and that it is happening in Edinburgh. It is a huge benefit when Edinburgh and Scotland host discussions about social enterprise or other initiatives. We must also look towards the future of social enterprise, making sure that it is not just a sticking plaster for other services in our community, as we have spoken to in the Labour amendment. Likewise, I think that it is properly supported within the broader context of our enterprise strategy asset and the Tory amendment, which is why I will be supporting both of those this evening. I call George Adam to be followed by Jeremy Balfour. Mr Balfour will be the last speaker in the open debate. The debate is a perfect opportunity to celebrate the progress that we have made in the past 10 years and to acknowledge all that Scotland is doing to promote social enterprise, not just home but globally. For me, it is also an opportunity to draw attention to the excellent work that is going on in my constituency and wider remfisher community. I say wider remfisher community, but it just means paisley. While it is phenomenal that Scotland is recognised as a world leader in the facilitation and promotion of social enterprise, it is important for me to look past this global praise and examine the great work that is going on in all our constituencies. Just last week, during the programme for government debate, I stressed that the heart of everything that the Government is doing is dignity and respect and the drive to put people first. Drawing attention to and supporting local social enterprise does exactly what those organisations have the ability to really make a difference within our communities to effect positive change. Unlike traditional businesses that focus on making profits for shareholders, the social enterprise model uses business practices to achieve socially positive goals. That could be anything from delivering youth activities to running a community hall. I have seen the success of the first hand in my constituency and know that the benefits can be life changing for many people. In paisley alone, the social enterprise model benefits thousands within the community and there are plenty of excellent organisations that I could name as a testament to Scotland's success as a social enterprise advocate. Initially, I was wondering what I would discuss and what I would mention first. Then, while I was listening to Mr Mason's contribution, I remembered that I could start with one that I am involved with myself, which is the Submarine Independent Supporters Association, a not-for-profit community trust of which I am convener, who now owns 28 per cent of the stock of Submarine Football Club. Working with Gordon Scott, we are on target to have a majority share of the club in eight years' time. This is an important debate within our community and our national sport in general, as in who ends up owning the football clubs at the end of the day. One of the things that we found difficult during the negotiations was bearing in mind that we, as a social enterprise, as a not-for-profit trust, were negotiating with an organisation that was full of business people who were purely thinking on a business basis. That was a difficult thing for us to overcome to get to the stage, but now, luckily, we have 1,300 Submarine supporters and Paisley Buddies putting in between £12 and £25 per month, and I have all bought into that long-term goal. The whole idea is that managers and football can, they may come and go, and a lot of them have been coming and going, and it is in one part quite a lot recently. Star players may shine brightly for a while, but it is the fans and the community at a club that will always be with the team. There is no right or wrong way to ensure fan ownership of Scotland's football teams. In this debate, there is no right or wrong way for a social enterprise to go forward as long as it sticks by its ideals and its own beliefs and what it wants to achieve. However, an idea and an ideal that is time has actually come. I could give another example of, in my constituency, the Thomas Coates memorial church, a massive Baptist church that was made by the Coates fire cotton barn family, which has now been closed because the church growers could no longer sustain a building of that size. It is a cathedral-like building. There is a trust being set up, which I have said I would quite happily be a member, in order to see how we find a future for this one building and how we find a sustainable future for that building. That is the way that I can see social inclusion and social businesses making a difference in our communities. There is also the STAR project in Paisley, which is an award-winning organisation that has delivered sustainable and positive social outcomes since opening its doors in 1999. It employs a person-centred approach, delivery group and individual support plans and works constantly with local and national strategies to build safer, more connected and resilient families and communities. I visited the STAR project last year and spoke to constituents and saw for myself what the programme does and what it means to people. Organisations such as the STAR project go a long way towards tackling inequalities by helping people with everything from battling loneliness to applying for benefits. Above all, the STAR project equips people with the connections and confidence to thrive, which in turn encourages growth throughout the community. With that in mind, it is clear that social enterprises can directly help to address the underlying causes of poverty and inequality in our communities and ensure that everyone is able to live in a fairer, healthier and happier country. Where all people are valued and able to achieve their potential, 45 per cent of social enterprises have stated that one of their main objectives is to create employment opportunities by helping to unlock the full potential of more people furthest from the labour market. Social enterprises not only connect people with their communities but can help harness productive capacity and therefore strengthen long-term economic performance. That is another excellent example of social enterprise in my constituency, which is Loud and Proud organisation, run by Tommy McGrawry. Loud and Proud has been reuniting Paisley's passion for music for over 10 years and during that time have helped countless students access and achieve success in the music industry. While making a huge contribution to the regeneration of Paisley as a whole, their main goal is to educate, train and prepare students for a career in either music or music technology at the same time give others the ability to simply play and enjoy. It is proven time and time again how successful music is at connecting people from the far corners of our community but too often young people face barriers and roadblocks to their dreams and aspirations. Loud and Proud has been knocking down those barriers and the results have been tenfold. While enjoyment is at the heart of what they do, I know that Tommy equally focuses on knowledge and discipline that he can pass on to his young students. The self-discipline that is needed for excellence in the music business, such as time-keeping preparation, relying on others, being relied upon and working as a team, all valuable skills in that industry. Social enterprise is the way forward and we must do all that we can to remain at the forefront of global developments in this area and make sure that we remain committed to funding and supporting local organisations. They really can change people's lives and reshape whole communities in the process and they can regenerate our communities. I call Jeremy Balfour, who will then move to the closing speeches. Six-minute warning has been issued. Mr Balfour, I like everyone else so far. I want to welcome this debate and welcome the delegates to Edinburgh. Social enterprise is good for the Scottish economy. It makes a £2 billion economic contribution to our economy, and that is something that we should welcome and appreciate. However, it has its roots often in small projects. 43 per cent of social enterprise have an income of less than 50,000. It employs 80,000 FTE across the whole of our country. As we have already heard, 61 per cent of social enterprise are run by women far higher than in any other sector. As well as having a higher proportion of women running it, many social enterprises, as we have just heard from the previous speakers, seek to engage with those who are seeking to get back into employment who are struggling to do that. Whether that is older people, disabled people, those from ethnic minorities or other categories within our society. I think that that is something that we should welcome and encourage. There becomes the challenge. We have heard over the past couple of hours that the heartwarming stories of how good social enterprises have been in different communities, how they have been successful, how they have attracted employment and how they have gone from strength to strength. Being the final speaker, I am Mr Petra Mystic. The one social enterprise that I was involved in through a charity that I used to be involved in went belly up after six months. The reason it went belly up was not because it did not have a good model, not because it did not have good leadership, because I was part of it. The problem was that there was a tension between how we attract people into employment who are difficult to place and at the same time making enough money to keep the social enterprise going. Willie Rennie made a helpful observation, but there are lots of social enterprises who are running at a loss or nearly running at a loss. There is a challenge for those who are seeking to set up social enterprise. We want to encourage people into the workplace who perhaps have not had that opportunity, either through the public or private sector. However, how do we get those people into employment? How do we give them the training and at the same time have a model that will work and will be sustainable? For those social enterprises that we have heard about today who have had success, we need to be able to, and hopefully this week here in Edinburgh, we will be able to hear of good practice and schemes that have worked so that people can learn from that, see where the mistakes are and move on from that. I think that there is, as again previously mentioned, a role for government both here in Scotland and at Westminster and within our local authorities. I am delighted that we have the city deal here for Edinburgh and the south-east of Scotland. It is going to bring in millions of pounds into the economy. We are going to see innovation hubs started in some of our universities. We are going to see the arts here in Edinburgh benefit because of national and local government coming together. However, I think that there needs to be a role for social enterprise in all of this. We need to make sure that we do not leave behind the more difficult communities within Lovian, within the Borders and within Fife. I think that social enterprise can be used with government-targeted funding, with local authority-targeted funding, to help those who are struggling to get into employment, particularly those with disabilities. We need to give them that experience so that they can learn from it. I think that this has been a helpful debate, an encouraging debate, but there are lessons to learn and challenges ahead. I too want to wish well to all those that are meeting within the capital over this week and hope that the lessons that they learn can be fed down to all organisations across Scotland. I am pleased that all members are present for closing speeches apart from those who asked for, requested and have been granted leave not to be in the chamber. There is a big plus for today. It has made my day. I now go on to closing speeches. I call on Alec Rowley to close for Labour. Six minutes please, Mr Rowley. I am pleased to close the debate for Labour today. We would also like to extend a welcome to social enterprise world forum as it comes to Scotland this year. I would also wish the cabinet secretary the very best in her new role. As James Kelly said, Scotland is an excellent choice to host this gathering as we have an array of world class social enterprises operating throughout the country. That includes my home area of Fife. Fife social enterprise network was actually the first local social enterprise network to start up. The first meeting took place in 2004 at Furniture Plus in Dysart and they continue to hold regular meetings. There are over 160 social enterprises in operation across Fife and they have a total income in excess of £26 million. In Clackmannanshire, Stirling and across mid Scotland in Fife, social enterprise play an important part in our daily rife. Both Willie Rennie and Bruce Crawford highlighted some of those. As the motion notes and as the cabinet secretary said, the inaugural world forum event took place here in Edinburgh 10 years ago, so it is only fitting that the 10th anniversary of this event, one that will bring delegates from all over the world together, once again returns to Scotland. Social enterprise Scotland has stated that the purpose of the world forum is for social enterprise leaders, practitioners and supporters from all over the world to come together to share the knowledge, build networks and discuss practical ways to build a more sustainable economy. That comes at a time when more and more people are realising that the current way our economy and society works is not fair and is not set up to deliver in the interests of the many. The gathering is certainly something that we should welcome, celebrate and encourage more off, especially given the fact that social enterprises play such a vital role in our communities and also significantly contribute to our economy as a whole. I would also like to add to what Monica Lennon said and focus on the social good of many local social enterprises working at the community level, providing many high quality social services from care for the elderly, transport to supporting people into employment and often the last line of defence against some of the deep-rooted poverty and deprivation that exists in far too many communities across Scotland. Focusing on this area of work, I would have to say that many organisations have also felt the impact of failed austerity and cuts to the public services but there is also, I believe, a missed opportunity to grow this sector as John Mason touched on. Community planning partnerships were meant to work in such a way that they brought all the key players together and focused all of the resources on achieving the outcomes set by the partnerships. I believe much more needs to be done to ensure the ability and effectiveness of social enterprises to reach communities and achieve the strategic policy objectives of government is recognised. On top of the economic and social importance, many social enterprises are also leading the way in creating progressive, fair and equal workplaces, the kind that we need to see more of in Scotland. This was highlighted by Patrick Harvie. 70 per cent of Scotland's social enterprises are led by an accountable two people in their local communities. 64 per cent are led by women. 72 per cent pay all employees the real living wage. Further to that, they also have a smaller wage gap between the highest and the lowest paid in their organisations, something that many of our large organisations, both in the private and public sector, could learn from. It can, at times, be difficult to define what a social enterprise actually is but, at its core, a social enterprise is a more ethical, dynamic and independent way to do business. As Daniel Johnson pointed out, it is a business with social objectives whose surplices are reinvested for the purpose either in the business itself or with the community rather than being driven to maximise return for shareholders and owners. Organisations such as this have such an important role to play, especially with the current climate of ideologically driven austerity, as a number of speakers have highlighted. It is fortunate that there are organisations out there trying their best to mitigate against some of the worst effects of the rise of austerity we have seen over these last few years. Dean Lockhart talked about the need for more investment, but this is a contradiction to his and the Scottish Tories' support for austerity. We need a rethink when it comes to Tory party and its zealous austerity agenda continuing to chip away at our public services and their ability to invest in areas like in social enterprise. Tom Arthur made the point that he did not want to make this about politics, but I say when we are debating the importance of social enterprise that it is crucial to highlight the negative impact of failed Tory austerity for you will not create a better society whilst promoting inequality through austerity and you will not grow a dynamic community-led social enterprise approach against a backdrop of deep-rooted cuts. The speeches today all recognise the massive potential of growing the sector of our economy. We need to follow that up with resources and investment, and that means an end to austerity and recognition for the need for investment and growth right across Scotland. I would like to join with my colleagues across the chamber to welcome the social enterprise world forum back to Scotland and congratulate all those involved in organising and delivering the event. As we have heard, the forum enables social enterprises from across the world to share wisdom, build networks and explore how to create a more sustainable future. There is no doubt that this opportunity to share stories of success and failure can be one of the most important things in progressing a business. Discussing those challenges that they have faced and the support and skills that might have moved them forward or have moved them forward are essential in terms of their learning. However, today's debate in this chamber has also given us the opportunity to share our own stories of the fantastic social enterprises around Scotland, from Bruce Crawford's detailed description of Calender Scotland's first social enterprise town to Gordon Lindhurst's quotes from Johnnie Kinross from the grass market project. I had the privilege to work with Johnnie 10 years ago when I was involved in setting up and running a social enterprise and a charity, and Johnnie came to work for us. I know that Johnnie's commitment to social enterprise is second to none. For that reason, Johnnie's words about the impact that it has not only on the community it delivers to, but on the people who work for social enterprises who sit very comfortably with me. He is absolutely right. It is incredibly meaningful to people when they can get involved. Social enterprises came about in the recognition that there were organisations using the power of business to bring about social and environmental change. Monica Lennon highlighted that and highlighted the way in which social enterprises have a strong history of responding to social challenges. That is exactly what they have been doing. What we have recognised over the last few years is their massive growth. There has been a huge growth in the number of social organisations that identify as social enterprises over the last 20 or 30 years. For that reason, I very much welcome the cabinet secretary's support that the Scottish Government is currently giving and is going on to give to social enterprise because it is not about just whether we need them. I am sad that there has been a move to politicising this debate, but it is also about whether we want them and how we want them, how we want to organise them, how we want to control them, whether they need to be regulated, how much support they actually need. We have seen in their operation the potential to create an increased sense of community belonging as well as providing better access to services for those who are often marginalised in their communities. John Mason spoke very eloquently about the different models of organisations that have been around and are around, whether it is co-op, social enterprises or extremely well run businesses. All of them actually play their part in supporting community benefit. He talked about the challenge in how you create a better community than the need to upstream money to that preventative work, which is actually very difficult to do. We have a real opportunity with social enterprises to actually facilitate that move that I know the Scottish Government originally spoke about 10 years ago because I gave evidence to them on it. I think that most of us across this chamber want to see. If we can actually get that upstreaming of funding and of operations that will come with a mixed economy, we absolutely should be celebrating that across all parties. Social enterprises are a vital part of democracy and Government and Surround the Globe are coming to recognise their value. It is good to see Scotland at the forefront of this development. I think that we can, as the cabinet secretary said, be rightly pleased that we have a leading place in the development of social enterprises. But they are businesses and they do require the skills and approaches that will ensure their sustainability. If we do not recognise that, we will get increased failure and we will get people coming in thinking that it is an easy way to operate, to earn a living. It is not. It is hard. I know that I have done it. I am still doing it. As Willie Rennie identified, 41 per cent of social enterprises returned a loss in the last year. That should raise significant alarm bells if sustainability is our watchword. Quite a lot of people talked about defining a social enterprise and the importance of that. Yes, it is important, but I agree with Daniel Johnson and others who said that we should be careful when we start defining it, because good businesses also lend to our social welfare. We do not want to constrain entrepreneurs an opportunity by putting too strict a process around it. However, we do need to define it well enough to make sure that they are sustainable. A number of speakers talked about the need to ensure that. Gordon Lindhurst talked about the need for a flexible and holistic Scottish model of impact measurement. That is absolutely something that I think we should think about, because it will help us to understand what is happening and it will help us to direct our support appropriately to ensure that things are sustainable. Each and every one of us can make a contribution to that. I must echo my colleague, Dean Lockhart, when he said that the Scottish Government must take seriously its role to provide a clear and structured framework for social enterprise and to allow for more certainty in the sector. They do need business support and we must get that to them. I just quickly, before I close, because I know that the Presiding Officer is going to ask me to do so now, mention a couple of enterprises in my own area that I was very impressed with when I visited them. One of them is called the You Can Cook project from Peebleshire, which has now established an official partnership with the University of Edinburgh business school to promote an eat healthy, live healthy lifestyle. It also promotes social enterprise to students and graduates with the aim of inspiring more students to get involved with social enterprise projects. I think that these are the kind of things that we need to look for. As Jamie Halcro Johnson emphasised, in many cases local people are able to see the benefits of those well-run social enterprises quickly as they are reinvested back into community projects. I know that you must conclude. In conclusion, I want to just thank everybody involved in this forum. In terms of the motions, sadly, we will be supporting the Government's motion but we won't be able to support Labour's because you have politicised the language in this. Social enterprise is not a political issue. It is a community benefit issue that we are all involved with. I will now call Irene Campbell to close the cabinet secretary till decision time, please. Today's debate has been an absolute pleasure to be part of members from across the country, describing the real sense of pride, the social enterprises in their constituencies and regions, and giving a flavour of the variety and scale of work happening in villages and towns and cities across their length and breadth of Scotland. I am certainly looking forward to going to a calendar this evening with Bruce Crawford. I would just say to Daniel Johnson that his constituency was the home of social enterprise. I will just gently remind him that I have new land in my constituency, so I am going to claim that for my own. However, what is common to all those stories is that Scotland's social entrepreneurs are driven by a passion to improve the communities in which they live. What is also strong is the United Front that this Parliament has put on today, largely the United Front that this Parliament has put on today across all the parties to come together to celebrate the achievements in Scotland of our social enterprises and the real global lead Scotland is taking. That positivity is absolutely important as Scotland welcomes the world to the social enterprise world forum. However, it is also important that some global representatives of the social enterprise academy are here with us in the chamber today. I understand that pupils from Broughton High School have also visited the Parliament today. It is important that they hear and see that it is not just this Government that endeavours to support social enterprises but a collective endeavour that is not owned by one political party but a united Scottish approach that is not complacent but still seeks to grow and has helped to transform the approach for other businesses, as Daniel Johnson mentioned in his remarks. The contributions today and the contributors today have been constructive, insightful and considered. They are not simply about just seeking to congratulate Scotland on what we have achieved but really think about what next for Scotland and social enterprise. What more can we do as a society to rebalance our economy to create the fairness and inclusive growth that we all want to see? While we are in agreement, the debate was not without its challenge. It is difficult to single out a particular contribution, but I really valued the words of Patrick Harvie. He took a bit of a nostalgic tour of his own life, growing up with a very active mother. I can certainly relate to that as well. I would just point out that he mentioned green light. I understand that PACE is working there to provide some help and support, and I can certainly facilitate any more information on that matter. Patrick Harvie, when he described social enterprise, summed it up when he described the resource that it values as the creativity and the talents of people. That they are part of an economy driven by values. Again, that approach and that emphasis was underlined and reiterated by Tom Arthur, James Kelly and Monica Lennon. They show a potentially superior basis for economy motivated by ethical practice and localism. Given what our communities stand to gain by looking at inclusive economic growth through the prism of social enterprise, it is absolutely right that members ask the Government what more we can do. In response to some of the issues that were raised, Dean Lockhart mentioned the need to declutter the landscape. We are developing a map of the social enterprise ecosystem to simplify that landscape. The new South of Scotland agency is also looking to Highlands and Islands Enterprise as a model approach to supporting social enterprise. There is a knowledge and exchange programme between Scottish Enterprise and Just Enterprise. Those issues were raised by other members who contributed to the debate. Dean Lockhart and Gordon Lindhurst mentioned public procurement. We are funding partnership for procurement to provide free tender writing support and encourage that work to ensure that more people can get access to those opportunities. We can furnish him with more information on that. Patrick Harvie and Willie Rennie spoke about the challenge that many social enterprises face in trying to make ends meet. Again, that was a point that was raised by Jeremy Balfour. He was not being pessimistic and was a legitimate point to make. Again, Just Enterprise gives free advice and has business recovery service. We would stress to any social enterprise that is feeling the pinch to contact Just Enterprise as early as they possibly can. We are always looking to see if those things can be improved and what else support might be offered. James Kelly and Monica Lennon also mentioned co-operatives. Again, the Scottish Government funds co-operative development in Scotland to promote that model. I agree that that should be absolutely viewed as part of that wider movement in our attempt to rebalance the economy. I know growing up that my dad was part of East of Scotland Farmers Ltd. That itself is a co-operative and I know how important it is for that part of the world in Strathmore. Finally, I think that people mentioned the issue around definition. Again, I would point to the voluntary code of practice for social enterprises in Scotland as the benchmark criteria and values for any social enterprise that is establishing itself in Scotland. I want to conclude by bringing together the reasons why we value our social enterprises. Alex Rowley spoke passionately and rightly about the need for creating a fairer economy that benefits us all inclusively. It is about empowering our communities, about recognising that when we permit and allow our communities to have the chance to take charge to reimagine what life could be like, special things happen. They have a reach that probably the Scottish Government, the local government or health services just do not have. Social enterprises are nimble, agile and respond to community need. We need to acknowledge that. Alex Rowley was right to bring in community planning partnerships into this debate as we need to recognise and see a much greater recognition of what social enterprises can do at that community planning partnership level. I want to underline the fact that the reason why we are gathered here today is to welcome the social enterprise world forum. On behalf of us all, we sincerely want to welcome the world to Scotland. On behalf of us all, we want to ensure that the next 10 years of social enterprise development in Scotland is equally as exciting and helps more community organisations across Scotland to develop the work that they want in response to the community need and the challenges that they face. Together, across all those social enterprises, the variety and diversity that they bring to our communities is that we can all work to support them to create the fairer and more equal society that we all seek to see. That concludes our debate on the social enterprise world forum 2018. The next item of business is consideration of business motion 13861, in the name of Graham Day on behalf of the Parliamentary Bureau, setting out a revised programme for tomorrow. I could ask if any member wishes to speak against the motion, in which case press their request to speak button now. I call on Graham Day to move the motion. No one has asked to speak against the motion, therefore the question is that motion 13861 is agreed. Are we all agreed? Thank you. We turn to decision time. There are three questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is that amendment 1313.1 in the name of Dean Lockhart, which seeks to amend motion 13861 in the name of Aileen Campbell on the social enterprise world forum 2018 be agreed. We are agreed. The next question is that motion 13813.2 in the name of Monica Lennon, which seeks to amend the motion in the name of Aileen Campbell be agreed. Are we all agreed? No. We are not agreed. We will move to division. Members may cast their votes now. The result of the vote on amendment 13813.2 in the name of Monica Lennon is yes, 88, no 29. There were no abstentions. The amendment is therefore agreed. The final question is that motion 13813 in the name of Aileen Campbell as amended on the social enterprise world forum 2018 be agreed. Are we all agreed? We are not agreed. We will move to a vote. Members may cast their votes now. The result of the vote on motion 13813 in the name of Aileen Campbell as amended is yes, 88, no 29. There were no abstentions. The motion as amended is therefore agreed. That concludes decision time. We will move now to members' business in the name of Claire Baker on the ecology centre Kinghorn, which marks its 20th anniversary. We will just take a few moments for members and the minister to change seats. The final item of business is members' business debate on motion 10449 in the name of Claire Baker on the ecology centre Kinghorn, marks its 20th anniversary. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put, and I would ask those who wish to speak in the debate to press the request to speak buttons now, please. I call on Claire Baker to open the debate around seven minutes, please, Ms Baker. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I am delighted to be opening the debate this evening on the 20th anniversary of the fantastic ecology centre at Kinghorn Loch. I would like to welcome volunteers and staff from the ecology centre to the gallery this evening. I know that they have been working hard as well as having fun celebrating this year's landmark birthday, and I hope that they enjoy this evening's debate recognising the importance of their contribution. I would also like to thank MSPs from around the chamber for supporting my motion and today's debate. I know that many of them will have visited the ecology centre and have a high regard for them, although some are unable to take part this evening. I would also like to welcome Mary Gougeon to her new role as minister and wish her well in the challenges ahead. I know that her predecessor, Rosanna Cunningham, visited the ecology centre earlier this year, and I would invite the new minister to visit the ecology centre. I am sure that, after this evening's debate, she will be keen to visit and see all the work that she does for herself. The ecology centre has always been rooted in the local community. Over 20 years ago, a group from the local community and Craig and Colt farm got together with the intention of developing and managing Kinghorn Loch for the local community. 20 years later, it is established as the ecology centre, providing many benefits for the environment, our biodiversity and local community. In many ways, the ecology centre reflects the development of our growing interests in environmental learning, community engagement, land ownership and management over recent years. As a charitable organisation, they have developed and expanded, continued to be responsive to developing needs and changing circumstances and now have lots of innovative and exciting projects running alongside the delivery of their core mission. A key point for the ecology centre came with the successful award of funds from the Scottish land fund, enabling the ecology centre's recent move to the east side of Kinghorn Loch, where the new centre and grounds are situated. I would also like to thank Kinghorn Community Land Association for their briefing for the debate and recognise their role in supporting the successful move and the complementary work that they do with the ecology centre. The ecology centre's new facilities are fabulous, with a modern kitchen and a bright and airy room that can be used for community lunches using produce grown on the site for classes and learning opportunities and even wedding receptions. Being located on community land has opened up so much potential for the ecology centre. It has expanded the number of volunteers who work on the site as well as providing employment training opportunities through our bright future and community job Scotland. The volunteers are so important to the operation of the ecology centre, from their conservation work, their contribution to growing food, to working in the kitchen and in the tool shed. They have fantastic reuse and recycle projects and make great use of their volunteers' skills and expertise. The tool shed is a fantastic initiative that is growing from strength to strength. The tool shed is part of the men's shed initiative and offers opportunities to share interests, be social and contribute to the community. There are three refurbishing workshops held each week where donated and discarded tools are refurbished and then can be hired by the local community, cutting down on the often unnecessary purchase of tools that can sit unused in the shed for months on end. Full training and support is given to volunteers as well as opportunities to enhance employability and life skills. There is also a weekly dementia friendly tool shed. It is increasingly recognised that people with early stage dementia need greater inclusion in our society and activities that recognise the abilities that they possess and the contribution that they can make. The part of the tool shed that I love is the refurbishing of old singer sewing machines. Many of us have inherited them but they might not be working or they might no longer be needed. The tool shed will refurbish them and often send them to Malawi to support start-up businesses, particularly supporting women's empowerment and financial security. This link with international development demonstrates the breadth of projects that the ecology centre has been involved in. The volunteers are vital to the running of the site and, while they often work hard, there is always a sense of a social gathering with lunch, tea and coffee and plenty of biscuits to keep the energy levels up. The ecology centre plays an important role in the development of environmental education and outdoor learning. With growing partnerships with five schools—Burnt Island Primary School, Pathhead, Picode and Warwick Primary School—they focus on raising attainment through outdoor learning. The site is fully accessible to the public and provides an attractive community landscape for walking, exploring and relaxing. It is a haven for wildlife and a well-managed area of biodiversity. Alongside their regular activities, they also run a number of courses and activities throughout the year. Saturday was the ecology centre's 20th summer festival and it was a fantastic day for everyone who went along. The sun was shining, which was a bonus, and there were live music, games, stalls, cake and lots of positive conversations about how we can improve and enjoy our local environment. In recognition of the significance of 2018 and the achievements of the ecology centre over this time, there has been a focus on how the centre grows in the future and how it translates its inspiring message to a new generation. Back in 1998, environmental issues were still a bit niche and knowledge on the effects of climate change were fairly limited, but we have seen a lot of progress since then. There is still much to do if we are to show responsibility for future generations and other countries around the globe who are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The Scottish Government is intending to bring forward a climate change bill and the next few months will generate debate on what more Scotland can do. It is also about what we do as individuals and as communities, how we reduce our own environmental footprint. The ecology centre has been running a follower footsteps campaign to encourage behavioural change, to encourage people to stop and think, do I need to drive when I can walk or take public transport? Do I need to buy when I can hire or reuse? Do I need to tumble dry when the wind is blowing? I really wanted to hold this debate this evening because the ecology centre is a great example of a community-driven project with environmental objectives right at the heart of its work, which communicates, engages and involves local people of all ages to make a positive change in their community and fife and out in the wider world. I wish them well in the years ahead and I am pleased to have held this evening's debate so that we can all recognise their achievements. I move on to the open debate and speeches of Four Minutes, please. David Torrance, followed by Alexander Stewart. I thank Clare Baker for bringing this motion to Parliament today and raising awareness of the invaluable contribution that ecology centre and Kinghorn Fife makes to our local community. I would also like to welcome members of the centre to Parliament today as well. It is a great pleasure to be standing here today paying tribute to ecology centre, a centre that has become a pillar of the Kinghorn community for 20 years. I know the area well as long before the ecology centre was there, I used to train three times a week at a canoe club. At the time Kinghorn Lock was in an extremely polluted state due to red mud, a waste product of a nearby alcan site composed of iron and oxide, which during times of heavy rain used to seep into it. The lock was effectively dead and such was not well used by a local community. All the fish and plant life had died and the only algae in canoe is such like myself thrived. I also remember the humble beginnings of the centre. For 15 years, it operated from outbuildings near by Craig and Cowell farm. The acquisition of five acres of lachside land in the eastern shore of Kinghorn Lock and the construction of a new purpose built centre is testament to the conviction and passion of the group and was a remarkable achievement. The formation of a Kinghorn Lock users group in the 1990s, a collection of organisations including Kinghorn community council, SEPA 5 council and local clubs all worked together to ensure the recovery of the lock. Fast forward to present day and the lock is a thriving hub of activity used by a local and wider community with an abundance of wildlife and plant life following their tireless work with the ecology centre playing a vital part of that transformation. The centre is a prime example of a centre founded by local people for the benefit of local people and their local environment, creating local volunteering opportunities and jobs, contributing to a local economy, maintaining, enhancing and improving the local environment and, perhaps most importantly, bringing the local community together. However, something that is community is nothing short of an admirable. During the recent visit, I was particularly impressed with the ingenious upcycling ideas of my personal favourite being the refurbishment of shipping containers into workshops. The college centre has been invaluable in making environmental responsibility understandable and accessible to all in the local community. SEPA 5 is a centre for schools to use for outdoor and activity learning, hosting multitudes of family-friendly events to encourage families to make most of the environment and that surrounds them and providing a space for volunteers to experience growing food on their own adopted patch of land, to familiarise themselves with conservation work and its associated practices or to even to do some lunchtime cooking for other volunteers and staff at the centre. One particular unique resource that the centre provides is the tool library. The tools that have been refurbished or saved from landfill can be borrowed by members of the local community, much like a brook from a local library. The further and more months a week the centre hosts a dimensionally friendly tool shed, with those who are suffering from dementia or memory loss can come and use the tools in a safe and calm environment. Another example of how the college centre not only promotes the preservation of the environment but also promotes the preservation of the local community and its members. The centre also serves as a hub for many activities and workshops including the floweraging, tiered planting and an eco-adventure holiday club for young people. As I previously mentioned, it is not just an amazing asset for a local environment, it is a community hub for local people made and maintained by local people. That is what makes the college centre on Kingham locks so special. It is an integral part of a jigsaw that ensures the sustainability of the area and increased engagement by a wider community. To conclude, I have seen the college centre go from strength to strength over the last 20 years. I once again congratulate them on reaching this milestone and wish them all the very best for the future. Alexander Stewart followed by Alex Rowley. I am delighted to have the opportunity of speaking in this afternoon's debate. I would like to pay tribute and congratulate Clare Baker on bringing this debate to the chamber today and to welcome individuals to the gallery. The college centre originally came into being through an advisory group that is set up by people from the local community. Its 20th anniversary, as you have heard, has now occurred, celebrating success. The events that take place at the facility give opportunity for individuals to retrieve training, to receive education but also to have the facility used for themselves to celebrate their success from time to time as well. Situated in the hills of a looking Kingham lock, the centre is community-based organisation and was formally established as a non-profit making charity during August 1998. The purpose of the charity was originally to develop and manage the Kingham lock as a site for the community to use. In 2006, the decision was made to change the name of the charity to reflect its on-going progress. It successfully purchased the land at the east of Kingham lock and now houses its new centre and the grounds. The centre is currently being developed by staff and volunteers to be used for their future growing projects, environmental education visits and outdoor volunteer days. Ultimately, the centre is therefore biodiversity and a haven for wildlife. All the things that happen at the facility engage with the community. Individuals and organisations have benefited so much from it. As the charity grew, it ensured that volunteers and staff were ensuring the development of the centre. Today, there is an army of volunteers who regularly attend and help many of the varied tasks. Those volunteers are the lifeblood of the organisation, who give of their time and talents to support and ensure that the centre goes from strength to strength. I am also encouraged to hear that they employ 11 members of staff within the organisation. Training takes place and the accommodate schools and college work placements, because that is working once again hand in hand with the community and giving youngsters and students the opportunity to experience and engage with the centre. Demands on education of visits have grown and the centre now has hundreds of school children each year, helping them to understand the importance of care of the environment, which is vitally important within our curriculum and individuals can gain from that. One of the examples that I have seen and heard of is the Mini Growers Club, which is the superb initiative that gives the individuals, toddlers and preschool children the chance to be involved in gardening, exploring nature and enjoying various natural craft skills. Those are vitally important as the child develops before they even get to the primary school. The charity has also realised heavily on the wonderful volunteers that take place and the project has many little events that take place. However, I want to talk about the toolshed workshop, which takes place on a weekly basis. As many know, I am heavily involved with individuals who may have had a stroke or had a brain injury, and individuals within the complex who have got memory loss or start of dementia are targeted as individuals who can benefit extremely from the process. The centre gives them the chance to deal with and have the sessions during the week. I was most encouraged to read a testimony from one of the volunteers who said that the opportunity it gave him to go to the centre and he wished that it happened every day because it gave him the chance to get up and do something that he enjoyed. His wife then said that she looked forward to the event, because it gave her the chance to get so much needed support for herself. While her husband was being looked after, she knew that he was being securely looked after. In conclusion, I am delighted that the organisation exists in the Kingdom of Fife. I hope that people will have similar ambitions across the area because other locations have the chance to develop this. Success be success. Congratulations to all and the centre can be rightly proud of its achievements. Alex Rowley, followed by Finlay Carson. Can I first congratulate my colleague Claire Baker for securing this debate today in recognition of the great work of the ecology centre at Kinghorn? I would also congratulate the ecology centre as it celebrates its 20th anniversary, a great achievement and one that has had many challenges along the way as those from the ecology centre would, I am sure, give testimony to. Those involved over the years have remained focused and vigilant on what they wanted to achieve and you only have to look at their website or Facebook page to see the wealth of activity that they are promoting and delivering at Kinghorn Lock. I can also say that visiting the ecology centre is a great day out and one that I would recommend. I was delighted to see that in the celebration of their 20th year they have launched a project called Follow Our Footsteps as they embark on a journey to do their part in the battle against climate change and to lower our carbon footprint. The ecology centre points out that when they first started out, climate change was a bit of a niche topic and they say that it has come a long way since then. It certainly has. They also report that they have been inspired recently by the young people that they work with and their passion and determination to find solutions to the environmental challenges that we face as a country and across the globe. I think that we can all be inspired by the work of the ecology centre, particularly the work with young people, but more generally as well. I would also want to focus on the work that the centre does to raise awareness of the many environmental issues and challenges that we as a country, like every country across the world faces. Such work is groundbreaking as it reaches out into communities across Fife and further afield. Climate change poses one of the greatest threats for future generations. I am delighted that, through their project Follow Our Footsteps, the centre is going to cover new topics every month, highlighting their impact on climate change and sharing that with the wider community on their Facebook page and website, explaining how they are getting involved, what other local organisations are doing and other top tips. We need this kind of community action to build a mass movement against the causes of climate change, where we take action ourselves but also build the case in our country and across the globe for more government action on climate change. They say that from little acorns grow mighty oaks, and this is why organisations such as the ecology centre should be seen as key partners. We just had a debate in Parliament earlier today on social enterprises and the role in Scotland. I would say that this one social enterprise has set out a clear path and agenda and deserves the support of government at every level. Whether it is supporting volunteering or volunteers working with families, with children, with schools or supporting business opportunities and raising awareness of environmental issues, this centre is a massive success story that should be celebrated. Well done on 20 years and tears to a good future. The last of the open debate speakers is Finlay Carson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Having recently been appointed the Scottish Conservative spokesman on the natural environment, I am pleased to have this early opportunity in my role to speak in the debate tonight. I thank Clare Baker for bringing it to the chamber. As a farmer, the natural environment is a subject that I have long felt passionate about both in my time in politics and in my time growing up and working in what I consider Scotland's most beautiful constituency. I am quite sure that the minister might have something to say about that. Although I am a member who does not represent the area in question in tonight's debate, I wish to echo the thoughts of others and praise all those associated with the ecology centre in Kinghorn for their tireless work over the last 20 years to truly serve the community. While looking into the work of the ecology centre, I was struck by the following sentence that was found on their website that wonderfully sums up their mission. I quote, we inspire positive change through directly connecting people and the natural environment for the benefit of both. It truly has community at the heart of its activities, giving people opportunity to work in and to learn about the natural environment. With our ever more rapidly changing world, it is important that our future generations learn about the environment and where better to do that but in the countryside on their own doorstep. The ecology centre brings communities together and helps to develop confidence and skills that I am sure would not have been so easily accessed locally if the ecology centre hadn't flourished over the last 20 years. It is a real testament to the dedicated volunteers and supporters that that has been the case. I am sure that you are aware, as a member for Galloway and Western Fries, of long campaign for the region to be designated as Scotland's next national park. It would be a remiss of me not to mention the fine work on this matter carried out by my predecessor Sir Alec Ferguson. A national park would be a fitting legacy for our distinguished former presiding officer. Of course, a designated national park would be on a totally different scale to the ecology centre but there are definitely lessons that can be learned from the success of the centre over the last two decades. If a national park is to become a reality in Galloway then it's going to need the support of the community right from the start. The association behind the bed has been working across the region, engaging with community groups because it's a vital step in pressing the government for action. When I speak to locals I don't think that getting community backing will be an issue. The ecology centre is showing that if you get involved in a community while developing a project they will get behind the project and encourage other people to join in. Indeed, the ecology centre offers up apprenticeships which help our young folk to gain invaluable practical knowledge as part of their course and indeed the wider working environment around them. Equally, Galloway's environment has so much to offer locals and visitors alike. Living in the heart of a constituency I explore our wonderful natural nature on a regular basis and marvel at the rural economy and the environment that I live in. I would also like to highlight the ecology centre's positively encouraging good conservation practice, again a trait that we have been in line with practices in the national park. Protected areas can help protect some of our most important endangered species but at the same time and vitally it can help encourage sustainable economic growth. It's hardening to see the ecology centre encouraging and continuing to take those practices forward and it's something that we should all be thinking about when it comes to protecting our wildlife. I note that the centre enjoyed a day of celebration on Saturday to welcome their 20th anniversary with a fun day of events for all the family. With this centre having communicated its heart I'm sure there will be plenty more birthdays to come and I hope my region can soon be joined them in planning similar celebrations. Somewhat tenuous at times Mr Carson. I now ask the minister to respond to the debate that you have around seven minutes please minister. Thank you very much Presiding Officer and it's an absolute pleasure to be able to be here tonight to respond to this debate, which is my first member's debate to respond to. I really want to thank Claire Baker for bringing forward this motion for debate today because it really is just fantastic to hear about the impact that the ecology centre has had and the work that they do. I would completely echo the sentiments of Finlay Carson there in recognising that. I would absolutely love to take Claire Baker up on her invitation to go and visit the ecology centre because when I was looking through all the work that they've done and looking more into the background of this, I was already thinking that I thought that this sounds like a fantastic place that I really have to go and visit so really keen to make that happen. You said the magic words anyway when you mentioned the tea, coffee and plenty biscuits. Having sat next to Claire Baker on the Europe Committee, this is something that we both very much enjoyed though some definitely more so than others, not looking at anyone in particular. I would also say that it was fascinating to hear a bit more from David Torrance, who is the constituency member as well, about the background to what that area was like before and the massive changes that we have seen as a result of the work that the ecology centre has done. Local was a word that came through quite a lot in his contribution. The centre for the local people is about the local environment, the local community, local jobs and all the opportunities that that offers. Of course, that helps with the wider sustainability of the area. The ecology centre is a real community hub and I think that it is fantastic hearing about all the work that they have done. We have heard so much about that impressive work throughout the debate tonight and none of that would have happened if it had not been for the efforts of the local community and the residents of Craig and Cult farm in creating the centre at Kinghorn and Fife. The ecology centre, as we have already heard, is an inclusive community led charity that inspires positive change through directly connecting people and the natural environment. I am also very glad that the Scottish Government had some role in supporting them. In January 2014, the Scottish land fund approved a grant of £54,901 to support further development work, as Clare Baker mentioned in her contribution. With that help, the ecology centre was able to purchase the land at the east end of Kinghorn Loch, on which now sits the new centre and grounds. It is fantastic that we can be here tonight to recognise and celebrate the ecology centre's 20th anniversary in the Scottish Parliament, because it is a true success story. The Kinghorn Loch site has been continuously improved and developed by staff and volunteers over the past 20 years. As I said, we heard a lot about that from David Torrance and it continues to do that. It is promoting biodiversity, delivering community horticulture projects, environmental education and outdoor volunteering projects. That is where I was really interested to hear more about the tool library and the toolshed that was mentioned by Clare Baker and Alexander Stewart as well. The fact that that is based on the mentioned model and where the tools can actually be hired by the local community themselves, as well as the dimension friendly element to that too. Other projects that they have include the music shed, a pond for the children to do, a pond dipping, a meeting space and activities for those dealing with mental health issues, nature therapy and classes in a whole range of skills. For example, aromatherapy, flower arranging and outdoor learning, where the ecology centre works with around 30 schools across Fife. Another project that I was very much interested to hear about tonight was Alex Rowley that mentioned it and a few others. Clare Baker was the follower of our footsteps campaign and the whole climate change element. Looking at what we can do as individuals and how we have our own impact, that is something that I feel strongly about. I think that it is for Government to take a lead and to make sure that we put the correct legislation in place. We do not have to sit back and wait on that happening. There are things that the community can do, and there are things that we can do as individuals to help with that process. It is very important to highlight that. Education is a very strong element of the work. Environmental education has always been at the heart of the ecology centre. As we heard from Alexander Stewart this evening, that demand for educational visits has continued to grow. The centre now works with hundreds of school children each year, helping them to understand the importance of and how to care for our environment. The ecology centre was also one of the 16 projects that I approved recently for the outdoor learning and nature fund. Earlier this summer, I launched that fund alongside Scottish natural heritage at Jupiter, Artland and Edinburgh. The outdoor learning and nature fund is an absolutely vital project because it really aims to connect our young people from nursery age, from school age with the environment, because it is something that all children should be able to enjoy, regardless of their socio-economic background. The ecology centre was awarded £27,809 for the muddy books project, which will see them work with three schools in Fife to embed a sustainable model of progressive outdoor learning. Again, that is something that I hope to hear about when I am able to visit them. When it comes to connecting people in nature, the ecology centre is one of the key organisations in Fife that does that. It puts such a strong emphasis on creating and encouraging access to the outdoors and providing volunteering opportunities, particularly for our young people. In terms of employment, the ecology centre employs 11 members of staff, as well as providing vital employment training opportunities through Project Scotland and Community Jobs Scotland, as well as accommodating school and college placements. I know that, as we have heard tonight, there is an army of volunteers who regularly attend the centre to help with all the many and varied tasks that they have on this site. The Scottish Government supports the environmental education work and the biodiversity conservation work of the ecology centre at Kinghorn, because it inspires positive change through directly connecting people and the natural environment for the benefit of both. I really want to take this opportunity to thank those who have contributed to the debate tonight in celebrating 20 years of the centre and recognise the important work of the ecology centre, wishing it every success. To the ecology centre, I believe that there are members from the gallery. Thank you so much for all the work that you do. Congratulations on your 20 years of work. Please keep up the good work and I look forward to meeting you soon. That sounds like quite a place. That concludes the debate and I close the meeting.