 The final item of business is a member's business debate on motion 8404, in the name of Murdo Fraser, on Street Pastor Scotland's 10th anniversary. The debate will be concluded without any questions being put. I could ask those members who wish to speak in the debate to press their request to speak buttons now. I call on Murdo Fraser to open the debate. Mr Fraser, seven minutes please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. Can I start this debate by thanking all the MSPs from different parties who supported my motion to allow it to be debated this evening? It is particularly relevant that we are having this debate in the run-up to Christmas and New Year, when cities and towns across Scotland are bustling with the work night out crowd, Christmas Eve drinkers and Hogmanay revelers. This time of year is one of the busiest for the licensed trade, but also one of the busiest for the street pastors. I would like to thank those street pastors and their supporters, who have joined us in the public gallery at this debate and for their attendance at tonight's reception. I know that a number of MSPs are looking forward to meeting street pastors from their constituencies. Deputy Presiding Officer, Scotland's relationship with alcohol needs no introduction. The big night out is as much a part of our culture as tartan and haggis. For the most part, people visiting pubs and clubs do so responsibly, but a small minority can sometimes drink too much, which can put them in positions of difficulty. They and others who have indeed been drinking can often find themselves late at night in vulnerable and distressing situations. This is where the street pastors come in. With police and ambulance resources stretched thin, this blue-jacketed volunteer army provides a vital release valve for the emergency services in helping to deal with minor incidents. A couple of years ago, I was able to join the street pastors in Perth and witness first-hand their work on a Saturday night. Now, I have no stranger to patrolling the high street, Deputy Presiding Officer, usually in the morning with leaflets in my hand, but it was a novel experience to be out late at night. That left me in no doubt to the significant contribution that those men and women make to the night-time economy. During our patrol, the street pastors handed out flip-flops, dispensed water bottles, lollipops and provided a friendly face and a sympathetic shoulder to lean on. What was absent was any effort to preach or to convert non-believers, because street pastors are not street preachers, manic or otherwise. If revelers want to ask questions, they are more than happy to engage, but that is about providing a service and a listening ear rather than an opportunity to evangelise. You will not see or hear street pastors judging those who they help. Their work is the very pinnacle of Christian compassion and something that the church is doing more of. The street pastor initiative has come a long way, since its humble origins, when 18 hardy souls patrolled the streets of Brixton in 2003, under the watchful eye of the Reverend Les Isaacs, the founder of the initiative. From this original 18 have grown 20,000, now operating across four continents. Before starting work as a street pastor, volunteers are required to undergo 50 hours of training. This is vital as street pastors find themselves in a wide variety of challenging situations. In addition to offering up flip-flops on water, street pastors can often find themselves in the middle of difficult situations, which range from providing first aid to diffusing fights or domestic arguments. In Scotland, the Ascension Trust runs the initiative and street pastors have been helping people for over 10 years and now operate in 23 different locations. That is a great achievement in a short space of time, and now the street pastors are as much part of a great Scottish night out as a kebab on the way home. From Elgin to Edinburgh, street pastors are on hand to help. In my own region of Mid Scotland and Fife, we have street pastors patrolling in Perth, in Sterling, in Dunfermline, in Cowdenbeath, in Lochgelly and Levenmouth. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those teams for their dedication and hard work. It is not just in those communities that have welcomed the street pastors, but the wider Christian community has also taken them to their hearts. I would like to highlight the contribution of the Church of Scotland Guild, which has raised nearly £100,000 for the Ascension Trust in the past two years to support the street pastors. That money has been used to train pastors and to pioneer new programmes such as rail pastors, college pastors and prayer pastors. Funding from the Guild has allowed the Ascension Trust to improve training, which now includes in-depth modules and distance learning. Everyone has a role to play, and raising money for the street pastors through coffee mornings and bake sales will be important to ensuring the long-term health of the service. The debate marked 10 years since the Ascension Trust was established in Scotland. I recall hosting an event here at the Scottish Parliament with the then Minister for Community Safety, which marked the launch of which Les Isaacs spoke. It is remarkable to see the growth in the street pastor movement over the past decade, fulfilling an important social need. As I mentioned earlier, just after the debate, there will be a reception in the garden lobby to celebrate the 10th anniversary with representatives from all groups across Scotland. The cabinet secretary will also be there, and I look forward to seeing members there if they can attend. Deputy Presiding Officer, in my opinion, the success of the street pastors is a glimpse at the future of the church and Christian service. There is a place for the Sunday service, but the dusty pew is no longer the only carrier of the Christian message. My colleague Kate Forbes recently led a members' debate on Serves Scotland, which is a coalition of church-based community groups that offer services such as debt advice, food parcels and support for refugees. The street pastors are part of the larger movement, where the Christian message of love, compassion and service is evidenced in real-world situations. For more than 10 years, street pastors have made the night-time economy in Scotland a safer place to be. I just want to conclude by wishing them and the Ascension Trust all the best for the next 10 years. I welcome the street pastors, but I also say that we do not allow applauding in the gallery in debates, much though I know you want to, you must desist. I now go to the open debate. I would call Stuart McMillan, followed by Jeremy Balfour, please. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. First of all, I would like to congratulate Murdo Fraser for securing this members' debate. I did manage to sign the motion this afternoon. Murdo Fraser has set out well the background to the introduction of the street pastor, so I do not intend to go over that particular ground. Instead, I want to focus on my experience of going out with him on a Saturday evening in Greenock a couple of years ago. Before I do, Murdo spoke about the street pastors being part of the economy, such as with the kebabs, but there is one of the folks sitting in the gallery, Chris Dwell. I could not imagine Chris sitting in a kebab, but Chris will tell me later on if he does. I went out with the team one late summer evening. Before going out, I had the safety briefing. I must admit that it has certainly been given that the hive is a jacket with the word observer on it. It made me feel like I was becoming a bit of a walking target. I was looking for action out of the building, but thankfully that did not happen. Many years ago, when I was somewhat younger with less responsibility and with a bit more exuberance, I, too, would have been one of the hundreds who would have exited whichever club or clubs into the streets looking for a taxi home. Even then, however, I always did wonder why so many people actually went out, even in the winter, without a jacket on. I am clearly with many females wearing high heels of such particular height. However, to see the stock of simple but useful clothing that the street passers took with them really struck a chord with me. It was also obvious that the street passers in Inverclyde are also respected by many people who use the night-time economy. I did not see any street passers taking any verbal abuse, but it was certainly the opposite in fact. I accept that this might not always be the case, but certainly in that night I was out with them. It was the exact opposite. The street passers were welcomed and I heard that some of the stories of how some people had either engaged previously with the street passers or some friends had engaged with the street passers and it was always in a positive way. The street passers are certainly a welcome addition to our communities. The close-knit team ethos that was built up within the teams was hugely impressive. It was stressed to me that the whole purpose of the street passers certainly was to help people, not to attempt to preach to them, particularly if they were under the influence. It takes me to an illa point that I raised when I made the week in a jokey point regarding being at the walking target. That night, one gent certainly recognised me and he thought that it would be a wonderful opportunity to have an insightful discussion about politics at half past one in the morning. You are laughing, but that is true. My powers of persuasion and appeasement were certainly finding a bit tough initially, but the street passers thought, well, let them go and let them have this discussion. Ten minutes later they came over and they managed to take me away because it was not just about this one individual, there were quite a few others who thought that they were going to get in this particular sport of politician baiting. The street passers came in and the way they dealt with it was wonderful to see. The whole evening was a truly enlightening experience. I believe that we should be delighted that there are so many people, so many volunteers, who want to give up their time freely to help our towns, cities and villages and certainly our communities for such a worthy cause. I think that the extension of the street passers in Inverclyde to now actually go on the trains between Inverclyde and Paisley in Glasgow is also something that I want to highlight and very much welcome. I would like to wish every single street passer past and present and also the whole network a very happy 10th birthday and for many, many more years to come. I generally believe that our society is greatly enriched with their presence. Thank you very much. Thank you, Ms McWilliam. I call Jeremy Balfour to be followed by Sandra White. Mr Balfour, please. Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer, and I also congratulate my colleague Murdo Fraser in securing Mr Bait and also welcome those in my gallery not only to Mr Bait but to the reception afterwards. I've reached the age where a good Friday night for me is a chip shop and a DVD, but a couple of years ago, when I was a local councillor here in Edinburgh, I went out as part of a licensing board with the police on a Friday night. I have to say that it was a slight eye-opener to me of what goes on on George Street, Prince's Street, Loving Road and other parts of the city at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning. There were many people there who were having, as Murdo has said, an excellent time, but sadly there were a few number who were the worst for wear and certainly needed some help from the police and from other people to get themselves home safely. Street pastures bring and add a different dimension to that which the police and other third sectors and government organisations can bring. I'm particularly pleased that, since 2009, we've had the street pastures here in Edinburgh helping people to get home safely and to be able to maybe step in at an earlier stage and diffuse arguments. I'm sure that most of us, whether we went to Times Square or not, are aware of the power of a good Samaritan and I think that street pastures are a modern-day version of that, stepping in, helping people, whoever they are, without any questions being asked. The help often is just a practical help, as we've heard already from other speakers, but it is also an opportunity for someone to be able to speak and to reassure particularly if people are worse for wear. I think that the other encouragement for me in regard to street pastures is that it brings churches together who perhaps disagree on theology but all agree in regard to helping those and bringing practical help. Again, looking at the website here in Edinburgh, the number of churches that are represented from different backgrounds and from different theologies is encouraging and should be applauded. I'm sure that all of us would want to celebrate and encourage the 10th birthday anniversary and look forward to what will happen over the next years and to thank those who have and will continue to volunteer in regard to it and hope that their work will flourish and that it will bring the success that they want. I thank Murdo Fraser very much for enabling us to have this debate today and also welcome everyone, the street pastures and the gallery. I don't know of Andy from Partick South churches there, probably need to put my glasses on, but I did speak to him on Saturday there and I said I would mention him because he was one of the street pastures that I was out with as well. I was saying this briefing, I suppose, or story, basically, spending a night out in Glasgow with the city street pastures. I won't read out what happened to or the stories that are there because certainly I've spent many nights out in Glasgow but also with the street pastures as well. There's been lots of talk about the fact that people respect the fact that the street pastures are there and certainly in my experience it wasn't a nice night, it was a wet, miserable, cold, dark night and we had the hats and the gloves on. We started up at the very top of Byers Road round the university and I must say that we went into lots of little nooks and crannies with the street pastures. It was fantastic, they knew where people were and that's one of the areas that I want to concentrate on. Yes, certainly there were people who were inebriated, maybe had a wee bit too much. There were some girls who had stumbled out a couple of pubs, as you might call it, and they were so grateful for the flip-flops. How they managed to get the flip-flops on over trousers and tights, I don't know, but they did anyway. Some of them didn't have any tights so it was absolutely fine there. The street pastures, it says here, the amount of flip-flops that they've given out is 2,101. I'm sure that it must be even more than that now, but certainly the amount of equipment that they carry, such as the flip-flops, such as water, and people were respectful of being there as well. One of the issues that we had is, as we walked down through Ashton Lane, we spoke to people and made sure that folk were all right. We came across people who may have been inebriated, but we came across homeless people, and the wonderful thing was that not just they gave over water and flip-flops etc, and they helped people to get a taxi. It's the actual contact. The street pastures actually knew about those people, and if someone wasn't in their spot from where they were being the night before or the week before, they could contact officials and find out where they are or tell them that they were missing. I think that that's a fantastic aspect of it as well, the fact that they dug out there and helped people, but it's their knowledge that they've got on the street. They talk to people, people will come up and say to them, oh, by the way, so-and-so isn't here tonight because he's somewhere else, or whatever it may be, we gave out hats and gloves to some of the regular homeless people that were there as well, some of the dogs, and they were given food as well as. So, although the street pastures are fantastic, absolutely about flip-flops and making sure that people get taxis, their trust is more than the police are. I mean, the night that we were out, there was a number of people who we had to get taxes for, they came to us to phone the taxi, they wouldn't go to the police to phone the taxi, so if the police were there, the police would actually contact or speak to the street pastures and ask them if they could look after these people here, but that and the plus side of the fact that they know who is out in the streets there, particularly the homeless people there, they've got actual contact, they can contact their own churches or anyone else, city, mission or whatever it may be. And I think that's a real plus and you must be applauded for the work that you do. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer. Thank you, Ms White. I call Thair Baker to be followed by Stewart Stevenson. Ms Baker, please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I'm delighted to take part in this debate to recognise the work of the Street Pasture Scotland as they mark their 10 years as an organisation. I congratulate Murdo Fraser on securing this evening's debate and also extend my best wishes to those who have joined us this evening. There are several street pastor projects in Fife working with Fife Council and the police, but I first came across street pastors when they were established in Cacodde. They started patrolling in Cacodde in February 2010 and were organised thanks to the dedication of our local churches. They started as a response to an identified need within the nighttime economy. They have a simple approach, which is to help and assist people. The street pastors are all highly trained volunteers from local churches who care about their community. It is an inter-denominational church response to modern life. I understand that there are currently 11 trained volunteers in Cacodde and that they go out most Saturday evenings until 4am, a significant commitment for which I thank them. They go on to the streets to meet people in their own social environment and support people when they need it. As well as always meeting the last train home at the station, they are exploring the possibility of expanding into rail pastors. They will always help, care and listen to whoever they meet. Cacodde is a good example of the strength of the partnership model that is working across Fife. A particularly good relationship has been forged with community police who provide a valued level of commitment right from the start. The street pastors engage with all those working at night, the taxi drivers, the doorman and the women and the fast food outlets. We are all familiar with the pressures on our police force, and while people may think that police has always been crime fighters, much of their work is dealing with vulnerable people. The work of the street pastors complements that, and they play an important role in promoting community safety. Their work also encourages other volunteering, as fellow church members will come out to provide soups, sandwiches and hot drinks for their street pastors. Street pastors across the region support people through minor emergencies—loss friends, lost phones, lost money, lost shoes—and they provide slippers or flip flops for those suffering from sore feet, bottled water, tissues and foil blankets if people need them, and they focus on getting people home quickly and safely. They will administer minor first aid, applying plasters and wipes, helping people who are ill—it is perhaps self-inflicted illness, but they offer no judgment, they only offer support and understanding. Perhaps most importantly, they listen, they provide people with their time and their attention, they give a helping hand when people may be feeling vulnerable, lonely and upset. Although they may be dealing with people who are at a low point, I understand that there are often many high points and there is a bit of banter and lots of good humour on most evenings too. They work all year round out in the cold and the wet weather, just as the revelers do. I have had the pleasure of meeting the founder of the street pastors, Les Isaac, after being invited by councillor Judy Hamilton to an event in Cercody to recognise the work that the street pastors were doing, and it is great to see them both here in Parliament this evening. Started in 2003 in Brixton, this is a movement that has grown across the country. It demonstrates the commitment of churches to our local communities, and in that role, they are engaging with and carrying out good work with people that they might otherwise not meet. Over the years, they have helped many people who just need a bit of care, an open ear and probably a lot of patience. For that, I sincerely thank them and wish them many more successful evenings ahead. Kate Forbes I thank Mother Fraser for the opportunity to highlight a very important initiative that has been going for 10 years, and we wish it to continue for many years. Like many others, I have street pastors in my constituency. Earlier this year, I attended the induction of new pastors in Peterhead. I have not, like some others, been out in the street with the street pastors, but I have certainly been out on Saturday night with the police on three occasions, for approximately five hours in most cases. I know the environment into which the street pastors are going. Talking to street pastors, one of the interesting things that I have heard from them is that the mere presence of the pastors on the street changes the character of what is going on in the street. In a place like Peterhead, you might think carefully why that should be so. It is a population of some 19,000, but the odds are that the street pastor knows your mum. Being able to walk up to somebody who is just a little bit off the proper behaviour and saying, well, I call your mum, you're obviously needing a wee bit of help, is enough sometimes to just nudge people back to proper behaviour. It's a very practical thing. What we're talking about is practical, polite, pastoral support from people. Getting support is the very meaning of the word pastoral, and looking at the Facebook page of the Peterhead street pastors for last Saturday, there are simple things on the Facebook page. Huge following. Remember to wrap up warm, the temperature is going to be one to two degrees. Remember to have a plan for getting home, a taxi, somebody coming to pick you up and remember that the pavements around the town centre are very slippery. Nothing in that is anything other than quite obvious, but it sometimes is precisely the sort of thing that those who are focused on having, quote, a good night out may neglect. So it's that practical advice and practical help that the pastors are giving that will make a real difference to people in places like Peterhead. Peterhead is a very diverse community. The academy has 28 languages in it, so there's plenty of opportunity for confusion and misunderstandings between different parts of the communities. The presence of the street pastors in the street at a weekend in particular can help deal with, can help manage, can help identify people who are vulnerable and connect them to support and sources of help. It's interesting to read what some other people say about it. The Spectator magazine, I think, put it really rather well, described the street pastors as weirdly effective unworldliness. In other words, they were saying, this is pretty good stuff but we don't quite know how it works and it's not quite in our normal experience. I think that it's actually a return to the roots of much of what Christian faith is about. It's about supporting other people. It's about being non-judgmental. My grandfather was probably one of the judgmental ones. He was a member of the independent order of Rechabites and definitely would not have approved of the carousing and consumption of alcohol on a Saturday night. I know that he persuaded his nephew, who was in Lloyd George's Government, to nationalise the one drinking den in Cromartey so that it would be brought under control. That doesn't really work in the modern world. What the street pastors are doing is highly personal, highly effective and deserving of our continuing support. Thank you. You never failed to amaze me with your family history. Oh no, please. I call Kate Forrest, who is the last we can look at today. We'll talk about family history. I'm going to launch it into my own. Thank you to Murdo Fraser for this debate. I know for a fact that the street pastors are made of strong stuff. I know that because my sister volunteered as one of them for at least a year. I used to never cease to amaze me to see her going out overnight, knowing that it was going to be a sleepless night, knowing that there were probably activities to do the following day, and yet she would choose to give up her night for the sake of other people. She is a remarkable woman. She's just flown back from India just in time to send me a whole list of stories for my debate and for my speech this evening. Her first comment to me when I asked what her views were of street pastors was that it was the best thing she has done ever and that going over the stories of people she had come across made her miss it so much. She is of course just one of 20,000 volunteers across the United Kingdom who give up their evenings and their sleep to care for other people. She stressed to me that the training was brilliant and it was so important that training in terms of what a street pastor's role and responsibility is on the street and the training that they get from the police and the training in terms of first aid was so crucial because every night is truly a roller coaster as you step out into other people's shoes and go on journeys with them and it's a roller coaster ride. It can be emotional, you meet with some very very vulnerable people, it can be physically exhausting just staying up overnight in the cold and the rain and it is tough, it may be brilliant but it's tough and the variety of people that you meet on a night out and not knowing what to expect is presumably a big part of what street pastors do. Hannah, my sister would talk about simple interventions with girls out at night with very little clothes and suffering from the cold and she would be able to provide them with flip flops, with socks and ensuring that they were warm sometimes with blankets. On the other end of the spectrum she could talk about a guy that she came across who was on the verge of jumping off onto train tracks and being able to intervene there and talk to him and stop him from jumping onto those train tracks and to make sure that he had the help that he needed that night and without street pastors being there in that moment and being willing to work with that guy it might well have been a very different outcome. She also mentioned that often people are very grateful but sometimes they're not, sometimes in fact they're anything but grateful and can be very obnoxious and yet street pastors have the time to stop and chat. Hannah mentioned somebody who was particularly difficult and through the course of conversation discovered that he had lost his best friend that week and was struggling to come to terms with it and there was no need for flip flops or socks but there was the need for a listening pair of ears and for somebody to be there to help him to talk through his feelings and those are just three very different examples of how street pastor can totally transform the direction not just of somebody's night but of somebody's life and on that note I pay tribute to their hard work and wish them very well for the next 10 years. Thank you very much Presiding Officer. Like other members I want to start by congratulating Murdo Fraser for securing this very important debate tonight. I want to add my congratulations to the street pastors in reaching their 10th anniversary and look forward to the years ahead and I am indeed attending the reception following this member's debate and I have to say Murdo Fraser has certainly wetted my appetite as I am now looking forward to kebabs. However if there are no kebabs we might just have to settle for lollipops instead. There's been some great contributions tonight, I did panic a little but I did wonder if Stuart McMillan was going with his commentary around women's footwear but Jeremy Balfour, Sandra Fyclare Baker have all made substantive contributions and I look forward to many more contributions from Stuart Stevenson and Kate Forbes as they compete with their family histories and family testimonies but both gave great contributions and it was lovely to hear about Kate's sister and the work that she's doing. I very much agree with the sentiment that's been expressed and I agree wholeheartedly that the work of street pastors in Scotland is absolutely invaluable as they work to support people in times of crisis and they're helping to make our streets a safer place also. It is an excellent example of how Scotland's faith communities work to support many of our most vulnerable and disadvantaged communities and the people within those communities. I very much note and welcome the comments made by Maudra Fraser and Jeremy Balfour that the context of this work is in the context also of interfaith work and the faith community as a whole going forward. Every day we know that street pastors demonstrate compassion, kindness, their offering of reassurance, safety and support essentially by caring and listening to people, helping people who are out in the streets or indeed homeless, really tapping in to people and their own personal needs and listening to people's personal testimonies. We know that 45,000 hours of service has been provided to communities in Scotland every year as a result of the invaluable work by street pastors and as mentioned by Claire Baker that the street pastors have very good links with Police Scotland and local authorities and they're working with local churches and other community organisations all just simply with a view to help improve lives and to keep people safe. We cannot forget that street pastors are volunteers. The commitment of volunteers, the length and breadth of Scotland of people who are solely working for the betterment of their community or individuals within the community is simply one of the most valuable resources that this country has. It may seem a bit distasteful, but it is important to remember that volunteering contributes £2 billion to an economy every year. I know that we shouldn't always try to equate things in terms of monetary value, but I think that that is an important fact that demonstrates that the breadth and the depth and the contribution that volunteers in all the work that they do across Scotland make to our people, to our country and to our economy. This Government recognises the important contribution that volunteers make in Scotland and we are committed to continue to support and encourage people to get involved in volunteering and to help to make a difference to the matters that matters most to people. We are working to produce, I suppose, policy terms that are called the evidence-led outcome volunteering framework, but essentially what we are trying to do is to create that very coherent, compelling narrative with the key outcomes to ensure that we do justice and can explain and evidence the work that our volunteers do, the length and breadth of Scotland, although we must not lose track of those very personal outcomes and those very personal testimonies. However, without the contributions that volunteers make, whether they are street pastors, carers, providers, mentors, leaders and in many other roles, many of our communities would be far worse off. That is why, as a Government and as a chamber, we will continue to celebrate the vital contribution that volunteers make to this country. I work very hard to break down the barriers that prevent people from making this contribution as volunteers. We have to be absolutely clear that volunteering plays a huge role in building stronger communities and in building more resilient communities. It has to be said that the biggest gift that you can give anyone is the gift of your time. People give freely of their time without any fanfare or reward. I was also very struck by the investment that street pastors, as an organisation and as individuals, make in their training, a 12-week training programme of 50 hours. That is in recognition that, although people may be volunteers, they are doing a very skilled work. We have heard the practical work and the giving work about helping people, particularly at this time of year when it is cold and people are out on a big night out. We have also heard from Sandra White and others in particular that street pastors are working closely with people who are experiencing homelessness by knowing people's names, by signposting them to other services in agencies. Kate Forbes is often offering life-saving or life-changing work. I know that, in the chamber, we often debate rightly the issues in and around homelessness, and no member will be familiar with the work of the action group, the end rough sleeping action group, and the immediate actions that were taken over the course of this winter to tackle rough sleeping with increased investment in emergency accommodation and resources to front-line workers. We know, as a Government and as a Parliament, that there is always so much more to do, but the point that I really wanted to make is that this is not just about Government action, but about our whole society playing their part. The work of street pastors and other volunteers who are dedicating their time and talents to helping homeless people and reducing inequality has never been more important, and we have to recognise the invaluable contribution that people make. I want to quickly highlight to people the work that is a Government that we are doing in terms of the need to reduce loneliness and social isolation. We are working on a national social isolation strategy, and that is about an overall approach about moving away from crisis intervention into more preventative work, but it is recognising that positive and regular human contact improves people's physical and mental health. Once again, we recognise that everyone has a role to play in reducing the levels of social isolation and loneliness in our society and that initiatives such as the street pastors provide a service that builds connections within communities, supports people in times of crisis and helps to make our communities a better place for everybody to thrive. Once again, I want to end by thanking Mother Fraser for securing this debate and to put on record our congratulations and heartfelt thanks to the very many street pastors.