 The next item of business is a debate on motion 10347, in the name of Neil Gray, on opportunity within the 2023-24 programme for government. I would invite those members who would wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak buttons, and I call on Neil Gray, cabinet secretary, to speak to and to move the motion up to 11 minutes, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm pleased to open this debate and move the motion in my name and support by colleagues, on how we seize the opportunities of an economy that is fair, green and growing. A wellbeing economy that helps our people and businesses to thrive through a just transition to net zero while addressing the twin climate and nature emergencies. By seizing the opportunities of the transition to net zero and growing our economy, we can both reduce poverty and fund high quality public services that we rely on. We're bringing forward this programme for government in challenging economic times. High inflation, rising interest rates continue to ramp up costs both for individuals and for business trading conditions. So, while the headline inflation rate is beginning to fall, economic growth has weakened this year, and many businesses are having to change their business models in light of the challenging economic conditions. Our businesses face the cost of the union crisis with the cumulative impacts of Brexit on trading and labour supply, sustained high inflation and interest rates, as well as the on-going high energy costs in energy-rich Scotland. We're doing everything possible within the limited powers available to us in tight fiscal constraints to support businesses as well as households and transform Scotland's economy. However, with the powers, I will. Whether you accept the premise of what he just said about the cost of the union or not, what doesn't explain is why Scotland lags behind other parts of the UK in terms of future business activity or equity investment, because the data is clear that we're lagging behind parts of the UK, such as the north-west, on those two measures. Of course, you look at GDP growth since 2007, and per capita adjusting for population share, we are ahead of the rest of the UK since 2007, near double the growth rate of the rest of the UK. We've got record levels of inward investment, as Daniel Johnson will have seen and I'm sure welcomed over the summer. So, yes, there are challenges to what we are facing and we have to compare the position that we are in in Scotland as part of the UK when we compare to our European neighbours who are richer, fairer and more socially just. We have to ask why not Scotland. It's because we are being held back by this broken economic model that has been offered to us from Westminster. I'll give away one more time. Murdo Fraser? I'm grateful to the cabinet secretary for giving way. He's mentioned inflation. I don't know if he's looked at inflation figures in other western economies. He's mentioned interest rates. Interest rates in the United States of America are higher than interest rates in the United Kingdom right now. Is that the fault of the Conservative Government? That will be cold comfort to the businesses that I have been seeing in the interactions that I have been having. I'm sure Murdo Fraser will have been having over the summer that are feeling the pain of the energy cost crisis that has not been resolved by the poor market conditions delivered by the UK Government or the inflationary pressures that have been driven up by the trust, quartine, budget that crashed the economy. I tell you the points that Murdo Fraser made will be cold comfort to the businesses that are struggling to trade right now. However, the powers of independence, we could do so much more. Our building a new Scotland series of papers shows that independent European countries, comparable to Scotland, continue to outperform the UK across a range of economic and social indicators. They are wealthier, more productive and innovative, fairer and more equal. Why not Scotland? It is, Presiding Officer, because we are bound to a failed UK economic model and do not hold the financial levers that are required. Supporting economic growth is central to the programme for government. Not growth for growth's own sake, but growth with a purpose, which is one of the best ways to push forward our anti-poverty agenda, deliver fair work and sustain high-quality public services. Growing the economy is not something that we can do alone. We must do it in partnership with businesses and that will require listening to the business community. We will keep doing that through the new deal for business group and the programme for government commits us to making progress on the implementation of the group's recommendations, particularly on regulation. We understand the challenges that businesses face, especially the impact of cumulative regulation, and we have committed to a programme of reform. We will work with businesses to improve the way that we develop, review and implement regulations, and we will relaunch the regulatory review group and improve the business and regulatory impact assessment toolkit process. Realistically, there will always be regulations that are not universally welcomed by the businesses that they apply to, but that makes it even more important to all involve business in the conversation early so that their voice is heard as part of the policy development process. Where there is a good case made, we are open to removing regulations and we will develop a process to do that systematically as part of our reform programme. While it will be for the budget where decisions are made, we will also build on the on-going work of the new deal for business subgroup on non-domestic rates to ensure that we give businesses and communities the best support that we can, that they need, and to support small business in particular, a dedicated unit will be established in the Scottish Government. Businesses of all sizes tell me that they have difficulties in recruiting a skilled workforce. Recognising the impact of the UK Government's post-Brexit immigration policies in the labour market, we will launch a talent attraction and migration service, but it would be so much easier if we were not held back by the hostility to migration coming from both Labour and the Conservatives, or if we had the powers of independence to ensure that we can have a migration system that is tailored to the needs of Scotland, our economy and the people who wish to come to Scotland to contribute to our nation. Innovation and entrepreneurship are key strands of the national strategy for economic transformation, and we will invest £15 million to help to unleash talent from all walks of life in all parts of Scotland. That includes greater backing for proven initiatives such as the Scottish Edge and the Scottish Ecosystem Fund. That will help startups to scale up, it will help to build clusters of innovative businesses in growth sectors, and it will put our world-class universities at the heart of our economic future. The package includes delivering upon the vision of the pathways report by Anna Stewart and Mark Logan, for which I thank them for their work, and through the launch of the pre-start centres and pop-ups to encourage and support women and other underrepresented groups to become entrepreneurs. I was pleased to announce earlier today that the pathways pre-start fund is open, with £1.5 million available for organisations to support more people into entrepreneurship and to help to close the unacceptable gender gap in entrepreneurial participation. Grants of up to £100,000 will be available, and the details of how to apply can be found on the Scottish Government website at gov.scot. Yesterday, I met a group of incredible women who are members of the Black Social Entrepreneurship programme. That discussion demonstrated to me why the funding support is so important. We need to break down the barriers to women and people from Black, Asian and minority backgrounds and give them the confidence, the skills, the contacts and support network to start their own business. It was inspiring to hear their stories and the opportunities that we, I hope, can give them. Investment in high quality, digital connectivity is also helping to transform our economy. More than £600 million for the reaching 100 per cent programme is delivering full fibre gigabit-capable connections and helping to make up the gaps in delivery in this UK Government policy area. Our rural delivery plan will set out actions to build vibrant rural communities and regions and will be empowered through the regional economic partnerships as well. As well as a growing economy, we also need a green economy, an economy that supports a healthy planet to allow us not only to meet our own climate targets while securing a just transition but also become a magnet for our inward investment. Scotland continues to be the most attractive location outside London for inward investment, and we can do even better. We are at the forefront of the clean energy transition. We have the people, skills and the resources, so we must make the most of those strengths. We will build on our forthcoming final energy strategy and just transition plan to launch a green industrial strategy by next summer, working closely with business industry and trade unions through its development. That will set out how the Scottish Government will help businesses and investors to realise the enormous economic opportunities of the global transition in key sectors such as offshore wind and hydrogen. We will support the workers—I am really sorry, I have pushed for time but I will try and come back in later on. We will support the workers in the oil and gas industry with our green skills passport and we will support the economy of Aberdeen in the north-east with our £500 million just transition fund. We will drive investment in a new generation of onshore wind, establishing a sector deal with industry that will cut by half the average determination time for section 36 applications to 12 months where there is no public inquiry. We will drive forward onshore wind skills development, focusing on the opportunities for diversification and skills transfer from our oil and gas sector in line with a just transition. Mobilising private investment will be a priority and a dedicated investment unit will be established to take forward the forthcoming recommendations of the First Minister's investment panel. The final component of a wellbeing economy is fairness because poverty and inequality are an inhibitor to greater growth and prosperity as Nicola Sturgeon outlined in her contribution yesterday. When Scotland's businesses succeed, so do our people. When our people succeed, so do our businesses. We are pledged to working with employers to promote shared prosperity by boosting wages and continuing to increase the number of organisations that pay at least the real living wage. That includes rolling out fair work conditionality in a way that supports workers but also recognises that businesses need time to adjust to. Our commitment to fund increased wages to £12 an hour for those working in social care and those delivering funded early learning and childcare in the private voluntary and independent sectors will help to address recruitment issues by attracting more people to work in those areas and will increase incomes, helping to address poverty. Improved childcare provision will also help parents and enable parents and carers to work, increase the working hours or enter training and education. I consider that that is an important and key infrastructure for a wellbeing economy. In drawing to a close, I want to reiterate the Government's commitment to a fair, green and growing wellbeing economy. The Government will support and invest in people and our businesses as we move on the journey to net zero in the coming year. That will help our planet to create good jobs with fair wages, expand our tax base and help provide important revenue for us to invest in tackling poverty and our public services. By doing that, we will create opportunity to improve lives for people and communities across Scotland. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Let me say at the start that I welcome the language and the programme for government around the need for economic growth. I welcome the tone—much of the tone—that we have heard from the cabinet secretary this afternoon, because talking about economic growth is important. It is a welcome departure from this Government. We did not hear much about economic growth in recent times perhaps because of the presence of the anti-growth greens in the coalition, but the cabinet secretary is right, because growth is essential. Without growth, we cannot have expanding businesses, we cannot have secure well-paid jobs and, crucially, we cannot have the tax revenues that we are going to need if we are going to fund our vital public services. We will have to look at the very start warnings from the fiscal commission about the black hole that is looming in the Scottish public finances and how that is only going to expand over time to see that we cannot afford the present level of public services that we have on the levels of taxation that we have, so we are not going to punish people with more taxes, which would be a huge mistake, in my view. The only way that we are going to raise more tax revenue is to expand the economy, so I welcome the rhetoric. Whether the delivery will be there, that remains to be seen. There are two important background statistics that inform this debate. The first is the data that was released just last week, showing that the Scottish economy in the second quarter of this year is estimated to have contracted by 0.3 per cent. That contrasts with the quarterly growth for the UK in the same period of 0.2 per cent. That is a difference in performance over a quarter, just three months, of half of 1 per cent. That ties in with a longer-term trend, where, since 2014, the Scottish economy has grown on average at one half of the UK rate. We know, despite all the rhetoric that we have heard from both SNP and Labour benches in this Parliament over the last year, that the UK economy now performed much more strongly than was previously thought. I thank Morpher Fraser for giving way. I have already outlined the fact that, since 2007, GDP growth in Scotland has outperformed the rest of the UK. Even if we take that point, why is it then that the IFS today is saying that social mobility in the UK is at its worst place for 50 years? Surely we must ensure that we invest in the wellbeing element, as well as the economy element, to ensure that that GDP growth, that growing economy, is benefiting people. Morpher Fraser? I will benefit everyone if we grow the economy. At the point that the cabinet secretary made about going back to 2007, yes, I would accept that the Scottish economy grew more rapidly in the period 2007 to 2014, thanks to oil and gas. That is not much used to us now, that the record in more recent years is a much less impressive one, and that is what he needs to be focusing on. We know that the UK economy has performed much better than we previously thought, because, thanks to our revision of data by the Office of the National Statistics, we now know that the UK economic performance coming out of Covid was stronger than we thought. It is now 0.6 per cent bigger the UK economy than pre-Covid. Let me just make this point. It was third fastest in the G7 and faster than any other major European economy. Since 2010, our economic growth has outperformed that of Germany, France and Japan. That is a very different picture from one that we have heard painted on the other benches, including from Mr Johnson, who I will now be happy to hear from. Similar note in terms of picking your timeframes. Does Morpher Fraser not need to acknowledge that UK growth has been depressed compared with the OEC average since 2008? Would he have a reason why that might be the case? Mr Johnson has not been listening. Since 2010, our economic growth has outperformed that of Germany, France and Japan. He may not up-to-date with the O&S revision of statistics. Maybe he should get back and read the figures, but in actual fact we now know that the UK economy is performing better. It is not to say that there is not still significant challenges facing the UK economy, as indeed we face all western economies, but this narrative of the UK economy as the sick man of Europe is now exposed as totally bogus. The challenge for us here in Scotland is how do we ensure that our economy here at least matches the UK average? The second piece of data comes in the study that was published last week by the Fraser of Allander Institute of Business Attitudes. Just 9 per cent of Scottish firms agree that the Scottish Government understands the business environment in Scotland. 64 per cent of businesses disagree. That is a damning verdict on the Government's approach to business. Only 8 per cent of businesses think that the Scottish Government engages effectively with its sector. There is much more to be done if the Government's new deal with business is to be anything other than an empty rhetoric. We will need, against its background, to ensure that we are delivering stronger economic growth. It is not going to be enough to talk about it when we need action rather than words. In that context, some of what was announced in the programme for government we would welcome, although it falls short of what is required. We certainly need a competitive tax regime in Scotland in relation to the rest of the UK. We heard from the First Minister this week that he had written to the Prime Minister calling for cuts in corporation tax. It is a rich irony for the First Minister in the Government that his height taxes for middle earners in Scotland now apparently in favour of tax cuts. However, as usual with the SNP, it wants other people to cut taxes. It just does not want to cut the taxes that it controls themselves, where the only direction of travel is upward. We continually hear from those in the business community—again, it is in the papers today—that the differential tax rates in Scotland act as a barrier to attracting the best talent to come and live and work here. That is why we are committed to at least reducing taxes to the UK level as a driver to promote faster economic growth. I am sorry, I am going to run out of time. We know that if the Scottish growth at least matched that of the UK over a 10-year period, that would give us an additional £7 billion in tax revenues without increasing tax rates. Business regulation continues to be an issue. In the programme for government, there is commitment to work with businesses to address the issue of regulation and remove regulations no longer required. Will the Scottish Government address that right now? There is a huge issue in the tourist sector right now with the licensing scheme for short-term lecs, affecting not just self-cating properties but bed and breakfast, guest houses, home shares and house swaps. We are warned by those in the sector that this could cost thousands of jobs and millions of pounds to the economy if the Government does not think again. If the Government is serious about tackling regulation, a new deal for business and listening to business, as it says, it can demonstrate that right now by taking action to review the licensing scheme and postpone it. If it does not do that, all that we have is empty rhetoric. I am nearly out of time. Let me just say in conclusion if I can. Can I commend to the cabinet secretary an excellent publication from last week, Grasping the Thistle? Not the book by Michael Russell, of course, but the new Scottish Conservative economic strategy is bursting with ideas about how to take the Scottish economy forward. If he wants to sit down with me and discuss that and work out how we can work together to grow the Scottish economy, I am right with him. I have a pleasure in moving the amendment in my name. I now call Daniel Johnson to speak to you and to move amendment 10347.2, up to six minutes, please, Mr Johnson. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. I move the amendment in my name. Let me begin by saying that there are things in the programme for government that we can agree with. Specifically around the pledges to accelerate consenting and planning processes, as the cabinet secretary knows, this is of vital importance so that he can realise our renewables potential. Again, as I have said to him, the scale of change and indeed just the level of building of infrastructure that is required will be significant, and we have to prepare public opinion for that. I look forward to seeing the detail of those plans, because those consents have to come through more quickly than they are right now. I am happy to. Briefly, I appreciate the constructive nature of Daniel Johnson's opening remarks. I commend to him what is coming in the onshore sector deal, and we have been more than happy to discuss with him how we can ensure that there is a united front around the need for the infrastructure that is going to be required for us to realise our energy potential, because it is going to be substantial. I thank the cabinet secretary for that. However, there are other points where we can agree, such as the additional resources going in for start-ups and small businesses. We agree with the fair work agenda and the increase in pay for social care workers in childcare to £12 per hour, but we have to look at the detail. The £15 million that is promised is less. It is a fraction of the £57 million that was cut from the enterprise budget from the previous year. Likewise, the £12 per hour pay rise is coming three years after we first called for it, and it is now worth substantially less than it was because of inflation. This week, Scotland needed a bold programme for government that matched the scale of the cost of living crisis and recognised the massive economic opportunity that we have in Scotland. However, as usual with this Government, the spin in the build-up was much greater than the substance that was delivered. In the build-up, we heard that we would have plans that would unleash Scotland's economic potential, but reading through the bullet points, little has been offered more than meetings, consultations and more working groups. That is simply not good enough. After 16 years in government, it is not good enough that this Government finally notices the economy, and it is not good enough that we have a First Minister who thinks that it is an achievement to use the phrase economic growth in his speech. We need a First Minister who knows that the achievement is delivering economic growth and having a plan and determination to deliver it, because the reality is that economic data is stark. Although I think that Murdo Fraser was a little bit selective in his use, what I do agree is that we need to do at the broad range of data. Our growth has contracted by 0.3 per cent in the last quarter, and over the longer term, I think that there are serious concerns. Even if we look at more microeconomic data, there is a good deal more that we need to do. The number of VAT registered businesses in Scotland has fallen by over 4,000 since 2020. If we look at our regional competitors and other devolved nations, we are lagging behind. As I mentioned, the RBS PMI report makes it very clear that business confidence in Scotland is lower than any other nation or region in the UK. Future business activity is near the bottom of the table, and on job creation, we are ninth out of 12. There are economic realities and reasons that we need to face up to, and if we do not, businesses will continue to invest in mainstream leads rather than Edinburgh and Glasgow. That is the reality. That is what business leaders are saying to me, and I have no doubt that they are saying to the ministers on the front bench. Unless we have a plan that faces those economic challenges and acknowledges where we have weaknesses, we simply will not make progress. I am happy to give way. I note the economic pressures that he narrates that have taken place over the last few years. I wonder whether he would agree that returning to the European Union and to free trade across the member nations thereof would be a positive thing for our economy and whether he can confirm whether Scottish Labour supports Scotland's return to the EU. I cannot argue that the way in which you deal with additional borders and barriers is by creating new ones with our closest trading partner. That is incoherent. What you cannot do is explain why there are regions and nations in this country that are outperforming Scotland that have less economic powers and less economic levers than Scotland. I would suggest that that is a sign of this Government's economic failure, nor have we had detail on things that we could have expected more detail on. The Withers report set out a number of substantial changes, some of which I agree with some of which I do not, but we needed to hear more because we need to overhaul our skill system so that we move beyond a skill system that is focused on introducing young people into the world of work to one that also re-skills and up-skills, and that is vital if we are going to realise our renewables potential. I was also good to see that clearly the First Minister and the Government have been listening to our critique of this Government, but let me just say that some of those attacks belie the error in their economic understanding. This Government and this Parliament have been too focused on social policy to the exclusion of economic policy, but it reveals the narrowness of this Government's binary perspective on all issues, which means that they think that it has to be either or. Let me be very clear. We believe in a successful growing economy so you deliver the tax receipts so you can pay for the social policies and the public services. Social policy is vital, but you only get to deliver it if you have a successful economic policy. That is Labour's vision, and that is what lies behind our plans for GB energy and the green prosperity plan to have a plan that will directly invest through a state-owned company in our future and our economic strategy. That is why we have convened an independent advisory board for growth so that we can bring together leaders from across finance, energy, food and drink, arts and culture and trade unions to help to deliver a plan for Scotland through partnership and co-operation. That debate is about opportunity, but the opportunity that this country needs is to get rid of this tired, drifting Government and replace it with one that is focused on delivering a plan, realising our economic opportunities and delivering for everyone in this country. An opportunity and a plan, Scottish Labour, is determined to deliver. I have been through many programmes for government, and others have been quite exciting on occasions. As a political geek, I was enjoying many of those occasions. Today, this week, I have to say that it has been completely uninspiring. The lack of appreciation, even from their own backbenchers from the programme for government, was evident earlier on this week. The Government in reality has no ideas and no money. It is over-committed, and it has not managed its public finances well, and it has no direction as a result. The programme for government was full of my new shy but also with dispensed policies. Take the council tax. It used to be in favour of scrapping it completely. We have been through many reform discussions, but none have resulted in anything. Now, they have resorted to hiking it up more than they have ever done before. Does Willie Rennie accept—will he acknowledge—the fact that we are looking to expand early learning in childcare? We are looking to pay childcare workers £12 an hour, we are paying social care workers £12 an hour. We are bringing forward a green industrial strategy. Does he not support any of those proposals that are within the programme for government? He just has to wait because I am coming to those issues, because those issues are far from satisfactory. As he well knows, they do not solve the problems that have been evident in the system for some time. However, the council tax—never mentioned that—was scrapping now hiking up more than ever before. It was going to have a replacement for Erasmus, now it is just a pilot. They were going to scrap the dental charges for NHS treatment, now they are going to be increased more than ever. We are going to have a peace institute, now that is gone, a deposit return scheme that is gone, even the de facto referendum, which this Government agreed to wholeheartedly before, that has even been ditched. At the heart of this very Government is independence, but even that policy has been dispensed with. There is very little progress on other areas as well. I will talk about early learning in child care if the minister is listening. The problem with early learning in child care is that the difference in pay rates from the state provision for private and voluntary nurseries versus council nurseries. The result of that is an exodus of experienced staff over into other areas, whether it is the council or other jobs. £12 an hour will pay those at the bottom more, of course, and that is welcome. Will it deal with experienced staff exodus? No, it will not. They have still got the fundamental problem of being able to retain good staff in the private and voluntary sector. The problems are going to be stored up for the future because we need the private and voluntary sector in order to give us the flexibility to read for the future workforce. The Government has missed the point completely on the nursery sector, and it is all about tinkering and all about my new shy. If you look at other areas, social care was promised that delayed discharge was going to be abolished completely back in 2016. Now we have the longest waits ever and the biggest staff shortages ever. The adult disability payment promised that there would be a great new system, and incredibly long waits for people waiting on their payments. The poverty-related attainment gap, as long as it has ever been, has been an appalling rate. For the Government to boast that, somehow, stagnation in other areas has progressed, I think, lets down young people. Social housing is the lowest number of new staffs in social housing for some time. We have got fundamental problems in this Government's performance. It cannot even do the things that it promised to do, but I want to talk about agriculture for a section, because this is somewhere that they could take and give some clarity to farmers. The targets are to reduce emissions from the agricultural sector by 31 per cent by 2032. Do we have the necessary details for the farmers to act and change their practice and invest in their farms? No, we don't. We have the tiers, the broad outline. Have we got any numbers attached to any of those tiers? No, we don't. There is a big argument going on with the environmental sector about how much you put in each tier, and I get that. However, you will not solve that problem by avoiding the issue. For the sake of our climate and food and drink, we need to get on and provide clarity for the farmers. Earlier on today, I was outside the Parliament. I was speaking to college lecturers. Those college lecturers have been in industrial dispute for, I would think, probably ever since I have been in this Parliament for 10, 11 years. The reason for that is that this Government has undervalued the college sector for all of that time. If we are going to invest in our future, if we are going to invest in the skilled workforce that the minister talked about in terms of renewables, we are going to have to invest in our colleges. However, the first act of the new education minister when he came into post was to cut multimillion pounds from the budget. How is that investing in our young people and their future and our colleges? I think that we will have more industrial descent unless this Government gets its act together with the college sector. I want to conclude with one final thing. Scotland is a massive opportunity, but we are not going to exploit that massive opportunity unless we create the infrastructure. The warning about that is BiFab. BiFab invested £50 million and we did not create any jobs in the back of it and they could not even build the jackets for the NNG wind farm that we can see from the Fife coast. That is the warning from this Government. They need to get their act together, less of the talk about independence, more about getting stuff done. Thank you, Mr Rennie. We will now move to open speeches and I call Ivan McKee to be followed by Brian Whittle. Last night, I hosted in this Parliament an event by Scottish financial enterprise. This morning, I was at a breakfast event with Scottish renewables and this evening, I will be going to an event with Scotland food and drink. The reason I mentioned these is that those are three great examples among many sectors where Scotland is genuinely leading the world and has huge potential to deliver economic opportunity. The scale of that opportunity is enormous. I want the Government to reflect on something happening across the Sea and Island, where the Government's biggest economic challenge at the moment is how to invest and what to do with the £65 billion surplus that it is projecting over the next four years. That is the size of the prize if you get your economy moving in the right direction and invest in business and sectors to deliver on that potential. Clear Island is a different economy in a different country, not least because it has the full powers of independence, but many other things are different. However, it shows that, if you are focused on what Scotland can do with those sectors and elsewhere, there is enormous potential. What have we achieved? As has already been mentioned, Scotland's foreign direct investment performance is at the best in the UK. It is at a London. Our exports are growing at twice the rate of the rest of the UK. Unemployment over recent years has been lower than the rest of the UK. We have one of the most skilled populations in Europe—best universities per head of population in the world. Contrary to some of the comments that Murdo Fraser was making earlier, we have actually attracted significantly more people from the rest of the UK to come and work here than to travel in the other direction. Of course, we have challenges and there are many things that we need to do better. I want to cover through some of the things that are covered in the programme for government around the theme of opportunity positive and where we need to make sure that we deliver on the detail. First, we need to reflect on the reaction from business, which, frankly, has been welcomed to messaging very much. However, they have made the important caveat that they need to see the detail and to understand the delivery. I know that the Government recognises that, but, as has often been the case in the past, following down on delivery does not mean that we realise that potential. Some specifics welcome the focus on the innovation strategy, but it is again important to deliver on the specific actions in that, particularly around cluster building, cluster accreditation and so on and so forth. The comments on regulation are usually welcome. We understand cumulative impact, but we understand that the Bria has to have teeth like I believe it had in the past. That really needs to be internalised in working with business, as I know that the Government is, to deliver on that. Skills and the labour market are usually an important issue for businesses in every sector. It is important to include businesses at an early stage in the work and to take forward the Wither's review so that we do not lose the needs that they have in that regard. Clearly, the childcare investment is usually welcome, but it is also important that capacity is in place to deliver on that. I welcome the work that has been taken forward on talent attraction, but, again, do not lose sight of UK talent attraction when we are focused also on international opportunities there. The net zero investments are again hugely important in terms of how we are going to deliver decarbonisation across society, but making sure that that is joined up so that we make sure that that spend in that procurement helps to drive and build the sectors within Scotland's economy and gives us an economic development boost as well. It is very important, of course, to take forward the work on attracting investment into the net zero sector. I know the work of Angus Macpherson and the FM's investor panel who will be reporting on that. That is hugely important as part of this drive. That was a big topic of conversation last night at the Scottish Financial Enterprise event. Of course, I need for the green industrial strategy. We have talked about that. We know what a good strategy is in terms of its format. It should look like the sector absolutely is up for that and very keen to engage, so we need to get something that is not just sound bites and aspirations, but something that has real actions, evidence-driven and can deliver on that potential sooner rather than later. I welcome the commitment to take forward green ports, but, again, it is very important that we do not lose focus. I know that the Government wants fair work and living wage commitments and conditionality that was secured during the negotiations with the UK Government on that initiative and rolling out wider conditionality where we can because that drives higher wages, which is again to the good of the whole economy and not just those individuals receiving those wages. I was interested to see the call for the UK Government on the back of Tom Hunter's question about the corporation tax and focused release, which is a much more grown-up and sensible strategy than increases or blanket reductions, because it allows us to build those clusters. I do not know whether that is the start of the Scottish Government's position on how we will approach corporation tax and company law more general when we have those powers as an independent country. That is an interesting first step in that regard. Finally, I will focus on delivery, which is where we often fall down. Endset lays out what needs to be done. I will take that forward. I think that trying to find the next shiny new thing or go off on a tangent because civil servants think that something else is not helpful. Stick to what is an endset and deliver those 77 actions. Agency reform is mentioned. I am not quite sure where that is going, but my comment would be that we should not pull resources back to the centre of two Government-from-agency. That is where the action happens. That is where engagement with businesses is. That is much more important than what Government is doing in that space. It is very important to streamline funding streams. The plethora of what is out is confusing and unhelpful for business. Business wants to have easy processes for interacting with Government and their agencies. That shows the important, as is data-sharing, across that part of the scope of the work of the Government. A lot of good stuff there, but I will focus on that as well. I call Brian Whittle to be followed by Stuart McMillan. Let's clarify how much time I have for my speech. Six minutes. Six minutes. Six minutes. So that's done. Two is eight. Good. So thank you, Presiding Officer. I am delighted to speak in this debate. What is a new portfolio for me? However, members may or may not be comforted by the fact that the topics I wish to discuss remain very similar to the topics that I have always discussed and what I am very passionate about. A similar message from a different viewpoint. I start by saying that the biggest drag on our economy is our very poor health record. We have only recently heard that the cost of obesity to Scotland's economy has risen to £5 billion. The mental health bill is now £4.5 billion. We know that 10 per cent of the NHS budget goes on diabetes and related conditions. I suggest that while we are discussing the economy, it is really important that we think across the portfolio. I think that that portfolio is where we need to start. I have often said that I believe that education is a solution to health and welfare, and that is something that I really strongly believe in. I think that when we are looking at tackling our poor health record, I think that the educational environment is somewhere where we need to keep our focus. Perhaps maybe a little later, of course. I look to the same question that I posed to Murdo Fraser. Why have the IFS reported this morning that education plays such an important role? Social mobility in the UK is the worst for 50 years. Brian Whittle I thank the cabinet secretary for his intervention. I noticed that he went to the UK. He did not compare it to where he is, but he did not break it up into where Scotland is. I think that her poor education, which has been on the slide since the SNP came into power, is a huge implication on why our economy is sluggish. Perhaps I will get the chance later on in this term to expand on those themes. However, while we are on education, if we are to fully realise the opportunities available in Scotland, I think that it is about time that we started doing things like weaving the green economy and the blue economy and the rural economy into our education system. We need to link it with our business and its business needs. We need to ensure that pupils understand the opportunities that are being created as we shift our economy towards net zero. We need engineers, we need tradespeople, we need software developers, we need environmental protection officers—I found out, which apparently we are very short of them, too—and they are required to ensure that our food production is certified for use here and for export and so on. We still have not tackled the problem of women into STEM. There is a huge need here, and the Scottish Government, unfortunately, is guilty of very lazy politics. It is very good at publishing very impressive targets without the route map to get there, content with deflecting responsibility. I am glad to see Patrick Harvie in the room today, because he has come into this chamber and declared boldly that 1 million homes will be retrofitted with heat pumps between 2035 and 2030, without the slightest idea of what that means in terms of workforce and cost. At a round-table discussion with the construction industry, it highlighted that, to hit Government 2030 targets, we need an excess of 22,500 tradespeople and engineers by 2028. Where are they going to get them from? The Scottish Government has absolutely no idea. That is before we get into the supply chain network to service this expansion. Now, I am all for ambitious stretch targets. Decide where you want to be and then map out how you are going to get there. The Scottish Government, those are your targets, those are your responsibility, but time and again, as each target is missed, the Scottish Government will need that responsibility. What is essential in the business world is to create the need that gives business the confidence to invest in and service that need. That gives confidence for those who are working in our oil and gas sector to retrain safe in the knowledge that there is an industry to go to that is safe, secure and growing. That is how you develop a just transition. The Scottish Government way is to announce a just transition and then just attack the Scottish oil and gas sector. It is all stick and no carrot, of course. Thanks to Brian Whittle for giving way. Just as he mentioned Scotland's climate targets, which are obviously driving a lot of what we need to do in heat decarbonisation. If I remind him that his party enthusiastically backed those targets, do I have his support to work with me constructively on what we need to do to realise them? That would be great if we had that opportunity in the Scottish Government to come and work with you. Yes, we do support the targets. That is my point. I do support very ambitious targets, but there is no route map to get there. We should be a world leader, for example, in green hydrogen, but, once again, the Government is going about it back to front. How about incentivising the really big energy users, heavy industry and goods vehicles or public transport to commit to that shift and users that the green hydrogen industry can service? We have wind and solar to create the green hydrogen, take it off the grid. That, in turn, encourages a private sector who, incidentally, are desperate to shift investment to the green economy to invest. Once we have that established economy, it can grow into other sectors and then into export opportunities. Instead, we have a Scottish Government who is tinkering around the edges, trying to create a hydrogen generation without considering how to develop the market. The same applies to heat pumps. If we are serious about net zero and the biggest polluters first of grid oil-fired heating systems, it will be expensive as it requires significant insulation of the dwellings, as well as underfloor heating systems, but it creates the marketplace and the direction of travel, as well as delivering against net zero targets in a positive and progressive way. I must ask you to conclude at this point, Mr Whittle. Scotland has economic opportunities, but for this Scottish Government no, such opportunities are never grasped. I call Stuart McMillan to be followed by Pam Duncan-Glancy. Thank you very much. I welcome this programme for government and the ambitious announcements made by the First Minister this week. The total of 14 bills to be introduced, including just to name four, the education, land reform, housing and social and Scottish landmages, can all have important outcomes for the country. This programme for government is anti-poverty and pro-growth, which will certainly help to deliver for every community across the country, including my own Greenock and Inverclyde constituency. One of the announcements that I particularly welcome is the access to funded childcare to be expanded from nine months through to the end of primary school in early adopter communities within six councils, Inverclyde being one of them, Fife, Shetland, Glasgow, Clarkmannshire and Dundee. The policy will mean that a further 13,000 additional children stand to benefit at the end of this parliamentary term. That means that another 13,000 children will have a greater opportunity to have the best start in their education journey. John Swinney spoke very strongly about his commitment to the expansion of early years education and why it was so vital. The announcements of the First Minister on Tuesday build on that. The increase in the £12 per hour for social care staff and childcare staff is hugely important and will benefit my constituency, particularly as Inverclyde has a growing older population who are more likely to require social care support. Across the country, up to 100,000 people, the vast majority of whom are women, will benefit from this policy. That might be seen as an opportunity for some people that have never considered working in those sectors before. The policy alone will see some staff earn more than additional £2,000 at the top of their current wages. I sadly have a growing number of constituents contacting my office struggling with the cost of living crisis brought on by the Tory's obsession with Brexit and the disastrous trust quartering budget last September, a budget that wreaked havoc on the UK economy that was already struggling. I wonder whether the Scottish Tories still stand by their calls for the Scottish Government to follow suit from that absolute folly last year. My constituents want assistance, and I know that the £405 million being invested in the Scottish child payment this year, which will help over 300,000 children across the country, is welcome. In total, £5.3 billion will be invested in social security this year, and that is an investment in people. The Financial Times called the UK, and I quote, a poor society with some very rich people. We consider that the UK is actually regarded as the fifth richest country in the world. That's a pretty damning indictment. I'm not going to launch into a debate on the class politics, but I'm sure that I can speak for the vast majority of my constituents when I say that at no time should the majority of the population be left to struggle as the trickle-down economics continues to fail millions across Scotland and across the UK. My constituents will be shocked. They will be shocked to learn that both London Labour and the branch office here in Scotland sold the jerseys when it comes to looking after people. Labour no longer want to scrap the bedroom tax. Labour no longer want to scrap the rape clause, but they somehow want to make it a bit fairer. Labour no longer want to deliver a progressive taxation system so that those who can afford to pay more can pay more, and Labour no longer want to abolish the house of lords. Instead, they want to stuff it full of more of their cronies. This so-called party of the working class have turned into a Tory party tribute act to try to win votes in England. The SNP, however, has a record of delivery in our devolved Parliament with the full powers of independence that we as a nation could achieve so much more. We also wouldn't be under the threat of the Westminster Internal Market Act, which any future UK Government could use to limit the actions of this Parliament and this Government. I welcome the closer working relationships with the business community, including the £50 million package to support enterprise and entrepreneurship. That will create new opportunities to start, scale and sustain businesses. Along with the Scottish Government's green industrial and energy strategies, we will ensure that businesses maximise the opportunities of a just transition to net zero. I also look forward to the publication of the addressing depopulation action plan. During the summer recess, a quite a number of ministers have come to visit the Green and Brclei constituency, for which I am very grateful for. I did have one meeting with the minister, Erotic, to discuss in Brclei's acute depopulation challenges. Losing over 30,000 people since 1979 is always going to be a challenge, but with an older population and a growing older population, placing more challenges on local public services, we have a need but also an opportunity to do something to help to turn that around. Once again, however, the dead hand of Westminster isn't helping with immigration powers reserved to Westminster. Once upon a time, even the Labour Party supported this Parliament acting to try to address population decline with Lord Jack McConnell's fresh talent initiative. Sadly, it was the UK Labour Party who scrapped his policy in 2008, when it introduced a points-based system and thus got rid of a limited approach that actually was helping Scotland. With Labour on our pro-Brexit party, they see no opportunity for Scotland to deliver policies to help our population challenge, which is even greater now than it was when they were last empowered in this Parliament. I welcome the announcement about the Bill of Scottish Languages. Languages are hugely important to our culture and community. Working to not only preserve but also grow our languages shows a respect for our past, but it is also an opportunity for more people to engage with our culture and traditions, and that clearly will have economic benefits across the country. I am going to close, but I just want to say generally I am pleased about this programme for governance. It gets solid measures that certainly will provide a wide range of opportunities for Scotland but also my constituents in Greenland and Inverclyde. I am in Parliament because I believe that Scotland can be a land of opportunity for all, where everyone, no matter their backgrounds, can fulfil their potential. I am also here because I know that it can only be that land of opportunity if we make it so. It does not happen by accident. For too many, opportunities are few and inequality is the default. That will not just fix itself, we have to fix that by design. It has long been my view that key to delivering that fix and the leveler for that inequality and lack of opportunity is education. When done well, it can break down inequalities, open opportunities and shatter the glass, class or step ceiling in its way. From the earliest years of a young person's life, education begins to build the blocks of a future opportunity. When it is valued and nourished, it can do that through all life in school, where we learn about the world around us, in college and university, where we learn to live and work in it and even in the workplace or in our community where we learn to apply it. The opportunities that education brings are endless. That is why I was so disappointed that, on education, the programme for government was full of re-announced pledges and vague intent. From the earliest years, children are shut out of opportunity and families are being held back. I and my party welcomed the announcement from government on wraparound childcare when it was first announced. I welcomed it again this week, but I also recognised that it is not new and still falls short of addressing the barriers that so many face. The recent Audit Scotland report found poorer people are less likely to take up funded childcare because it is inflexible around the types of jobs therein. Wraparound childcare has to wrap around hospitality and shift workers too. Recent reports found a decline in the private and voluntary childcare sector, where flexibility is often found. We need clarity on how the government will address that. A digital platform, or let's call us made of speed, a website, is like an offer from the 90s and will not address the structural issues underpinning the sector. Presiding Officer, school is a place where opportunity is a plenty, but just now children and staff do not feel safe there. Most young people go to school to learn, see friends and to socialise, but there is a rise in violent incidents and it is distracting from that. Those incidents are few, but they are the canary in the coal mine that the government has lost control over education. The increase in lower-level poor behaviour shows that anger and anxiety are bubbling under the surface. Classrooms are like pressure cookers. Families are struggling to make ends meet and the promised free school meals roll out that is now delayed by another two years in this programme for government. It is not too late to turn this round, but only if the government acts fast, listen to parents, pupils and trade unions and releases the pressures that they are all under. That has to start with the SNP Green Government at least coming good on their promises on free school meals, smaller class sizes and increased non-contact time for teachers. It is a huge disappointment that I will take the intervention here. Thank you. I am grateful to Pam Duncan Glancy for taking an intervention. As she rightly mentions the pressures that are bearing down on families, I wonder if she supports the two-child cap, the rate clause, the bedroom tax and if she does not, which I suspect she does not, will she call on Anas Sarwar and Keir Starmer to drop them because their position appears to be that they do support those. Pam Duncan Glancy. I thank the minister for that intervention, but I think that she is aware that Anas Sarwar has already said that we will do all we can to ensure that universal credit and all its failings, including the two-child limit, is improved, reformed and delivers for people all across the UK, not just here in Scotland. I cannot also express enough my disappointment that there is no mention of a transition strategy for young disabled people in this programme for government. A transition strategy was first promised in the SNP 2016 manifesto. Eight years later, it was still waiting. We cannot leave the futures of young disabled people to the whim of one Government for one Government or the next. I asked members across the chamber to support my bill to make sure that this does not happen and give young disabled people the fight and chance they deserve. Speaking of a fighting chance, our colleges and unies need them too, as Willie Rennie has already highlighted. The further and higher education sector is built for opportunity. It is what they are there to do, but they are crying out for help and they are not getting it. They have a flat cash settlement, a cut. The first thing that the new minister did was whip away the promised £46 million that the Government promised them. The only thing worse than not having enough money in the first place is thinking that you have it planning to use it and then having it snatched away. Lecturers were outside today telling us about the real impact of that. Their jobs are on the line. When asked to step into the fiasgo, for example, in the city of Glasgow college, the minister has acted like a commentator, not the person where the buck stops. Universities are burst too, losing out on core research funding and desperately trying to plug the gaps in funding left by the Government under funding places. We are still waiting on a replacement for Erasmus three years after it was promised. In that time, the Welsh Labour Government has developed a scheme that has had 6,000 exchanges with 95 countries, yet this Government cannot tell us what model it will use or at what cost, far less get any students going abroad. This week's programme for government was a chance to fix all of this. Scotland can be a land of opportunity, and an excellent education system has the potential to level the playing field, but we need a Government that is serious about it. It really is time for change. I know that, we know that, people out there know that, and I believe that the Government knows that too. It is time to bring back hope, tear down the barriers that create inequality, and that starts by fixing our crumbling education system, by investing in education, not just making big promises but delivering them, and by smashing the glass-class and stared ceilings to opportunity that too many people face. Scottish Labour can bring opportunity to Scotland for all, and I believe that we will. Ivan McKee gave an excellent appraisal of some of the real positives in our economy, as well as some of the challenges. Last week's Fraser of Allander poll around Scottish business attitudes to the Scottish Government relationship with business undoubtedly made for uncomfortable reading. I am pretty sure that the Government would have been very aware of the fact that, as a party and a Government, we needed a reset to have a reset with the business community to regain the trust and belief that this party has enjoyed over many years. I know from my own experience of running my business project coming into this place, whether it was the farming element or the catering and food element, that the SNP was there for those industries and did everything in its power to help us to be as successful as we possibly could. I have mentioned that many times before in this chamber, but the national food and drink policy introduced by Richard Lochhead in 2008 was an absolute game changer in terms of the relationship and confidence that the industry took from the Government, the positivity and it was hugely instrumental in driving the big ambition and the success of that industry. I have had many conversations over the years with Richard Lochhead and John Swinney on many aspects of how business was faring at any particular time. I was always confident that I was being heard and the issues that I raised were being seen as legitimate and worthy of further consideration, even if all of those ideas did not get implemented. I have to say, and with all due respect, my experience of dealing with Ross Finney and his role during the Lib Dem labour year was not nearly so constructive, despite the fact that he was a very nice person to talk to. It is perhaps for that reason that I found the poll so disturbing last week, because I always regard SNP as being the party for all the people of Scotland, including the huge array of immensely talented and dynamic SMEs that make up over 80 per cent of Scotland's business community. Having their trust as vital if we are going to continue a party for all that is recognised as being a force for good, a force for ambition, for aspiration and for entrepreneurial endeavour, because that is the party that I vote for, that I campaign for and I stood as a candidate to represent in this place so that we can continue to represent and improve the lives of our people, our businesses and be the good international neighbours that we want to be. One of the things that gives this part of the respect and the trust of the business community and all our citizens is the level of engagement that we have with the people that we represent. Whether it is businesses, communities, group industries, groups, industry bodies and third sector organisations, those voices are heard and understood, and what is more, they all know that they are heard and understood. The rationale of those early years made absolute sense then and it still makes sense now, so I was very happy with the programme of government content and the focus on engagement. When we read the responses that have emanated as a result of the First Minister's statement on Tuesday, it would be interesting to see now how the phraser of Alexander Surrey would read if it was being conducted today. It is a programme for government to make sense by tying the aim of tackling poverty with growing the economy while encouraging entrepreneurship that Scotland is famed for while having the regulatory burdens that businesses currently face and business organisations are welcoming the approach. The Food and Drink Federation Scotland Chief Executive, David Thompson, said that it is positive to see the First Minister's commitment to work with the Scottish business to remove regulations that are no longer required and to ensure that they are involved at the early stage of policy development. The establishment of a small business unit is welcome. It is vital that our food and drink manufacturers are represented in this work to ensure that their views are heard. The Scotland policy chair Andrew McRae said that, in efforts to boost start-up, start-ups need to see some of the practical barriers to setting up in business remove. That includes childcare, so we welcome the announcement of much needed additional support there. He went on to say that we are pleased to hear him recommit to a specific small business unit and a commitment to tackling the cumulative impact of regulations, including removing those that are no longer required. From the Scottish Chamber of Commerce, turning to our critical friend Liz Cameron, she said this, which highlights the point that I made at the start of my contribution. As Government on the side of business, that is the question at the forefront of the business community. There is much in today's announcement that business is welcome, particularly the essential focus on inward investment and exporting. On the labour market, she said that businesses will welcome the Government prioritising childcare as a way of supporting households and enabling participation in the labour market. The development of a new funding model for post-school education provision is welcomed for improving lifelong learning. That must be balanced with widening access to training and skills across all pathways. The Scottish Council for Development and Industry said that we support the focus on creating a wellbeing economy, on economic growth and investment in childcare, which is key to enabling more people to access meaningful work. Implementation of the new deal for business recommendations will contribute to regaining the trust of Scottish businesses and strengthening the partnerships that are needed to unlock sustainable and inclusive growth. Those are the thoughts of just some of the businesses and organisations, but that positivity is replicated across all sectors, from developing the green economy to tackling poverty and beyond. That motion is about the opportunities, and I am excited and delighted to back this Government's motion as we move ever more steadily towards being an independent country again. This summer, across Europe, we have seen some of the most extreme weather events in history. It is clear to all of us that we need deeper, faster action to tackle climate and nature emergencies, but I think that that is starting to come through now with the work of this Government and, in particular, this programme for government and, I think, the forthcoming climate change plan. I mean, today's launch by my colleague Lorna Slater of the Biodiversity Strategy and Delivery Plan, for example, will unlock huge investment in our land and seas, not seen in generations. While the heat and building strategy led by my other colleague Patrick Harvie will address the vast scale of change needed to make homes warmer, cheaper and low-carbon. I listened to some of the criticisms earlier from Brian Whittle, but, effectively, what he is doing is describing an enormous economic opportunity as a problem. However, what he fails to grasp is that it is the role of Governments to create new markets, to send clear signals to industry, that there are markets that are investable and that can drive progress. That is exactly what this Government is doing. To be honest, who would not want to invest in the heat pump market across the UK at the moment, because it is clear that it is going to have an incredibly strong future? There is a need for a wider political reset involving all parties, especially after the wobble that we saw on climate policies across the political spectrum this summer. I am pleased that the First Minister has shown leadership and answered my call for a climate summit to allow us all to address challenges and opportunities together. Climate leadership and the desire for change is also building in our own communities. I also welcome the programme for government, the commitment to roll out climate action hubs, helping communities to lead the change themselves, building up action programmes in areas such as home energy advice. We know that a just and fair energy transition is critical to Scotland's economic future. Offshore and onshore wind energy and solar power will be needed to supercharge our transition, provide secure green jobs and make Scotland a powerhouse of Europe's green revolution. However, I want to highlight the role of onshore wind, because what has been achieved so far in Scotland has been truly remarkable. We have seen a doubling of renewable capacity in the last decade, led by onshore wind. Of course, that needs to double again to meet our growing needs to electrify transport, heating and to urgently decarbonise industry. Sadly, projects have been stifled by long waiting times for consents, while modern more efficient turbines have faced unnecessary planning hurdles. A new sector deal for onshore wind is very welcome. It will help to speed up the consent process and deliver more critical certainty for business. Of course, it is a two-way street where industry delivers economic growth. It should have a responsibility to share in the rewards with communities that host developments. The wind industry also has a responsibility to work with government to deliver those supply chain opportunities, to deliver the skills and to deliver the new jobs. We need that critical partnership. The onshore wind sector deal will match the ambition with action working in partnership with business to drive Scotland forward to net zero. However, I would like to contrast that with the anti-science, anti-green business position of the Westminster Government, which has effectively banned onshore wind farms in England for a decade. Only two wind turbines were installed in England last year. That is an absolute disgrace. It is wildly out of step with public opinion as well. Young people in England should have been leaving college and university to start jobs in the wind industry over the last decade, but they have had their career dreams destroyed by the actions of the Westminster Government. The decisions that are made today do not just affect current jobs, but also future ones. Going forward this year, we will not be taking lectures from the Tories about oil and gas, because while they scare monger about turning off the taps and mass job losses, the reality is that this SNP-Green Government values every dedicated worker in the oil and gas industry. We will not leave any oil and gas worker behind in this just transition, but given that nearly a quarter of our climate emissions now come from industry, that rapid and just transition needs to happen now across all industrial sectors. Sites like Mossmorran, for example, in Fife in my region, offer exciting opportunities for workers and the local community, but we need to get everybody around the table to achieve the just transition and to do it fast. I welcome the progress that the Government has made around Grangemouth working with industry and the just transition plan there, but I would say that Mossmorran represents 10 per cent of Scotland's climate emissions. The cement works at Dunbar are another point source industrial emissions that, with the right partnership approach, could be delivering change and decarbonisation. As the Secretary General of the United Nations said, with climate, we need to be doing everything everywhere and all at once. We cannot afford to hold back on progress, so I will be looking critically at the green industrial strategy and the work that the Government is doing in the run-up to next summer. We need to move quickly on all these opportunities. This is a programme for Government that does double down on that urgent action that is needed to tackle the climate and nature crises, while at the same time delivering that fair and prosperous economy that everybody deserves. I urge all members, if they can, to unite behind it. I am pleased to support the amendment in the name of my colleague Murdo Fraser. I also welcome the language in the programme for government around economic growth. I welcome that on Tuesday the First Minister emphasised the need to work closely with local government partners to develop the local infrastructure and services that are required to deliver his pledges. However, I am disappointed to see no mention of the importance of local government in the Government motion today. However, that is perhaps not surprising when you consider the poor relationship that the Scottish Government has maintained with councils over the past 16 years. Local government in Scotland is all about making a difference right here in our own backyard. It is about ensuring that our voices are heard, our needs are met and our communities thrive. However, it has been difficult for local government to deliver on those roles when it has been placed under such intense financial pressure over the past decade. I have decided not to take an intervention. Why? Because the last three days we have been hearing from those benches, and it is about time now that SNP and Greens Government listen. That is not a strong point, because we know from the short-term let-groups and individuals outside that the Scottish Government refused to listen. I will carry on. Councils find that they are constantly being asked to do more with less. Just to highlight, the Scottish Government budget has gone up by 8.3 per cent since 2014, but the local government budget has not seen a remotely similar uplift. The SNP often passed the buck on to councils by forcing them to make difficult decisions about which services to cut or which taxes to raise. Recent warnings highlight that some local authorities may not even have the funds to provide statutory services will come as no surprise to many, as councils are set to make £300 million cuts this year. However, that needs to change if local government are expected to help to develop infrastructure and provide more services and help to drive growth across the country. The Scottish Conservatives have long been calling for councils to have more financial flexibility, so we welcome the intention of the new deal to do just that. However, without addressing the chronic underfunding of councils, that new deal is merely a reshuffling of the deck chairs. In an attempt to improve public finances, the SNP is now floating around options to make households poorer by increasing council tax by up to 22.5 per cent for around 750,000 households. Instead, the Scottish Government should be encouraging local government to create growth and encourage productivity within its locality. My colleague Liz Smith set out earlier this week that we desperately need a tax structure that encourages productivity and boosts revenue, thus creating better public services. Not one that punishes ambition and enterprise, Scotland under the SNP is already the highest tax part of the United Kingdom. That shows that tax increases do not believe better public services. Instead, we need to see local government handed the power to drive growth. Let's give councils more control over the levers that can drive growth, as Douglas Ross called for in our recent paper, Grasping the Thistle. Measures like this are a sure far way to create more thriving communities. In conclusion, there is so much potential growth that can come from a reset in relations between local and national government. To deliver on that potential, we need to see a structure of our tax system, a focus on growing the economy and the tax base, and we need to give local government the opportunity to create growth and productivity. I, too, welcome the opportunity to speak in this final debate on the new programme for government. The wide-ranging measures outlined in the programme will reach our children through policies such as the Scottish child payment and the expansion of childcare provision. Our young people are taking action on the serious harm caused by single-use vapes, supporting traction for our renewable sector. While the UK Government continues to squeeze the life out of human rights protections, the Scottish Government works towards the introduction of a human rights bill. It is all time-ious and all much needed to mitigate the impact of the agents of chaos, known as the UK Government, enabled by a sleepwalking Labour Party. Today's motion focuses on the opportunities that the programme for government provides to grow an economy that has wellbeing at its heart. While the notion of a wellbeing economy is a bit of a stretch for some, I am particularly drawn to the principle of building an economic system that operates within safe environmental limits and where success shifts beyond just GDP growth to delivering shared wellbeing for generations to come. Central to our transition to a wellbeing economy is business, a vehicle for innovation with the potential to accelerate positive impact with its partners, communities and governments. For me, this was brought to life earlier this year at an event here in the Scottish Parliament. I listened to a young entrepreneur describe the opportunity that Covid presented to him to shift his business practice to one that was underpinned by wellbeing principles, and he was happier, more fulfilled and more successful. I spent much of the summer recess visiting many businesses in my constituency. For some, business is thankfully buoyant, but for others they are struggling to cover their costs—fabulous small businesses losing heart. I very much welcome the First Minister's commitment to develop a new and stronger relationship with business and to implement the recommendations made by the new deal for business group. In that regard, I would ask the Scottish Government to ensure that there is a genuine commitment to the recommendation concerning the review of non-domestic rates policy reform. I welcome the cabinet secretary's update around non-domestic rates earlier, as that was a common theme raised with me. Turning to the First Minister's announcement regarding a green industrial strategy, from my conversations with industry representatives over the past couple of days, it recognises the limited powers that the Scottish Government has at its disposal, but it has expressed considerable optimism regarding the strategy. It is also particularly welcoming that the change is announced to the consenting process for renewables technologies. Having raised the issue of consenting timescales for offshore wind projects in this chamber many times, I know that that will be very welcome across the sector. I know that Scottish renewables have also welcomed the Scottish Government commitment to its energy strategy and just transition plan in order that Scotland reaps the maximum possible benefit of a move to a clean energy system. I welcome that commitment and, as a north-east constituency MSP, I have regular conversations with renewables businesses keen to move their investment and development opportunities forward in a space in which nothing happens in isolation, and many moving parts must align in order to support meaningful progress. One of those moving parts is skills, which has been highlighted to an extensive degree this afternoon in the chamber. Again, from my conversations with industry, there are challenges across the renewable sector that we are all grappling with on the development of our workforce of tomorrow. I welcome the contribution or update given by the Cabinet Secretary on the talent attraction and migration plan and the investment unit. I will be keen to hear a bit more about that. Of course, the north-east hosts a huge breadth of creative work to develop our workforce within our fantastic further and higher education institutions centres such as the net zero technology centre and within industry itself. I recently visited the new HydroSun Skills Academy in my constituency and heard about their plans to offer courses to support people making a skills transition. However, only this morning I spoke with a north-east renewables company who is struggling to recruit a project manager. I am keen that the Scottish Government ensures skills development and workforce planning is front and centre of our energy strategy and just transition plan going forward. I want to conclude my contribution by welcoming the commitment to the £15 million plan to support the implementation of Mark Logan's review of our technology ecosystem and the development of a blueprint to make our colleges and universities stronger bases for entrepreneurs. I have recently been engaging with the net zero technology centre in Aberdeen regarding their ambition to develop an enhanced clean energy techx acceleration programme as part of an energy transition cluster. I welcome the cabinet secretary's recent positive response to my invitation to consider opportunities around that. To conclude, I welcome the programme for government and I urge all members to support the Government motion. We move to winding up. I call on Rhoda Grant up to six minutes, please. I turn to the content of the debate. I want to raise something else that I hoped would be raised in debate, and that is land reform, because it provides very clear opportunity to Scotland. The First Minister and his programme for government talked about bold and radical land reform, but lacked a vision for that. Just 0.027 per cent of Scotland's population owns 67 per cent of Scotland's land. That shows how much power and wealth is held in such few hands. Donald Dweyer, in his McEwen's lecture in 1998, said that land reform was not a one-off event. Indeed, the Jimmy Reid Foundation's paper on land reform by Calum McLeod illustrated that, so it looked at the history, but it also pushed for a radical approach to land reform. The Scottish Government has said that it will introduce a public interest test when land changes hands, but the 3,000-hectare trigger is timid and it means that virtually no land holdings in Scotland will ever face a public interest test. The community right to buy is unworkable, there are far too many hurdles and it needs to be updated and that could create huge opportunities for our communities. The Community Empowerment Act sought to put urban communities on the same footing as rural communities, but it will not receive a public interest test. It is important that that happens, because our towns and city centres are absolutely blighted at the moment and they need to have the same powers within their communities. People such as Peter Peacock and Mike Russell, who were previous MSPs and previous cabinet secretaries, joined forces this summer calling for a radical approach. They were backing Mercedes Villalba's 500 hectares ceiling plan to have a public interest test implemented. That has also been backed by other organisations such as Community Land Scotland and the Jimmy Reid Foundation, which I talked about. They are offering support for such policies and solutions to our land ownership issues. Is that Scottish Labour policy not to allow any land holdings above 500 hectares? We are consulting on that and it has to be very clear that there will be a public interest test involved. If it is in the public interest that larger parcels of lands would change hands, that would be the case. However, if it is not in the public interest where that is very often the case, we would be looking to make sure that that does not happen and to provide a dead hand on communities both rural and urban. I turn to the larger debate and echo points made by my colleague Daniel Johnston, who welcomed the pay rise for care workers. He was very clear that this is three years too late. Had they received this three years ago, he would indeed have much better paid just now. Another thing that slightly confuses me out of the First Minister's statement was that he talked about that pay rise being for directly paid care workers. We want to see all care workers receive £12 an hour and that that would be increased to £15 an hour. It is absolutely affordable because we are wasting huge amounts of money on agency workers. That is lining the pockets of the agencies and providing care workers with twice as much as they would receive anywhere else. Jim Fairlie talked about childcare and its importance and that was echoed by the Scottish Chamber of Commerce. We agree that that is hugely important, but how is it going to be delivered? In rural areas, people have that right already, but they cannot access any childcare, which means that rural areas lose out on childcare, they lose out on homes and they lose out on jobs because of that. I turn to jobs and skills that Daniel Johnston has raised in his speech. The importance of skilling young people to be able to take up the jobs available, but not just young people. We need to skill older people. If we are going to have a just transition, we need to make sure that everyone is skilled to take up the jobs on hand. Pam Duncan Glancy talked about education and the importance that it has of raising people out of poverty. She talked about the opportunities that we are missing, the promises for free school meals, the promises on class sizes and the promises on the Erasmus programme, all of which our people are missing out on. The Scottish Labour Party is committed to having UK energy, which will look at how we deal with our energy supply and the supply chain that Willie Rennie talked about, that we are missing out on Scotland and the green hydrogen that Brian Whale talked about. The SNP's programme for government is of contracting ambition, not expanding ambition. Look at the A9, the A96. Ivan McKee even highlighted that about the lack of delivery. The Scottish Labour Party has a vision to transform Scotland and will grasp every single opportunity to do that. We will pay care workers the fair rate for the job and will tackle climate change and create a public energy company headquartered in Scotland and will stay true to Donald George's vision to bring greater diversity to land ownership. I welcome the debate on the programme for government and the opportunities that are before us in Scotland. We have had many good contributions to the debate, and I hope that the cabinet secretary is listening to some of the concerns heard here today. I am from stakeholders, many of whom I have met over the last couple of months. Indeed, yesterday I attended Offshore Europe in Aberdeen, where I met oil and gas workers and leaders, who are increasingly concerned by the lack of interest from the SNP-green devolved Government in the sector. Not one mention of oil and gas in the programme for government and only a passing reference in the First Minister's speech. The main message that I took away from the conference and I want to convey to the Government is that the hostility to the oil and gas sector is harming the supply chain the most. Larger energy companies are choosing to invest in other areas around the world, and this is having a knock-on effect on the supply chain, and it is that supply chain that is vital for our transition. We cannot have a just transition from oil and gas to renewables if we kill off that supply chain. Only the Scottish Conservatives are standing up for the oil and gas sector in the north-east of Scotland, and the oil and gas sector know it. I will give way to Kevin Stewart. Mr Lumsden paints a picture that is entirely wrong. We recognise that the current Conservative mantra is drill baby drill, but what we want to do is to ensure that we have that just transition. We create green jobs and recognise that we will still need oil and gas into the future. I share the First Minister's ambition of making Aberdeen the world's global renewable energy capital. I wish he had that positivity. What Kevin Stewart would have learned if he went offshore, I am not sure if he did or not, but the actions that this Government is taking are killing off the energy industry in Aberdeen. Without a supply chain, there will be no transition, and that is the path that they are going down. This programme for government could have been titled A Failure of Government, given the number of broken promises it represents, a failure to dual the A9 or set a timetable for the work to be completed, a failure to dual the A96, a failure to eliminate the attainment gap, a failure to build ferries, a failure to protect our rural communities and a failure to grow our economy in line with the rest of the UK. I could go on, but time is limited. My colleagues today have highlighted just some of the impact that these failures have meant for our communities. If you could give me a moment, I am hearing comments, some of which are certainly discourteous and being shouted across the chamber, and I would ask members to cease. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Maybe they don't like what they're hearing. We've heard—I'll turn to some of the comments that have been made in the debate today. Pam Gossel was right to highlight that local government is not mentioned in the government motion today. Local government is at the heart of our communities but are often treated badly by this government. Stop the cuts should be the slogan for this programme for governance, nor would stop cutting libraries, stop cutting sport facilities, stop cutting vital services. They talk about early intervention and prevention, but these savage cuts to local government is making things worse. That was a point that Brian Whittle also made. Less public sporting facilities will mean more obesity and more cost to our NHS. Daniel Johnson was right to say that economic data is stark. We are lagging behind. That registered businesses are down, job creation down. Will he really describe the programme as uninspiring? I completely agree, but the most important point that I think he made was no clarity to farmers on climate targets, and that must come urgently. As Murdo Fraser highlights, the Scottish Conservatives are the only party who are offering a clear vision for the economic future of Scotland within a strong United Kingdom, a United Kingdom that has recovered faster than any other European nation following Covid and strong growth. The First Minister said this week that they are pro-growth, and yet we know that our wagging tail coalition partners are anti-growth. The Scottish public is under no illusions about who is pulling the strings and they know that it is independence that is top of their agenda and not the wellbeing and livelihoods of hard work in Scots. The programme for government is not ambitious, it is not forward thinking, it does not offer solutions, it does not even offer a vision for Scotland, it only offers some mitigation for 16 years of an SNP Government. Last week, the Scottish Conservatives set out their vision for the future of Scotland, a vision where we work in hand with the UK Government to deliver economic growth for our country, deliver a national workforce plan to align skills to our educational opportunities. We put emphasis on lifelong learning and work with partners to provide more rural housing in areas facing depopulation. We will tackle long-term health, including setting up a network of long Covid clinics, an issue that this Government has failed to address. We will review business taxation to ensure that it is fair and flexible and build a network of regional clusters of excellence to build international excellence in goods and services. That is how we will lift people out of poverty, caused by the failures of this SNP Government. This is a vision for Scotland, but instead we have the same old tired and worn-out rhetoric of our First Minister who has no ideas, no vision and is just a poor imitation of what went before. The continuity candidate who offers a Government continuous in its failure to address the needs of Scottish business, Scottish schools and our health service, a Government that fails to listen to the concerns expressed by businesses up and down Scotland, whether that is our drinks industry or our short-term lets industry, a Government that is lacking on ideas and vision and can only ever prioritise independence to the detriment of everything else. Presiding Officer, what we have seen over the last few days has shown the SNP Green Government to be failing in its duties to serve the people of Scotland, to work with the UK Government to bring investment and support our business sector, failed in its duty to deliver for our children and young people through better education and closing the attainment gap, failed in its duty to deliver world-class healthcare with one in seven Scots on an NHS waiting list. This programme for government does nothing to address these failures and the people of Scotland deserve better. Thank you, Presiding Officer. Thank you, and I call on Mary McKellen to wind up up to nine minutes. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm left wondering where on Earth Douglas Lumsons summons the negativity to deliver such a closing speech. We've had a very wide-ranging debate today and I absolutely welcome the breadth of topics that have been covered, but as net zero secretary, I'm going to make no apology for opening my remarks by covering the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, which are global challenges of existential proportion, and I believe that tackling them is the fight of our generation and generations to come. Of course, as I think Mark Ruskell reflected on, this challenge is not remote, it's not far off. July this year has now been confirmed as the hottest month in global records. It's likely that 2023 will later be confirmed as the hottest year ever recorded, and all of this is happening while scientists label a marine heatwave currently circling the UK and Ireland as extreme. Of course, we're seeing the devastating impacts of these matters. In recent times alone, a third of Pakistan submerged in flood water with all the associated loss and damage, while drought has ripped across the Horn of Africa, spreading acute hunger, cyclones are devastating Malawi and fires are ripping through Hawaii. Last year, in fact, in a discussion with international colleagues, I heard of how low-lying nations are now creating digital backups of their entire existence and culture for fear that one day they won't exist. The injustice at the heart of climate change is that it's those communities that have done so little to contribute to the industrial processes that have caused climatic breakdown, but they're suffering from it first and worst. That's why I'm very proud of this programme for government's commitment on a delivery to our just communities programme, which will support resilience at a community level in our partner countries. It's why this Government will advocate for concrete progress on loss and damage at COP28. I very much look forward to discussing those matters at the summit that the First Minister and I will host with key stakeholders in advance of COP28. I'll give way to Daniel Johnson. The cabinet secretary, forgive me for making a somewhat esoteric point, but we need to reflect on the privilege and advantage that we have living at the degree of latitude we do and in a maritime climate. In the future, we're going to have to think about that inequality and how we honour that as we think about the challenges that people in the countries that she mentions. I just wonder if she thinks that we all should reflect on that. Absolutely. I mean, please forgive me if I'm wrong. I hope that Daniel Johnson wasn't suggesting that we ought to focus more on the issues at home. No. No, absolutely. It is a broader point and I was just going to go on to say that, as we, as Scotland positions itself as a leader in international climate justice, we are also determinately leading action at home to tackle climate change and restore nature here, not least through our cornerstone programme for government commitment to a climate change plan, which will look right across our economy and society, with bold action in transport, heat, industry, our natural environment and more, and set a pathway to take Scotland through its global, sorry, its climate targets, which I would remind the chamber, are still world leading and which every single party in the Parliament voted for. I look forward to their co-operation in the actions that we have to take to meet them. I absolutely will give way to Brian Whistle. Brian Whistle to meet the end. I'm very grateful from colleague for giving way, and we do accept the world leading targets. The problem is that you keep missing them. Every time you keep missing them, it means that our contribution to keeping it below 1.5 is missing. You can't have a target if you don't have a route map to get there. Through the chair always, Mr Whittle. In that regard, I look forward to Brian Whittle's enthusiastic support of this Government's heat decarbonisation programme. I look forward to it. That's challenge-covered, but where there is challenge, there is opportunity. Tackling the climate and nature emergencies is a moral and environmental imperative, but it's also one of the most significant economic opportunities that Scotland has in front of it. Opportunities that other countries would dearly love to have, and opportunities that this Government is determined to seize. I want to come back to those if I can, conscious of time, but, just before I do, I want to focus a little bit on that interconnectedness of climate change and economic posterity. Just as the summer was punctuated with horrific scenes of fires, floods and droughts across the world, so it was almost side by side in the front pages of some papers, we saw the unedifying spectacle of the Tories and Labour almost competing to ditch their climate commitments. Admittedly, the UK Government is starting from a low base. That is perfectly summed up by its perverse opposition to onshore wind on the one hand, while they literally fight to open coal mines on the other. Of course, there is complete failure to compete with the United States on the Inflation Reduction Act. That is why the Scottish Tories have stood in the way of so many of the projects that we have tried to bring forward in this Parliament from recycling schemes through low emission zones to new heating standards. We might expect it from them, but it was Labour who has been shape-shifting and flip-flopping, and I take no pleasure in watching it happen. This summer, as pictures of climactic breakdown all around the world filled our screens, of people losing everything up to and including their lives, almost side by side with that, we saw Keir Starmer and his branch office colleagues in Scotland lining up to systematically abandon what were once their climate commitments. Cabinet Secretary, if you could just give me a moment. I am aware of conversations going on across the chamber. I would be grateful if members could treat one another with courtesy and respect. Cabinet Secretary. This is the same Labour Party who have recently confirmed that they now support the bedroom tax, they will not scrap the rape clause and they are wishing to emulate Tory fiscal regimes. Gladly. The minister is criticising us yet we in our speeches have actually been calling on the Government to actually implement their climate policies. We are not rolling back from them, whether it is heating our homes, our transport, our buildings or how we use our energy. This is just criticism that is just not good enough. I think I would just point Sarah Boyack to the £28 billion whole in her shadow chancellor's plans. Through the chair please. You no longer support ultra-low emission zones while the Scottish Government is bringing them in in Scotland. Of course, this is the same Labour Party who have accused this Government of focusing too much on social policy, something that was absurdly repeated by Daniel Johnson today. This is social policy that is lifting 90,000 children in Scotland out of poverty. I will give way one last time, but I am very conscious of time. Does she not recognise the fundamental point that you can only deliver that social policy if you have credible and robust economic policy? Does she not say everything that you need to know about her and her Government that she should first attack the Labour Party than the Tory Party? That is what we need to do. You get rid of the Tory Party in London and replace them, but you prefer to have them in something that we are, don't you? Members, cabinet secretary, let's hear one another. I think that 90,000 children that are no longer living in poverty because this Government recognises that you can do both, Mr Johnson. Up to nine minutes. I'll shortly conclude then. I just wanted to finish with a point on opportunity. Perhaps one of the greatest ones that Scotland has is our energy transition, with oil and gas having been and continuing to be a very important part of our economy and our society, but equally as we stand on the precipice of a renewables revolution in Scotland. Of course, the question for the people of Scotland is who do they want to oversee that transition and the eventual benefits of it. Is it, as has been for decades since we discovered oil, do we want to continue to send our energy wealth down through the UK treasury and see a pittance come back or a brass plaque on an office somewhere in Scotland if Labour has their way, or do we want to take those powers into our own hands and make sure that the benefits of it are reaped in the communities throughout Scotland? I know which I prefer. That concludes the debate on opportunity within the 2023-24 programme for government. We move on to the next item of business, which is consideration of business motion 10379, in the name of George Adam, on behalf of the parliamentary bureau on changes to the business programme. Any member who wishes to speak against the motion should press their request to speak button. I call on George Adam to move the motion. Thank you, Presiding Officer, and moved. Therefore, the question is that motion 10379 be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. There are four questions to be put as a result of today's business. The first question is that motion 10350, in the name of Humza Yousaf, on motion of condolence for Winnie Ewing, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The motion is therefore agreed. I remind members that, if the amendment in the name of Murdo Fraser is agreed to, the amendment in the name of Daniel Johnson will fall. The next question is that amendment 10347.1, in the name of Murdo Fraser, which seeks to amend motion 10347, in the name of Neil Gray, on opportunity, within the 2023-24 programme for government, be agreed. Are we all agreed? The Parliament is not agreed, therefore we will move to vote. There will be a short suspension to allow members to access the digital voting system.