 ydynt yn y gallu chi gyda i'r dyfod mor hynw sydd yn oed wedi'i gweithio â myfyrdd ac yn oed o'r gweithio du o'i ddysgu'r dfaith ynghylch, ddim gwybod o'r cymddiadau. Felly, myfyrdd wedi'i gweithio gyda lluno i mawr i beaucoupchau. Mae hynny wedi'r dwi'nhaith gyda'u gweithiol ar godd I am pleased to open the debate on the succession Scotland bill, and I thank those who submitted evidence and the convener members and the clerks of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee for their detailed scrutiny of the bill at stage 1. I am also grateful to the Scottish Law Commission, whose report on succession, published in 2009, forms the basis of the provisions in the bill. This is the second bill to be considered as part of the SLC bill procedure, and I, for one, am very encouraged by the measured and robust process that is in place to scrutinise these bills. It is doing the important job of getting good law reform into statute, and the SLC bill process is clearly one that we can have confidence in for the future. I very much welcome the committee's support for the general principles of the bill and for its detailed and helpful report. The aim of the bill is to make the relevant parts of the law clearer, fairer and more consistent. On paper, the provisions may at first glance have seemed dry and technical, but it was clear from the evidence that the bill contains many improvements to the law on succession, which are long overdue and which will be welcomed by the legal profession and, I hope, the wider public. Those are provisions that will at some point affect us all, either as a bereaved relative or in terms of making provision for our loved ones in the event of our passing. The provisions contained in the bill are wide-ranging and, to some extent, eclectic. Many of them will update the presumptions and fall-back positions that kick in where someone has not made express provision for a defined set of circumstances in their will. They can therefore be very important. For example, the bill will reverse the law so that in certain circumstances where a couple have had their marriage or civil partnership ended through divorce, dissolution or annulment, an ex-spouse or ex-civil partner will not inherit unless the will or special destination expressly provides that they are to inherit, even if the marriage or civil partnership comes to an end. Similarly, at the moment, if you make a new will and then change your mind and cancel the new will, any earlier will revives and dictates how your estate will be distributed. That may not be what you intended. The bill will change the current law so that an earlier will is not revived by the revocation of a later will. It is a fundamental tenet of the law that a beneficiary under a will must have survived a deceased in order to inherit. In most circumstances, the facts as to who survived will be very clear. Where it is not clear, the bill will change the current law to produce more consistent results and smooth out the impact of small differences in timings of deaths making big and often unexpected differences in the effects of death on their estate. The bill will enable a court to rectify a will to give effect to attestators' instructions where they did not draft the will and it will update the law as it relates to forfeiture, claiming the expense of mornings and gifts that are made in contemplation of death. What I have just described are not everyday occurrences. In some cases they will happen very rarely. Nonetheless, the law needs to be fit for purpose in these circumstances and must produce fair and clear outcomes. All of those examples make the law certain which the legal profession will like, but they also lead to fairer outcomes that are likely to be more in line with what members of the public would expect in those circumstances. With a bill such as this, it was difficult not to be drawn into the detail at the stage. There is clear consensus about the principles and the focus of many of the evidence sessions was about whether the bill achieved the policy or whether there might be a clearer way of achieving that policy. That is something that we will turn to at stage 2. We have reflected carefully on the evidence of witnesses and also the view of the committee as set out in their stage 1 report. I am pleased to confirm that we will be amending the bill at stage 2 to address the vast majority of the issues raised by the committee. In particular, we will remove from the application of section 1, which deals with the impact of divorce, dissolution or annulment on a will, provisions that relate to the appointment of a former spouse or civil partner as a guardian. At section 6, we will make an amendment to deal with the concern that the reference to a will in naming a beneficiary might mean that the beneficiaries are not covered and they are identified as a class. We will also be bringing forward changes to clarify that the provisions relate only to direct descendants or a group consisting solely of direct descendants. We are also more generally considering the terminology in the bill to ensure that that gives effect to the policy. Sections 9 and 10 have generated much discussion and we intend to address the concerns that have been raised about how the sections operate and interact with one another. We had been reflecting also on the point that was made in relation to estates not falling to the crown and the adoption of the suggestion that estates would otherwise fall to the crown as a result of the application of survivorship provision that the younger will be deemed to have survived the elder. As noted by practitioners, the application of the current survivorship provision is extremely rare. We are not of the view that the change to the survivorship rules will increase the number of intestate estates as the testator's legacy will be distributed according to the deceased will, as if the beneficiary had died. We are also considering carefully how the trust bar suggestion might operate from a practical perspective before committing to any amendment. There will also be some further minor amendments where again we have reflected on the views of witnesses who suggested that in some places reference is made to the plural as well as the singular. We fully acknowledge the recommendations made by the committee in relation to the need for guidance of a high standard which is clear and not overly legalistic. We will be revisiting our guidance to reflect not only the changes made by this bill but by any subsequent bill and we will also be reviewing the information on our websites. I must say that I was taken by the committee's view that, whilst the Scottish Government publication What to do after death is well received, that guidance relating to what to do before a death would be invaluable and that is something we will certainly reflect on and I thank the committee for that particular suggestion. The Scottish Parliament may be aware that the Scottish Government is taking forward the recommendations contained in the Scottish Law Commission's report on succession in two distinct strands and that a consultation on the remaining recommendations closed back in September. We adopted this approach so that progress could be made on those worthy changes and that they would not be held up by the more extensive consultation needed on the fundamental overhaul of the law of succession. It is encouraging that witnesses have acknowledged the sense in this approach and recognised the benefits of enabling a high level of scrutiny of those provisions which may have had the potential to become lost in any wider changes to the laws on succession. Those provisions are intended to stand the test of time and will operate there with the law as it stands and should continue to be relevant should the law be changed in the near future. We also gave a clear undertaking to the committee that we will consider at the relevant time, the need to consolidate this bill with any subsequent bill to ensure that the law is easily accessible. The Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee recommended that the Parliament agrees to general principles of the bill. I move that the Parliament agrees to general principles of the succession Scotland bill. I now call on Nigel Dawn to speak on behalf of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee. Six minutes please, convener. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, and I welcome the opportunity to speak on behalf of the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee on the succession Scotland bill. This is a Scottish Law Commission bill. It is only the second such bill to be considered by the committee following changes to standing orders in 2013, which provided that certain Scottish Law Commission bills may be referred to the DPLR committee as the lead committee. Before talking about the specifics of this bill, I want to briefly reflect on the role of the Scottish Law Commission and the value of updating the law. The Scottish Law Commission plays a vital role in recommending reforms aimed at updating and improving Scotland's law. However, until recently, the take-up of Scottish Law Commission inspired bills has been very low. This process allows those bills to be given consideration that they deserve and for important reforms to be implemented. We must do what we can to ensure that Scotland's law is up to date and accessible. The Standards, Procedures and Public Appointments Committee is currently reviewing the Scottish Law Commission bills process, and I hope that the outcome is one that builds on the progress that we, as a Parliament, have already made in improving the implementation of Scottish Law Commission reports. I now turn to the bill itself. I would firstly like to thank all of those who provided written and oral evidence to the committee. In addition to the written submissions received, the committee heard from legal and academic representatives over four oral evidence sessions. The bill covers very complex matters and the detailed evidence received was greatly appreciated by the committee. The bill covers a disparate selection of measures relating to succession law. The bill originates from a 2009 report of the Scottish Law Commission, which in itself built upon the recommendations of the commission's report of 1990, which had not been implemented and that rather makes the point. It is clear, therefore, that there has been a long held recognition of the need for reform in this area. Evidence to the committee reflected the need for reform. It also reflected the fact that this bill contributes to that process of reform, and the committee therefore recognises the need for reform and the contribution that the bill makes. The bill is, however, as the minister has already mentioned, only part of the reform of the law of succession. The Scottish Law Commission's 2009 report also contains proposals that would make more wide-ranging reforms to the law of succession, and the Scottish Government is currently consulting on those proposals with a view to further legislation in this area. The committee recognises that the matters covered in the wider consultation require further consideration. The committee also recognises that those matters may not be appropriate for an SLC bill. The committee further appreciates the necessity of a second bill on succession. Nonetheless, having two bills of succession in such short order may present challenges and in particular may be confusing for the users of the legislation. With that in mind, the committee discussed with witnesses whether there should be value in consolidating the legislation after the second bill, and there was support for that approach. The Government committed to considering consolidation in the context of a futures accession bill. The committee welcomes that commitment. Consolidating the two bills will improve the accessibility of the law for the public, something that the Parliament should surely always strive to do. I mentioned before that this is a complex area of law, but one that will impact on the public widely. The committee welcomes the Scottish Government's recognition of that and the Government's commitment to review and update its guidance on what to do after death. The committee also remains at the view that it would be helpful to have guidance on what people need to do before death, as the minister has already commented. It encourages the Scottish Government to reflect on the benefits of guidance, as we should all be aware of the desirability of leaving a properly functioning will. As I said, the bill covers a disparate and varied set of measures in relation to succession. You will be very pleased to hear, Presiding Officer, that I have no intention of covering most of them. I do, however, want to cover just a few. Section 1 of the bill provides that if a marriage engine divorce or a civil partnership terminates by dissolution, any provision in a will benefiting the testator's former spouse or civil partner will not take effect. Section 1 applies to provisions in wills appointing the testator's former spouse or civil partner as the guardian of a child, meaning that under section 1, as it stands, a former spouse or civil partner could not become a guardian of a child. Witnesses argued that it might be desirable, in some cases, for a former spouse or civil partner to become a guardian irrespective of the absence of expressed provision to that effect and that it would be unfortunate if their only option was to seek parental rights through lengthy and costly illegal proceedings. The committee found these arguments persuasive and is therefore pleased to see that Scottish Governments agreed to bring forward an amendment at stage 2 to remove the appointment of guardians from the effect of section 1. Another area that I also want to highlight is around survivorship. Sections 9 to 11 of the bill deal with the law relating to survivorship in the event of a common calamity such as a car accident, where two or more people's deaths were simultaneous and where it's really not clear which person lived longer. A number of issues arise in relation to this section. In particular, witnesses expressed concern about the situation where a family perishes together and because the order of death is uncertain, the estate falls to the crown rather than to other relatives. While recognising this situation will arise rarely, the committee would not want to see in such circumstances the estate falling to the crown. It seems highly improbable that would ever have been the testator's wish. I'm pleased to see, therefore, that Scottish Governments are reflecting on this matter and hope that a solution will be found which avoids the possibility of this state as far as it's practically possible, falling to the crown. And considering the bill, the committee also expressed concern about the inconsistency of expression in ancillary powers as compared with other bills. This is not a new concern. The committee welcomes the Scottish Government's commitment to reflect further on how ancillary powers are expressed. The committee acknowledges there may be reasons relative to any specific bill why ancillary powers should be framed in a particular way, but we feel that there frequently seem to be differences between the way things are framed, which don't make much sense in the particular context of the bill. Could you draw to close, please, convener? To conclude, while the reforms in the bill are of a technical and comparatively uncontroversial nature, they represent very important and necessary changes to succession law. More generally, this bill contributes to the objective of improving and updating Scots law. The committee recommends that the general principles of the succession Scotland bill be agreed to. Many thanks. I now call Nellene Muddy. Six minutes, please. As has been said, the bill was not considered by the Justice Committee, so I was completely unaware of its provisions until last week. I have not read through the almost 200 pages of the Scottish Law Commission report from 2009, but I suspect that the Scottish Government's approach of taking out that, which is less contentious into a small technical bill and consulting further on more contentious issues, is probably a sensible one. As we have heard, the bill is principally concerned with changes to the law in relation to wills and inheritance. Nigel Donnell has already spoken about the provisions regarding the revocation of an existing will on divorce or the dissolution of a civil partnership and the fact that the issue of guardianship was raised in evidence as being potentially an issue that should not be included in that part of the bill. The date at which the application of that proposal was also discussed and the bill applies when the testator was permanently resident in Scotland at the time of their death. Some witnesses felt that the testator should be domiciled in Scotland at the time of the divorce or dissolution and that that would be more consistent with private international law. I understand that the committee considered that this is really a matter for succession law and therefore the approach taken in the bill was appropriate. The bill enables the courts to rectify will after the death of the testator to enable the correction of simple and obvious errors so long as someone other than the testator had prepared the will and the testator had issued instructions. There seemed to be some quite interesting discussion at that point around whether to include wills that are prepared by the testator themselves, such as handwritten wills, or wills prepared using an online template. It seemed to me that I, for a period of time lived in England, I remember that my first will was actually prepared on something that I bought from W. H. Smith. It sort of said, you will and you wrote somebody to sign it. In fact, I got the PPC for slough constituency to sign mine on the date of the general election in 1987. It did not bring him a lot of luck, I have to say, and the will was no longer an applicable one when I moved back up to Scotland again. That was certainly a quite interesting discussion. Again, the committee agreed with the minister that the important point was that another person had been present and that the will was drawn up to verify the testator's instructions and intentions. Therefore, it could be problems if nobody else had been present to be able to indicate what they had actually wanted. Applications for rectification have to be made within six months, though the courts have discretion to extend that period. There was some discussion about whether the six months was the correct period and whether it should run from the date of death or the date of confirmation, where the will becomes a public record. I think that it was felt that if it was from the date of death, there could be an incentive if the executors had some sort of interest in it to delay confirmation of the will. I think that this was something that the Scottish Government has agreed to reflect on some of that evidence. The committee also pointed out in its report that executors should be made aware that they should not distribute the estate until the six months period has passed in case there is some sort of error in there. The bill also puts into statute the common law provision that, when a beneficiary predeceses a testator, then the beneficiary's direct attendance should inherit. A consequence of that would be that, if a child had predecesed their parents, for example, that children's children would inherit their estate when the parents died, rather than the siblings of the child who had died. That is clear at all. As Daniel Zones said, the bill seeks to address the situation with two people who were in each other's beneficiaries die at the same time, or it is unclear who died first, for example, in an accident. The 1964 act presumes that, in the case of spouses and civil partners, who were in each other's beneficiaries and neither survived the other, then the heirs of both would inherit. However, if they were not spouses or civil partners, but if they just cohabited, the law currently assumes that the younger person survived the older person, and, in that case, the younger person's next lot of heirs would inherit the whole of the estate. That part of the 1964 act is repealed, and when the beneficiary's order of death is uncertain, the property is to be equally divided between the estates of both, which certainly seems to be fairer. However, as Daniel Zones said, it does not address the unusual case of a tragedy where an entire family dies and there are no surviving beneficiaries. In that case, the estate would go to the crown rather than to other relatives, and there have been arguments that whether, in that case, the younger person should be considered to have outlived the elder people, and therefore their beneficiaries would inherit rather than the crown. Bill also builds on the rule of forfeiture, whereby someone cannot inherit the estate of a person who has unlawfully killed, which he must be quite correct. Under section 2, in those circumstances, the offender would be treated as if he had pre-deceased the person who had been killed, and the deceased's entire estate would therefore pass to their heirs next in line. I note that the Parasite Act of 1594, which disinherits people who killed their parents or grandparents, is repealed by that, as those cases are now covered by the forfeiture rule. I remember when we had some discussion around common good that the common good legislation dates back to the 14th century, but it is clearly succession legislation that currently dates back to the 16th century. Section 18 consolidates an extensive protection for executors who redistribute their estate in error, because they were ignorant of the facts that would have enabled them to be distributed properly. I understand that the Government has undertaken to provide guidance for executors on what are the requirements imposed on them, as the section also requires executors to make reasonable inquiries, and lay people might find that a bit difficult. All in all, I think that the bill is indeed technical and quite dry in some respects, but it would appear to be a good thing, and we will be supporting it. Thank you, Presiding Officer. I, too, am pleased to participate in this stage 1 debate in the succession bill. I would like to thank the DPLR committee convener, Clarkson, members for their assistance with the delivery of this comprehensive report, as well as the witnesses whose contributions helped to inform the process from the outset. As legal practitioners are aware, many of the recommendations that form the foundations of the bill's provisions date back to the Scottish Law Commission's report on succession in 1990, which largely remains unimplemented. A subsequent SLC report, published in 2009, revisited a number of those recommendations and carried them forward. I thank the SLC commissioners and legal staff for the considerable work that has gone towards the implementation of those reforms. The bill principally seeks to update four key areas of succession law, encompassing testamentary documents and special destinations, survivorship and forfeiture and estate administration, but also includes a number of miscellaneous reforms. It is a complex piece of legislation, and I reiterate the committee's suggestion to the minister that its provisions need to be clearly explained in guidance to the public once it has completed its parliamentary passage, and indeed I welcome the minister's comments in this regard today. As the committee agreed in its stage 1 report, given the somewhat disparate nature of the bill, it was difficult to offer an overarching view of its legislative provisions. Although members agreed to the general principles of the bill, we raise concerns in particular about sections 6, 9 and 10, and are pleased that the Scottish Government has committed to addressing those at stage 2. It is nevertheless clear that the legal profession welcomes the progress that the bill makes in the area of succession law, albeit at some 25 years after the recommendations were first put forward. Faculty of Advocates, for example, stated that it has held a view, shared widely in the legal profession that reforms of the Scots law of succession is required. As such, there was a strong degree of consensus among stakeholders, and the DPLR committee did not receive any evidence questioning the need for reform. It is perhaps a fair assessment to attribute this consensus to the predominantly technical nature of the bill. When seeking to reform the Serious Scots law, the Scottish Government has adopted a two-pronged approach that firstly aims to put the non-contentious provisions on the statute books. The committee's understanding is that it will introduce wider-ranging proposals to succession law at a later date. Although the faculty described the approach as uncharted waters, there is nevertheless some merit in it, too. Too often sensible provisions and draft legislation have been overshadowed by contentious proposals, such as the Air Weapons and Licensing Bill, earlier this year. As such, the complex changes proposed in the succession bill have been subject to sufficient scrutiny and have not been superseded by other more contentious areas of policy. Nevertheless, the committee raised the question of consolidation once-a-second succession bill has passed in order to avoid a cluttered legislative landscape in the area of law and expression, I must say, I rather like. As professors Crawford Crawford others and Paisley emphasised in their evidence, it would be a difficult undertaking to consolidate all aspects of succession law. However, the minister has agreed to consider the possibility of consolidating the two new pieces of legislation at a later stage, which is a welcome development. Broadly speaking, that is a sensible piece of legislation, although limited in scope, its provisions will have a significant impact on those people affected by this area of Scots law and its technical focus should not diminish its importance. Scottish Conservatives will therefore support the bill at stage 1. Many thanks and I now turn to the short open debate, speeches of a maximum of four minutes, and I call Stuart Stevenson to be followed by Richard Baker. Thank you very much, Presiding Officer, an interesting bill that we have been dealing with in DPLR. I want to address my remarks to the rectification provisions section 3 and section 4, and in particular, taking note of what the minister said as reported at section 73 of the committee's report, that we are only looking at when what the testator has wanted and has clearly expressed as being what they wanted is not reflected in the bill, as being the grounds for rectification. The minister also said that we will continue to reflect on whether software could be considered as constituting a third party. In other words, contributing to the misrepresentation in a resulting bill of the intentions that were clearly stated by the testator. There is an important point in there that we have to consider, which is quite different from using electronic means, to take a template and fill in the blanks with one's intentions. Because there, one is directly keying from the intention of the testator through the keyboard directly into the resulting document without any intermediate computer or computer programmer or computer programmer operation. Thinking about it further, there is clearly a third party when there is a computer programme involved. There is the programmer who has produced the programme. Unlike all computer programmes, it is impossible to guarantee a computer programme however simple it may be to be free from potential error under some circumstances. It may well be that, even though the testator keyed, let's say, I wish to leave all my assets to my spouse. That's all that they say. It is still perfectly possible for a computer programme to scramble that and misspell spouse for the sake of argument. So the resulting document requires rectification to give effect to the testator's intentions. I think that we've got to take account of that. However, I think that the difficulty that the court would be likely to have to wrestle with is whether there is somewhere that would give clear insight into what the testator's intentions were. Because if you're just keying some data into a computer programme, unless what is keyed into that programme is preserved for examination at a later date, there will be no clear record of the testator's intentions. Perhaps one of the things that we might address that is outside the legislation but related to it is to seek to provide advice to those who produce automated systems for producing wills that have computer programmes that draw them up the need to preserve directly the input of the testator so that it's possible to examine whether the operation of the computer programme has taken the testator's stated intentions as expressed through the keyboard and produced a bill that is different from those intentions. I think that that lies at the heart of what we would almost certainly need to do and the Government could help those who draw up such programmes by making that point and perhaps setting that down as the test that the courts might apply. I must say in conclusion, Presiding Officer, it's been a very interesting bill in particular when we look at section 12 related to forfeiture, the fiction that if someone murders the person from whom they're going to inherit, then in legal terms that person, although physically still living, is now legally dead, and that is an exciting and engaging prospect. I look forward to subsequent stages of this bill. While the legislation is technical on HRI, I agree with the members who have spoken that this is an important bill. All this inside and outside this chamber want to be assured that Scotland has a legal framework on succession that ensures that when someone dies, what happens to their estate is in line with their wishes that those they want to benefit do benefit, aided and not hindered by legislation. It is an area of law that has been in need of reform, as John Scott pointed out. That's what we heard from those who gave evidence to the committee's inquiry. Indeed, given the law commission reported on this issue in 1919 and again in 2009, it could be argued that this reform is somewhat overdue. That's why I believe it's evidently beneficial. In this Parliament, what was previously subordinate legislation committee has had its remit broadened to include law reform bills. It means that good proposals for legislation have been acted on rather than left to gather dust. And so, whatever the shape and structure of the committees in the next Parliament, I hope that there is a committee which continues this role of taking forward law commission bills. Presiding Officer, the committee's deliberations on this bill have been effective. I think that we can conclude bringing forward these technical matters concerning succession prior to further legislation on substantive matters of policy, on succession has been the right approach and allowed these reforms to be made more timuously. But I'd also echo the evidence that we heard at committee on this matter that, in the fullness of time, ministers should proceed with consolidation focused on the two bills. Now, while there's been a great deal of consensus around the bill, there have been areas, as members have said, where witnesses urge ministers to take a different approach. Other members have discussed this and referenced survivorship forfeiture to section 1 in relation to guardianship and the point at which section 1 should come into effect. Other members have covered these points. I believe that the committee and the minister have taken the right approach on them. The issue that I pursued at committee with those giving evidence was rectification and specifically the proposal from trust bar, the law society and others that the scope of the provisions on rectification should be widened so that it might include documents drawn up by that estate themselves, such as handwritten wills, and wills using templates created online, which of course Stuart Stevenson just addressed in his contribution as well. I believe that the majority of witnesses identified as a crucial concern in this matter, whether a third party was present in some shape or form in drawing up the document in question. So I understand the minister's contention that the presence of someone else to verify that person's intent was different from what was ultimately expressed in the will is a key issue. And at this point, the committee has agreed that the scope of those provisions shouldn't be extended. But the debate on this issue, the points which Mr Stevenson has raised too, highlights the fact that more and more people will go online to create important documents like wills online and the law must stay abreast of this social context. It's not an reasonable point to say that, given the priorities to enable people's wishes to be abided by, something like an online will template should also be given weight when determining what those wishes actually were. I don't pretend there's an easy answer to this issue at this point. But ministers should keep a watching brief on this matter of how documents pertaining to legal issues drafted online by individuals should be regarded by the law and not only on the issue of succession. And today, though the Law Society is in its briefing asking ministers to rethink their approach to this matter in this bill that we have before us today. So this bill is technical but it has thrown up important questions because it is on an important area of law which has needed reform for some time. It's raising interesting points of detail in law which I think will provide ministers with quite a lot to reflect upon both today and for the legislation as well. But certainly this bill should be supported at stage 1 today. Many thanks. I'm now turn to closing speeches under Colin John Scott. Four minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. And I'd like to thank members for a good debate this afternoon. And it is clear that there is a great deal of consensus in the chamber and I'm pleased that the Scottish Law Commission's efforts towards reforming some technical aspects of succession law have attracted cross-party support today. We have reflected on the granular dimensions of the bill as well as broader issues relating to the Scottish Government's legislative approach on these issues and the possibility of consolidating this and future legislation. But in closing perhaps we should revisit the SLC's original aim for examining this area of Scott's law in the first place. When launching the 2009 report Professor Joseph Thomson, the lead commissioner on the succession project said, the aim is to simplify the law radically by providing rules that are easily understood and which at the same time reflect the nature of family structures in contemporary Scotland. A test of this draft legislation is whether it achieves radical simplification intended by the SLC. And the DPLR committee has satisfied that, allowing for the suggested changes at stage 2 of the bill's parliamentary passage, it achieves the stated aim of the report on which it is based. But it is also important, as the convener emphasised during evidence to the committee on the bill, that the fact that something is not very common does not mean that we do not need to get the law right. Even if we are not sure that the issue will arise, we still need to make sure that the law says what we think it should say. And this comment was made on the strength of a point that I raised regarding the policy rationale for the inclusion of guardianship in section 1 of the bill, which says that a divorce or dissolution of a civil partnership should revoke an existing will. The section also applies to provision in wills appointing the testators, former spouse or civil partner as a guardian of a child. And Nigel Don referred to this in his opening speech. However, this particular provision has been criticised by stakeholders including the Law Society and Trust Part. The key concern is that it might be desirable in some cases for a former spouse or civil partner to become a guardian irrespective of the absence of express provision under section 1 3. As such, there are implications both for the amount of time it could take to seek parental rights up to a year and a half and the cost potentially amounting to £6,000 of a client is unable to secure legal aid. Trust Part also highlighted the possible inconsistencies that the provision might create between family law and succession law. The committee explored the issue in some detail with witnesses and I am pleased that the minister has agreed that it would not be appropriate to apply different outcomes to guardianship provisions which will result in an amendment being lodged by the Scottish Government at stage 2. That and other minor criticisms of the bill notwithstanding and Stuart Stevens in speech which only goes to highlight the complexities of the bill, I am pleased to reiterate that the Scottish Conservatives will vote in favour of this draft legislation at decision time this evening. Many thanks. I now call in Graham Pearson. Five minutes please. Thank you, Presiding Officer. First, I'll begin by indicating our support for the approach taken in relation to stage 1 of this bill. Wills and inheritance are an important issue and I am grateful to Nigel Dawn and the DPLR committee for taking on what is undoubtedly a daunting task in dealing with some complex and in some areas controversial issues. The fact that the committee took four oral sessions of evidence is heartening in terms of the depth of inquiry that has gone into the approach taken by committee in this matter. The sensible decision to take out of the discussions those elements of the bill that can be introduced into lot this stage with a view to considering a second bill at a later stage in the process again I think is heartening and is the right decision. Hearing from Nigel Dawn that the committee was persuaded by evidence in deciding the way forward in relation to section 1 indicates best practice and the reason why committees exist within this Parliament to follow evidence and it places this chamber in a more confident view in moving forward in this regard. I do not suppose it is surprising to know that Elaine Murray found parts of the bill interesting and that Stuart Stevenson has always found legislation interesting but could come up with an obscure way of analysing that interest only lighten the atmosphere on what otherwise is quite an in-depth consideration. The Scottish Law Commission does important work on our behalf. Paul Wheelhouse was right to acknowledge their work in relation to the 2009 report but failed to acknowledge that it really reiterated a 1990 report from the same source and it just goes to show that law moves quickly in these parts and I think that in my time in justice committee it was a source of some embarrassment to me that we were aware of many Scottish Law Commission reports that unfortunately we had no time to address. So I would agree with Richard Baker that the creation of the DPLR approach is a good stage forward and I hope that the Scottish Law Commission could take heart that the hard work that they do on behalf of Scots law in maintaining an up-to-date environment fit for the demands of modern life is well worth the effort and one that we should try and ensure we introduce into our processes so that new law can be created. I'm happy to give way. The member talks about keeping up with modern developments. Does the member, like I think I do, welcome that in relation to the Abolition of the Parasite Act that we have now provisioned that the courts can, judging the facts of a case, decide whether to give allow 100 per cent inheritance? And the reason why that's important is of course with assisted suicide now being something not common but exists. It may be appropriate for the courts to allow in some circumstances full inheritance and that this is an example of our keeping up with what the evolution of the law should look like. Graham Pearson with Frayde you're approaching your last minute. Indeed. I do accept the point and it's made by Stuart Stevenson in knowing that the Parasite Act was enacted in 1594. It's certainly taken us a while to reconsider the circumstances but the decision in that regard is no less valuable for that fact. Making laws certain and allowing clarity should always be the desire of Government in Scotland and Paul Wheelhouse acknowledged that in his contribution earlier. The guidance that will accompany the legislation will indeed be important and I know that officials will spend time to ensure that the guidance in actual fact enforces the intention of the legislation and produces for the Scottish public a piece of legislation that's invaluable at the time when it's most needed and unfortunately at the time of death. His allusion to the fact that we should have a brochure which offers information before death is something that shouldn't be overlooked and I hope that he will revisit due course. I'm grateful to you, Presiding Officer. Many thanks and I now call in Paul Wheelhouse to wind up the debate at seven minutes, please minister. Thank you Presiding Officer. The spirit of this afternoon's debate has served to highlight the value of the scrutiny that the Delegated Powers and Law Reform Committee bring to the Scottish Law Commission bill procedure and in front of our reasonably full gallery as well it also shows the Parliament can agree occasionally on matters of importance to the people of Scotland. There is little doubt that the reform to the law succession has been long awaited. As Nigel Dawn, John Scott, Richard Baker and Dee Graham Pearson have indicated, there has been a long period since this has come forward and I echo the points that were made by members about the new procedure allowing important work to come forward when that is merited. And there's a clear view that change is overdue and is being eagerly anticipated. There's a lot of good will out there for this work as it goes forward and I welcome very much the positive thoughts of members across the chamber. The debate has highlighted that there is a tricky area of law that has been well served by the work of the Scottish Law Commission in exposing the difficult issues, the existing anomalies and the provision of solutions which will lead to a fairer and more consistent law. After all, as I said in the opening as a number of other members have acknowledged, this is a bill that has a potential to affect everybody. The one certainty in life is of course death. For that reason, we all have an interest in ensuring that succession laws fit for purpose and meets the challenges of today's society and expectations. Woody Allen famously said, I'm not afraid of death, I just don't want to be there when it happens and I think we can all echo that sentiment. But the difficulty of course is with not being there is that it's not often not very clear what the deceased wanted to happen to their state and this touches on the point that Stuart Stevenson was relating to in relation to online wills. The law therefore needs to step in and fill that void and deal with things in a fair way. Is therefore only right that what are generally overlooked in neglected areas of succession law are thoroughly debated as the impact of a law on individual people and families can be considerable. I mentioned in my opening speech some of the key provisions of the bill. Others include clarifying the law around forfeiture which has been referred to. Forfeiture is a legal rule which prevents someone responsible for the unlawful death of another from benefiting on the deceased will. I will take on board the point that Stuart Stevenson mentioned and reflect on that point. But there has been some colourful evidence on this issue but amongst other things the bill will place beyond doubt that the children of a forfeiture will not be punished under the law of succession for the actions of their parent. The bill will also restate and improve some protections around the administration of estates. Those changes have been described as useful and practical additions to the administration rules which will have real benefits for executors and beneficiaries alike. There is little doubt that the combined effect of this initial work of the Scottish Law Commission, the professional scrutiny of the committee and the comments offered by experts in this field of law will result in a bill that will make a difference and meet our policy aims of a more consistent, clearer and fairer law. I hope that the Scottish Parliament has reassured that we have listened hard to the committee and the experts and continued to liaise with the Scottish Law Commission on the points of detail. We will be bringing forward a number of amendments at stage 2 that John Scott and others mentioned to address many of the points raised in the stage 1 report and by those giving evidence. There are other issues in which we are continuing to reflect and as I have already mentioned the law we are changing is technical and tricky and we need to think through the consequences of any amendments to ensure that they deliver something that is fit for purpose. For that reason we will continue to seek views from the profession and work closely with the Scottish Law Commission to test the amendments. On that very point I am very conscious of the issue of common calamity and when we are not clear which order people die in and the risk that the estate might finish up going to the crown. I think I probably speak not just for myself but probably for the committee that we felt that there were really no reasons when we would ever want that to happen. I wonder whether one solution might be a fallback is actually the court under those circumstances simply has a discretion to do something that it seems is reasonable and it might just be that defining the order of which we've died in the context of age doesn't overcome the problem. It might be the discretion is actually the best solution the court could have. I take the members' points on boards. We are obviously trying to deliver as much certainty as we can in the law of succession but I would say in relation to the point I was going to turn to that in any case the point in terms of estates falling to the crown I recognise the committee's view that the estate should not fall to the crown we are giving further consideration to the matter in advance of stage 2 the key would be in how a rule might be framed and trust bar offered a draft provision but we need to understand how better it would work in practical terms and currently estates which appear to fall to the crown are firstly investigated by the national ultimus Henry's unit and then passed to the Queen's and Lord's Treasurer's Remembrance or the QLTR administer the estate paying any debts of course and then it will be added to their unclaimed estates list and these estates are advertised in the websites having fallen to the crown but we understand that blood relatives are found in most cases if not all there is therefore a very practical time and resource issue while I'm not averse to amending the bill on this issue we need to bottom out the practicalities as I say it would be pointless to amend it if we could not actually give the amendment effect or in doing so it places a significant financial burden on the estate and there also like to be different views on what any rule would be for distributing the estate in these circumstances I do take point that Nigel Dawn made a more simple process perhaps but I'll look and reflect on that after the debate but hopefully that makes clear the Government's position we're taking forward discussions at the moment and we'll reflect on that but I'm very clear that today's debate indicates this where we're pleased that there is such clear support from Labour and Conservative members today who've spoken I welcome the support of both parties for the bill there is no doubt that it will make a positive difference as it strives to deliver fair outcomes at what is often such a terrible time of course in people's lives and the last thing that needs is confusion and uncertainty so in my last couple of minutes I'd just like to or minute and a bit reflect on another couple of points if I may that have been made by members Stuart Stevenson talked of of software and I will reflect on the points he has made but a key provisions are I suppose that an online performer would not provide the necessary evidence we believe and I think that Stuart Stevenson reflected this to support a claim for rectification if a testator draws up their own will whether on paper or online this provision would not apply we are aware of some online forms where there's a lawyer present and they may well be covered by the bill under the terms of the bill as present but where there's no person present that is clearly a challenge but I will reflect on what Stuart Stevenson has said the points that Elaine Murray made about reasonable time we certainly have been reflecting very closely on the evidence given to the committee and the committee's view on the issue about the six-month period running from date of confirmation versus date of death and we'll come back with further detail on that and also the domicile issue the the testator requiring to be domiciled in Scotland at death that Elaine Murray also raised we share the view of the Scottish Law Commission and the committee that the rule about the effect of divorce, dissolution and annulment upon a will should apply whether testator dies domiciled in Scotland and not whether testator is domiciled in Scotland at the time of divorce, dissolution or annulment I see have run out of time Presiding Officer but I thank members for their thoughtful contributions as always and I look forward to working with them in delivering the bill at stage 2 and stage 3 Thank you minister and that concludes the debate on stage 1 of the succession Scotland bill I'll allow a few moments for members to change places before the next item of business is commenced The next item of business is a debate on motion number 1, 4, 7, 7, 5 in the name of Whomza Yousaf in Scotland and Malawi 10 years since the co-operation agreement I invite all members who wish to speak in the debate to please press the request to speak muttons now or as soon as possible and I call on minister Whomza Yousaf to speak to and move the motion minister 10 minutes or thereby please Presiding Officer members of the Parliament ladies and gentlemen Malawi Bwange and good afternoon it's a pleasure to be leading this debate on behalf of the Scottish Government we're here of course to celebrate the 10 years of that relationship when that co-operation agreement was signed of course between the Scottish Government and the Government of Malawi but all of us know that without any hesitation that of course the relationship is much deeper and goes much longer than those 10 years every single one of us will know of the stories of what could arguably be our greatest ever Scott Dr David Livingstone and his journeys throughout sub-Saharan Africa what touches you for any of those members that have been to Malawi is the knowledge that those in that country have of Dr David Livingstone and how much they still revere him to this very day 156 years ago when he took his first steps in Malawi I don't know too much about Dr David Livingstone certainly not as much as some of the aficiandos in this chamber Presiding Officer but what I do know is that he's many things to many people many people view Dr David Livingstone as a doctor and a great medic as no undoubtedly he was many people view him as a great explorer undoubtedly as he was looking for that source of the Zambezi River many others view him as a missionary and that was his primary role in Malawi and perhaps less that said about that probably the better cos he only ever converted one person and that person ended up becoming what some might call a lapsed Christian but nonetheless he was a missionary to some a doctor to some and explore it to others but the way I view him in a way I think he will be most remembered is as a humanitarian he was a humanitarian who campaigned against the abhorrent slave trade at the time he was a humanitarian that believed in commerce as being a route out of the slave trade he was a humanitarian that believed in the ideals of civilisation which meant that wherever the global challenges that faced us as a common humanity we were able to overcome but as well as the historical I'm very very proud of the contemporary contribution that Scotland has made in partnership with Malawi that Malawi has made and benefited to Scotland as well credit we're credit you of course with Lord McConnell then First Minister Jack McConnell who signed the co-operation agreement with then President Bingo Matarica of Malawi in Bute House and we were just reflecting on this earlier this week last week Presiding Officer when the current First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hosted a number of Malawi delegates and diplomats and those that have been involved in the relationship 10 years on again in Bute House and we look over that 10 years and the international development fund has moved on not just to Malawi but now to seven countries across the world £80 million disembursed throughout those 10 years but Malawi being the primary relationship I would say the crown in the jewel £55 million of funding over the 10 years has gone to projects that have made a huge impact over those years hundreds of projects have been supported over those 10 years as well but if I was to be asked what the primary success of the relationship between Scotland and Malawi is without doubt Presiding Officer the primary success has been that people-to-people relationship that has been cemented up and down this country and in that vein it would be wrong of me to continue without thanking those that have been involved in that people-to-people relationship Parliamentarians have been at the forefront of that many Parliamentarians I can see here that I know have been to Malawi to help cement those relationships but they would also be the first to acknowledge that it is from the communities that are now organically in grassroots that this relationship has begun and my thanks to the Scottish Malawi partnership and their mirror organisation in Malawi the Malawi Scotland partnership and the chairs that have been involved and the chief executives that have been involved and that David Hope-Jones chief executive and the chairman Reverend Ken Ross of the Scottish Malawi partnership and Andrew Namakoma and Happy Makala from the Malawi Scotland partnerships their counterparts for all the work that they've done it's quite inspiring Presiding Officer and enlightening that I go up and down Scotland across our country from the south to the north to the east to the west and everybody or somebody is involved in the relationship I should say with Malawi and they are from all different sectors from your doctors, nurses, teachers school pupils politicians of course and many others in between as well partnership is a key key word and co-operation and collaboration are key words in the relationship between our two nations they were important in the millennium development goals important in the current sustainable development goals and there was a famous anti-apartheid slogan which many members will know that what is about us without us is not for us and that very much cements the ethos with which we take forward a relationship between Scotland and Malawi where the priorities are of the Malawi Government and of the people of Malawi they too then become the priorities of the Scottish Government and indeed our NGOs which carry out the good work and that is guided by that co-operation agreement where the government comes together two governments come together on a regular basis and go through line by line that co-operation agreement to discuss what is best in terms of the relationship moving forward I want to pay tribute to the NGOs and the partners for being involved in this relationship as well that's been hugely successful over the 10 years I've had a look at some of the key achievements and there's too many to mention all of them of course but some of the highlights of the achievements have been for example Presiding Officer providing 140,000 seriously ill children with emergency triage and referral for treatment of meningitis we've saved thousands thousands of lives of mothers and their babies through numerous maternal healthcare projects we've brought improved access to energy to over 80,000 Malawians through our flagship Malawi Renewable Energy Acceleration programme I was able to visit the College of Medicine Malawi's only medical school where the Scottish Government has funded a combined total of over 2.4 million pounds worth of projects through medical academics and professionals and within from doing that we've managed to increase the annual rate of medical graduates from 16 a year to over 100 a year and we've established Malawi's first ever clinical masters in psychiatry these are great achievements which will have a profound effect not just for the current period of time but actually for years in fact may for generations to come when we should be proud of those achievements and playing a part in those achievements but statistics are just statistics at the end and most of us who have visited Malawi understand and for those that have had delegations come we understand that there's a human story behind every single one of those statistics I could recall and recount plenty but perhaps one that comes to mind is through one of our solar projects through funding healthcare centre it was great to hear of the fact that this was when I visited first time around 2014 that for the first time in the village near the Melange mountain in that village a woman had been the first to give birth under a light because of the solar projects that we had helped to fund here amazing in 2014 as it was then that we were still having people giving birth in the dark but she was the first woman in our village and that was through the generosity of Scots many other stories as well that I liked that human stories which helped us to realise the great impact that we've made in this relationship over the last 10 years while I was in Malawi Presiding Officer I had the great pleasure of meeting the current president Peter Mutarica and we discussed much around the aid project and the development programme but also I thought it was important to mention the fact that he touched on the importance of trade and I think from our perspective looking forward on how to take this relationship to the next phase trade will be an important part Malawi every time I go they always ask us about trade they say we don't want to rely on aid we don't want to rely on development assistance we want to rely on our own future our own capabilities our own capacities our own intellects our own hard work our own endeavour we want to be able to create jobs create wealth create an ecosystem that sustains ourselves and that's why I also welcome Labour's amendment I thought the important word in their amendment was about sustainability and that's what the president talked about and we have a legacy in this a historical legacy in this is Scots one of the very first European businesses to set up shop in Malawi was the African Lakes Company by two brothers the headquarters in Glasgow of the African Lakes Company John and Frederick Moyer the company went on to be known as the Mandala Corporation because one of the brothers wore glasses and Mandala's glasses in Chichewa and his brother had the walking stick which was Cundodo and there's now a whole chain of Cundodo supermarkets running throughout Malawi so we had this historical legacy of trade in Malawi that existed from the 19th century but in modern day and time too we also have some trade relationship with Malawi I visited Mary's Meals as many others have done I was blown away by the project 800,000 children in Malawi that they feed a million children across the world they feed every single day but the important thing that I got to see was also their food processing plant which employs 2,000 people locals from Malawi and in Malawi so building upon that perhaps there's more that we can do there's plenty more to say because I know I will have the chance to sum up and I will take some of these themes other themes forward maybe in conclusion looking ahead in the next 10 years the sustainable development goals command us as the final sustainable development goal to build partnerships with the developing world I think that will be the challenge for us to ensure that this relationship is sustainable moving forward that it's fit for the modern world that actually that partnership that we have and we've created and fostered all of us over the last 10 years in civic society in particular over the last 10 years that is a great model for other countries to look at in the development that they do so I think all of us should be very proud I'm pleased that we're celebrating that success I look forward to a really insightful and encouraging debate I'm pleased to hear about what members are doing and their own constituencies but my thanks go to the people of Scotland to civic society to parliamentarians and everybody who's been involved in this relationship in making a success over the last 10 years many thanks and I now call on Claire Baker to speak to and move amendment 14775.1 speaker you have seven minutes so thereby please thank you Presiding Officer I would like to thank the minister for bringing this debate to the chamber today and I'm pleased the Scottish Government has used some of their chamber time to highlight the anniversary of the co-operation agreement and give all the opportunity all of us and opportunities recognise the significance of that anniversary the partnership agreement and the laid up to the signing weren't all times universally supported or popular within the Parliament or even with outside organisations there was some skepticism and even outright opposition and I appreciate there were people who had concerns that a focus on one country could divert attention from the others however despite the initial reaction from some it is clear that as the relationship developed attitudes have changed and we have seen a significant number of positive and inspiring outcomes from across Scotland that have benefited Malawi I want to take this opportunity to thank our former First Minister Jack McConnell and the team that worked towards the co-operation agreement for pushing forward with a process that they believed could change a country the co-operation agreement was the first step towards the Scottish Government's international development fund and the positive work that it has delivered throughout the world and I would like to at this point recognise that while the fund has been protected and that's very welcome it has reduced in value to around some 8 per cent a year in real terms we all know the pressures that are on the budget but this is a small spot of money within the Scottish budget terms and we should be looking at how we can restore its value to return to the partnership agreement at the time of the agreement Malawi was one of the purest countries in the world its income per person was $160 a year despite having a population in a land area that was more than double that of Scotland's it economy was little more than 1 per cent of ours to put that into some kind of perspective Falkirk's economy at that time was twice the size of Malawi's the country was suffering one of the worst HIV AIDS epidemics in the world life expectancy had fallen from 45 years to 37 years and the number of orphans in Malawi numbered the entire population of Edinburgh so this was a situation facing Malawi at the time the agreement was signed and I believe that we as a Parliament and as a country can be immensely proud that in the time of Malawi's needs Scotland was there to reignite the bonds of friendship and help the agreement wasn't just a link between the First Minister and the President at the time nor was it a link between two parliaments that was a link between two countries a link between 17 million people and since the agreement was signed the civic links between people within the two countries has benefited two million people in Malawi four million people indirectly this is a quarter of the country's population a population that has grown from 12 to 16 million in the past decade and with over 150 schools 15 local authorities all universities most colleges hundreds of NGOs businesses charities and ambassadors throughout the country have been engaged with Malawi I'm sure that every MSP who speaks today will have their own local example to highlight in my own region of Mid Scotland and Fife that are a large number of partnerships working to change lives in Scotland and Malawi Five Council for example was linked with Malawi Team Malawi in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games and Five College has a number of links to the country Local schools such as Kirkcaldy High and Brunt Island Primary are linking pupils with pupils in Malawi and forming an inspiring future generations in both countries and St Kenneth's Parish Church has links with villages in the north of Malawi helping to build infrastructure freshwater boreholes schools and sustainable income generating projects to help lift people out of poverty There are national examples too most famously Mary's meals as mentioned by the minister who are doing great work in Malawi and beyond but there is also a chance for change who are working with young people with support from the Scottish Government linked community development and continuing his work when he set up the co-operation agreement I know Jack McConnell has very strong links to Livingston volunteers who are now in their third year and are helping Scots who are looking to volunteer in Malawi Presiding Officer while it is right that we highlight the great week's work that has been achieved between Scotland and Malawi over the past 10 years we must also use today's debate and the anniversary to look forward to the next 10 years and the 10 years after that We have focussed in this debate and this decade rightly on health and education As we head into our own elections next year we all understand the importance of such areas to a country and its people health and education can tackle inequality and can transform people's lives With programmes and partnerships embedded within the two nations we can look at what has worked and build on that whilst also looking at what areas we can improve to expand the work that we do Whilst I appreciate the original agreement has a section devoted to sustainable economic development one of the big challenges facing Malawi in modern terms is an economic one and currently the economy like many other countries in the area is fragile headline inflation is running at 24 per cent and the currency is very weak falling against all major currencies and the export revenue is low So one of the challenges as we proceed into the next decade of partnership has to be supporting trade and investment in Malawi and this can be achieved through Scotland strengthening its contribution and I welcome the minister's comments on this in his opening statement Stimulating collaboration between agricultural bodies as mentioned in the original agreement is important agriculture contributes eight to five per cent of the total workforce 35 per cent of GDP and 90 per cent of export earnings in Malawi Of this, 70 per cent of the nation's agricultural production is small holdings so farming is clearly a key industry it provides exports such as tobacco, coffee, sugar and tea and it feeds the country however because Malawi is so landlocked its transportation costs are high and its vulnerability to weather is a huge issue and I recognise that the Government's motion does talk about the United Nations Sustainability Goals and we do know the pressures there are from climate change and the poorest countries will bear the biggest brunt of that but agriculture is a sector that we as a country know well and whilst links have been established and these are to be welcomed I think that there is more we can do between our two sectors and also this week a group from Malawi are in Scotland to start an international study tour on public sector reform and a directorate for public sector reform management has been set up and a parliamentary committee is looking to build institutional frameworks to help businesses flourish I hope to have a successful trip and learn much from their knowledge and expertise in such areas there is also some test drilling in Malawi around looking at possibility of oil and I think Scotland's experience on the oil sector how to manage that sector and how to help grow it we could share that benefits with Malawi but we must also be on our guard against corruption particularly if the sector is to grow and the Scotland and Malawi co-operation agreement is a programme now embedded within our parliament and wider civic society and from it we now have a significant life changing international development programme the co-operation agreement is a success story that we as a parliament should be proud of the last 10 years have been an example to other nations an example we must continue if we can assist in any way towards a sustainable economy then we will have laid the building blocks towards a stable sustainable and hopefully peaceful and prosperous country I move the amendment in my name any thanks tight for time today calling Mr McGregor, Jimmy McGregor five minutes please thank you depth residing officer I'm very pleased to speak in today's debate in support of the motion and also of the amendment there's nothing in it which I could possibly disagree with I also thank those organisations that have provided useful briefings for today including the Scotland-Malawi partnership which does such good work under the direction of David Hope-Jones like others I would wish to pay tribute to the former First Minister Jack McConnell for initiating the Scotland-Malawi co-operation agreement 10 years ago Scotland's co-operation with Malawi has consistently enjoyed cross-party support and this continues to be the case the Scottish Conservatives recognise the significant amount of good work that has been undertaken in Malawi in the last 10 years thanks to the support of the Scottish Government and commend the efforts of those involved in delivering assistance on the ground the minister has set out some of those achievements in opening this debate I've been particularly impressed with the results of the Malawi renewable energy acceleration programme led by the University of Strathclyde which has helped almost 80,000 people in rural Malawi gain access to sustainable electricity as the June 2015 end of project report states in a country where less than 1% of the rural population has access to electricity this is a transformational change it is also very much to be welcomed that academic institutions in Malawi are training communities on the use of renewable energy helping to build future capacity and that a new masters in renewable energy degree the first of its kind ever in Malawi has been created with 13 students on track to finish their studies in 2015 I think that's a marvellous thing in previous debates on Malawi I have praised the outstanding work of the charity Mary's Meals which is headquartered near my home village of Dalmali in Argyll and I make no apology for highlighting their work again here today under the world class leadership of Magnus McFarlane Barrow all of us should be very proud that a Scottish charity is a global leader providing meals to over 25% of all primary schools across Malawi headteacher Moses Nederama of Kagolo Primary School in Malawi says the four Mary's Meals the children had nothing to eat all day at school they were always tired and had no energy or enthusiasm now they are very participative indeed and their stomachs are full Mary's Meals were possible by as much of what it means to deliver its projects from local suppliers like building materials and cooking equipment as well as food from the local smallholder farms and this helps to boost the wider economy and supports even more families who are struggling to feed their children community support for Mary's Meals is crucial and a very big part of its success the Scottish Government's contribution to supporting Malawi is welcome but Scots should also be proud of the contribution we are all making through the UK's international development in Malawi this year alone the UK is spending over 83 million in Malawi supporting 75 varied and significant projects across the country from family planning advice agricultural support water and sanitation provision and road infrastructure improvement skilled health professionals within the NHS in Scotland are to benefit from UK Government funding to help them teach and offer practical assistance to their counterparts in developing countries just last week the international development minister Desmond Swain announced funding to link the greater Glasgow and Clyde health board with Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Blantyre sorry in Blantyre in Malawi to allow a series of workshops to be created around preventing burns injuries this will reach around an estimated 200,000 people in Southern Malawi and to conclude Presiding Officer we believe it is right that we are making and marking the 10th anniversary of Scotland's co-operation agreement with Malawi we are pleased that Scotland is making a real contribution to improving the lives of some of the poorest people on the planet and we urge the Scottish Government to continue to support practical programmes that also build up capacity and local expertise in Malawi and to work as closely as possible with both the UK Government and the many excellent voluntary sector organisations who work there thank you very much thank you very much we now move to open debate four minute speeches call on Bruce Crawford to be followed by Elaine Smith thank you very much I'm delighted to have the opportunity to speak today about this unique and very special relationship that exists between Scotland and Malawi as the motion in the name of the minister Humza Yousaf rightly recognises we're here to discuss the 10th anniversary of the historic co-operation agreement between our two nations like the minister Claire Baker Jamie McGregor at this point can I also pay tribute to First Minister Jack McConnell the former First Minister who was so instrumental and forward looking in his role in creating this historic agreement I don't recall being as kind to Jack McConnell from this side of the chamber when he was First Minister perhaps we should have been kinder to him during that time but tribute should also go to the minister I know like the best of leaders he always likes to hand out the praise to others but there's no doubt to he too has helped strengthen and deepen that relationship and of course he himself noted the beginnings of the relationship stretched back over 156 years to the time where David Livingstone but it's only when you're reminded about the relationship and contemporary times as we all were and the briefing from the Scotland-Malawi partnership that the sheer depth of it becomes clear in terms of civic links they reminded us that this relationship benefits 300,000 Scots and 2 million Malawians annually with 683 organisations with an active link to Malawi and that today more than 94,000 Scots and 198,000 Malawians are engaged in active civic links those numbers alone tell us that this relationship is very much well worth cherishing and nurturing the work that's done in Malawi by a large number of organisations from governments right through to primary schools covers a significant number of very important and valuable programmes however it's in the field of education that I believe the most valuable of sustaining work is being undertaken more than 150 Scottish schools have active links with schools in Malawi with in my own constituency of Stirling a number of schools are using these links to foster what the Scotland Malawi project calls people to people community to community links for example just last summer Barnett Burnett High School sent a group of students and teachers to Malawi for the first time they helped build and refurbished classrooms I'm very glad to have played a very small role in helping to make their trip to Malawi possible I introduced them to the McConnell International Foundation and encouraged them to apply for funding to support their work I'm proud of the work I've accomplished like the many other schools who've been connected with Malawi I can only imagine how much they learned about their own lives the lives of others and especially through the relationships they've formed The benefits of school partnerships cannot be overstated They allow communities in Scotland and Malawi to feel connected to a greater global society We're teaching our young people to celebrate and learn from other cultures while also finding common ground Now I know the Scottish Government has also done very valuable important work to improve the quality of education available in Malawi One noteworthy programme is the inclusive education project which is working to improve access to education in the most rural areas Through this project communities are working together to support the students in Malawi at the highest risk of dropping out The Scottish Government funding has helped to establish mother groups and female teacher networks which have trained almost 1,000 female teachers to handle issues that particularly affect girls' access to education Significantly, the importance of education cannot be overestimated We invest in education It's an investment in the future It pays away for future economic and social development There's much work to be done to strengthen the Malawi partnership and our partnership with them and I very much look forward to seeing what will happen in the next 10 years and hopefully we'll strengthen and deepen that relationship even further because it is unique and very special as I said at the beginning and I look forward to what the minister has to say about the next 10 years when he's summing up Thank you Many thanks Up to four minutes please Elaine Smith to be followed by James Dornan Thank you, Presiding Officer I was in Malawi with colleagues Liam MacArthur and James Dornan on a CPA Scotland branch visit earlier this year and it was motivated in part by the tense anniversary year of the agreement between our countries I found Malawi to be a country of contradictions very beautiful in parts but grim in others uplifting but also depressing and with many people desperately poor economically but inspiringly rich spiritually The delegation was there primarily to interact with Malawian MPs and deliver workshops to help strengthen relations between MSPs and members of Malawi's national assembly however we also visited projects with links to Scotland including St Michael and All Angels Church Blantyre built by Scottish missionaries and in the church there's a memorial plaque to the Reverend Robert Cleland a Coatbridge born engineer who founded Melange Mission with a school in hospital and like David Livingston stood up against the slave trade he died at the age of 33 in 1890 with black water fever but modern day connections means that his legacy lives on in Coatbridge with Coatbridge High School St Ambrose, St Andrews and many local primary schools having partnerships in the Melange area through the healthy lifestyle project run by Mr Charles Fawcett There's also an opportunity every year for school children to raise funds and visit Malawi a real life changing experience and I was able to visit Melange myself to witness the sterling work of the healthy lifestyle projects aiming higher in Malawi This includes the very successful Girls Go for Health team based in Mendollo Parish and the disability project which cares for about 400 disabled children from very poor rural backgrounds The work is carried out mainly with local fundraising in my constituency and I'm sure the minister will not be surprised to hear me make a plea for some more assistance for those projects Not all of our visits were pleasant experiences Malawi had been devastated by flooding and the disabled children's project had several children living in even more dire circumstances than usual I visited a family with a disabled child who were living in a tiny temporary shelter the conditions were appalling and the grounds where the family would have to lie down and sleep was still sodding from the floods Overall, disabled children in Malawi face many challenges such as accessing school healthcare and cultural acceptance as well as discrimination, superstition and they're often hidden away and the healthy lifestyle project provides aids like wheelchairs whilst also supporting disabled children in school and with their health needs Another difficult visit that we made at the time was to Wombway Young Offenders institution where the young men are supported by Sister Anna Tomasi This was a humbling and appalling experience in equal measure humbling because of the work that Sister Anna does educating the boys and because of the fantastic welcome and entertainment put on for us but appalling because of the living conditions and the personal plight of the boys The prison holds 270 young offenders aged 14 to 20 both convicted and remanded with over 200 children sharing a cell the size of a classroom and there is one shower for everyone Boys are imprisoned for what people here might consider to be very minor offences or crimes of extreme poverty and some boys put in prison without sentence stay longer than they should because no one delivers the paperwork to release them However the education programme that Sister Anna provides is remarkable and relies on contributions from outside Malawi not least the healthy lifestyle project in St Margaret's School in Airdrie The report of our Malawi visit which includes details of the workshops we delivered to members of the Malawian Parliament is available on the Scottish Parliament's website and is highly recommended reading Presiding Officer I can just take the opportunity to commend Margaret Neill for her work in supporting the delegation In conclusion Malawi is a beautiful country with a wealth of natural resources which could easily become a more popular tourist destination as people are friendly, warm and welcoming as well as resilient to what shows why it is known as the warm heart of Africa However the challenges the country faces are immense with hunger, poverty and illness blighting so many people That's why a visit there is uplifting and humbling but also disturbing Thank you Thank you I now call on James Dornan to be followed by Liam McArthur for four minutes Thank you, Presiding Officer As it's just been mentioned that during the parliamentary recess in February I was visiting Malawi along with the colleagues Liam McArthur and Elaine Smith as part of the CPA Scotland branch and as also was mentioned discussing community committee processes alongside members of the Malawian National Assembly It was eye-opening to hear that the difficulties their parliamentarians face in the ranging committees often due to time and cost restraints but they did appear to take a lot from our input and we've just heard the advert for the report which I suspect you should all go and read immediately It seemed clear to me that this cross-parliamentary relationship is having a tangible impact on not only parliamentarians in Malawi but also on members from our own Parliament who take part in such visits I hope engagements such as this continue for some time and as an aside it was really nice to see a couple of the young clarts at the meeting over there being here in an intern programme at the last cross-party group in Malawi Whilst in Malawi as has already been mentioned we've visited a number of projects supported by Scottish organisations charities and schools and I was thrilled to attend at Matindi school part of Mary's meals where one of the classrooms had been built with the support of the pupils staff and parents from Langside primary school and my constituency and part financed by Holyrood secondary school my old school When I returned I visited Langside primary to discuss my trip with the pupils and show them what their great work and support has helped to achieve in Malawi I also took over with me a generous denation of boots, balls and football strips from Queen's Park football club based at Hamden in my constituency and they ended up with those unfortunate young men and young offenders institution over there I had the pleasure to attend Queen's Park's annual dinner last Friday where I spoke to George Watson from the community team with the Spiders and it was him who had arranged the football equipment for my trip George has a long-term interest in supporting Malawi and we got to talking about his latest trip and his visit to the village of El Quyndeni in North Malawi It was his second successive year visiting this village but this time he went with 14 folk all from the south side of Glasgow who were there to share their knowledge and expertise Within that group were musicians, nurses, doctors, teachers and football coaches They were based out at a local church and in the morning helped her on a holiday club offering 400 kids activities such as crafts singing, music, hockey parachute games not really sure what they are and of course football as well as activities each child got a cup of porridge for some that would be their only meal of the day In the afternoon George worked for 23 hours a day with a group of coaches from the area putting on a course of coach education sessions He challenged the coaches to put on a football festival in the last day of his visit and more than 400 children took part in what was a remarkably well run competition As we know football is a life blood of the community as it is in so many other places but it was largely uncoordinated in the area George noted that it was a will to have an organised outfit and that having such an organisation would make it easier for Queen's Park to offer targeted support He was telling me at the dinner that he was taking that advice on board and the Equindenny community football group has been established with a chair and office bearers in place The Queen's Park has since been able to send over more football and other resources to assist with a further development in the area for boys and girls of all ages And this is just another brilliant example of how the relationship between Scotland and Malawi works at a practical grassroots level Because of the strategy that this Parliament and under successive Governments have been working towards there are countless such examples across the country of groups and organisations just like Queen's Park using their resources and expertise to empower people in Malawi Sine officer one of the repeated messages to us when we were in Malawi was that this agreement and the relationship between the two countries works so well because we both see it as a relationship of equals Apparently this is not always the case with some of the other arrangements and that is the heart of this successful arrangement co-operation of equals between our two countries I commend the co-operation agreement between Scotland and Malawi to the Parliament having seen first half to hand the benefits as well as hearing from others about the relationship with groups across Malawi I look forward to the next decade of our growing relationship with that beautiful country and its lovely friendly people Thank you Many thanks Now call on Liam McArthur to be followed by Mike Russell up to four minutes, please Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer Three years ago I took part in a very similar debate to this at that stage we were looking ahead to the Livingston Bicentenary an opportunity to celebrate the long standing and deep rooted connections between Scotland and Malawi On this occasion the time horizon is rather shorter spanning 10 years since the signing of an historic co-operation agreement between the previous Scottish executive and the Government of Malawi I'll turn shortly to some of what I believe has been helped achieved through that agreement and where we need to focus in the decade ahead First though let me pay a brief tribute to two people who I believe are due particular credit for helping us rediscover and rejuvenate the ties between our two countries Jack McConnell of course signed the co-operation agreement in 2005 but his contribution was never simply ceremonial His personal drive delivered that agreement and his passionate belief in the benefits the relationship can bring to both countries has remained undimmed ever since Secondly I want to acknowledge the role played by missionary scholar and tireless campaigner the late reverend Andrew Ross that the doc is someone I first met in his capacity as honorary president of Edinburgh University football club but when I later worked as an adviser in the Scottish Executive he instilled in me the importance of re-energising Scotland's ties with Malawi It was an honour if a bit of a surprise to find myself at the doc's graveside in the missionary's cemetery in Blantaya during the recent visit referred to by Elaine Smith and James Dornan He is sorely missed but his legacy in binding together two countries that he loved lives on As colleagues may know along with Mike Russell I have the privilege of co-convening the cross-party group on Malawi in this parliament It is a very active group and at our meeting earlier this month we took time to reflect on just some of what has been achieved over the last 10 years the Scotland-Malawi partnership whose work I2 highly commend has produced an excellent document detailing 10 case studies from the last 10 years which helped to illustrate the breadth and the range of projects and relationships that have been supported and that breadth is truly astonishing as Bruce Crawford reminded us 94,000 Scots and 198,000 Malawians are actively involved in one way or another and 40 million pounds has been raised through Scottish communities over the years They span so many areas health and education environment and energy agriculture and trade arts and culture to name a few but as Humza Yousaf rightly made clear what makes this relationship so special so resilient and so impactful is the way that it binds and builds from the grass roots up This document from the partnership highlights the civic links that exist and I see that for myself in my own constituency links between schools such as Sandy and Westree with their counterparts in Menga and Chitingu remain strong so too the ties between the Orkney and the Chiyolw presbytrys and these are links that benefit enormously those in both communities anyone in any doubt of that need only have heard the compelling presentations given to the CPG by pupils from Gleniford high school back in September but this was also raised the question about how we spread those benefits allow other schools particularly in Malawi to benefit as well as doing more to encourage and support young girls to get the education that all too often they are still missing out on these are the challenges that still lie ahead similarly while we have seen positive signs on the health front as was pointed out earlier by Claire Baker with HIV infections and maternal mortality rates dropping there can be absolutely no letter a point well made I think in the Labour amendment that also underscores the importance of developing trade in support of a strong and sustainable Malawian economy so there is an appetite to build on these successes Presiding Officer there is much to be proud of in terms of what has been achieved over the last 10 years I welcome this brief debate and the opportunity to reflect on those achievements and how they have helped broaden and deepen Scotland's mutually beneficial relationship with the warm heart of Africa but it's time to build on that success from this genuinely unique partnership Thank you very much Thank you I call on Mike Russell to be followed by Siobhan McMahon up to four minutes please Thank you Presiding Officer I'm very pleased to take part in this debate I visited Malawi in October, November 2012 and was very struck by the contrast that people are drawing out the contrast between the extraordinary hospitality the welcome in that warm heart of Africa and yet to visit to one of the poorest countries in the world It was an incredibly memorable visit and as any visit it is places and people that stand out visiting Eston Magala at his institute the Cosmala Institute of Permaculture seeing the astonishing work being done to grow plants talking to the head teacher of a school in the dead zone mountains who was receiving a computer and solar panels from East Craig's primary in Edinburgh which would allow connectivity to the school for the first time meeting her excellency the then president Grace Banda and the map of Malawi that hangs in my office was given to me by her and attending not just the joint permanent cooperative commission in the mountains above Zumba but actually going to the university in Zumba to launch the livings and fellowships and to meet some of the students and staff working in extraordinary circumstances I'm delighted to be the co-chair of the cross-party group with Liam McArthur and that group is testament to the strong living lively links that exist between Scotland and Malawi and it's remarkably well served by David Hope Jones and his team from the Scotland-Malawi partnership but the minister was absolutely right at the beginning to stress that this relationship is not about political structures or not least not only about political structures it's about people and there are three things that people contribute that we can build on to take this relationship forward the first is the history of our relationship Liam McArthur talked about Andrew Ross but there are many of course great figures starting with David Livingston going through the remarkable figure of Robert Laws who founded Livingstonia a man from Aberdeen who taught the people of Livingstonia to speak English with an Aberdeen accent and there's an element of it that you can still hear in the English spoken in that part of Malawi who told all his staff or at least all his male staff to grow beards because it would mean that you had 20 minutes a week extra for the Lord's work and the passion that Robert Laws showed in that beautiful part of Malawi but also I want to mention Colin Cameron a member, a Scott a member of the first post independence government in Malawi honorary consul for Malawi appointed when the country returned to multi-party rule in the early 1990s somebody who spent such a passionate part of his life working for the people of Malawi as a lawyer as a politician so we can build on our history and we can build also on the networks that exist because one of the most striking things that I see in my constituency I think we all see as constituency in regional MSPs are the links between people and they're remarkable the links between policemen and women the links between teachers the links between journalists doctors nurses foresters dentists and politicians and many many others person to person links within with Malawi ensuring that there is a learning between the two countries and between the two sets of people when I mentioned that head teacher in Dedza in the Dedza mountains he was learning from the pupils and teachers of east craigs but they were also learning from him and his staff and his pupils remarkable lessons about sustainability about progress about poverty and about determination and we can build upon those links what we can also build on is equity presiding officer and let me conclude with this I was very struck when in Malawi that Scotland does things differently it doesn't use its relationship to tell other people what to do what it does is it works with the people of Malawi in partnership and the joint commission which I chaired with the education minister is about the context not about instruction and that's the type of relationships we need to build the minister talks about trading relationships we should build trading relationships with equity coffee is already widely available indeed being served at your house gin is also available and there are many other products that can be used and that relationship presiding officer can be the template for other relationships that we have as we grow in confidence as a nation many thanks now Colin Siobhan ma'am to be followed by David Torrance up to four minutes please thank you president officer David Livingston played a major role in improving public health and freeing the indigenous population from the scourge of slavery in Africa particularly in Malawi David Livingston is a Scottish hero in the true sense he left a world a better place than when he entered it is only fitting therefore that Jack McConnell our former First Minister recognised the work David Livingston and others have made in Malawi by establishing our partnership with this country 10 years ago there are many achievements Jack can and should be proud of but I'm sure this partnership remains amongst his greatest for many of us who have spoken or will speak in today's debate we have our own partnership with Malawi I've spoken many times in this chamber and in other forums about my experience of Malawi and about my memories of the country and friendships from my visits some three years ago Malawi remains one of the poorest countries in the world ranked 174th out of 187 according to the 2014 UN human development index report although that may improve when the latest report is issued in December it is a deeply depressing statistic Malawi has a population of 16.36 million people with a life expectancy of just 55 the average year spent in a school environment is just four unless it develops rural areas the instance of HIV and AIDS is six times higher amongst women and men due to the sex trade so evident in the country in educational terms much of the discrimination experienced by women is deeply ingrained in Malawian culture until there in 1960s Malawian girls were not allowed to attend school today female education is still viewed by many as irrelevant far fewer girls progress through primary education and female literacy levels are substantially inferior to male that is why it is important that our partnership with the country strives to make the situation better of course the Scottish Government have a large part to playing gaining greater equality for women particularly in education but it is happening to know that local schools churches and organisations also take up this plight I often talk about the role that St Margaret's High School and Airdrie have played in this area but Falkirk High School another school in my region have also worked to support female education Falkirk High is linked with Bindawe secondary this partnership dates back to 2007 the motto of the partnership is the two will make a difference what a simple but powerful statement projects like mother group and the girls go for health initiative part of the North Lanarkshire healthy lifestyle project run by Charles Fawcett in conjunction with the forum for African women educationalist in Malawi I've been working hard to narrow the gender divide the mother group works to encourage more women to attend school and the girls go for health initiative strives to keep them there providing them with hygiene and sanitary products financial aid for school fees educational materials and organising workshops to encourage male pupils to respect and value their female peers a further project I'm aware of due to a local connection is the classrooms from Malawi project their chairperson is James Kelly a prisoner of St Bernadette's and Muddle who as I've said in previous debates have their own partnership in Malawi classrooms from Malawi believe and I quote that the only sustainable route out of poverty is education we work throughout Malawi to improve places of education in some of the world's poorest communities recent estimates show that around two million children in Malawi are either taught in unsafe and unfit classrooms outdoors or simply cannot go to school as the facilities are not there we want to put an end to this St Bernadette's parish of which I'm a prisoner have a partnership with St Anne's in Numalinga through this partnership they have helped renovate Numalinga's girls school through classrooms from Malawi of course it would have been understandable if the parish has stopped there however they have now switched a focus on helping foster a better educational environment by providing backpacks school supplies, transport and furniture as well as toys for the children in the nursery the parish sent a container in September which should arrive any day or now education is something we often speak of in this chamber and rightly so but too often we can forget how privileged we are to have access to education in our country my experience of Malawi still drives me to this day it's not an exaggeration to say that my visit made me a better person to change my outlook on life we have achieved a great deal on these 10 short years but I'm sure we can achieve a whole lot more in the next 10 thank you thank you now Colin David Torrance by followed by Dr Elaine Murray up to four minutes thank you I'm pleased to contribute to today's debate on Scotland's long-standing partnership with Malawi as well as the Scottish Government's commitment to international development 2015 has been a decisive year for international development we've seen the UN General Assembly commit to 17 new global goals and in a few weeks the UN conference of climate change in Paris will hopefully be another stepping stone to assure that developing countries receive adequate help in dealing with effective of climate change in this context I'm very much commending to support the Scottish Government's involvement in the development sector and in particular the Government's continued commitment to working with Malawi I also welcome the Scottish Government's approach in supporting Malawi Malawi as an equal partner as it says in the agreement it's a reciprocal partnership based upon sharing experiences and skills in the 10 years since the partnership agreement was signed I believe Scotland and Malawi have benefited mutually from the relationship agreement has facilitated networking promoted best practice examples and at least created many friendships across two geographically distant countries in fact the number of individuals schools and organisations who have forged links in Malawi the various ways is astonishing according to the Scotland-Malawi partnership 94,000 Scots and 198,000 Malawians are engaged in various ways A 2014 study conducted by University of Edinburgh confirmed that citizens of both countries gained immensely with over 2 million Malawians and 300,000 Scots benefiting annually from the impact of their joint endeavours As part of this engagement I'm proud to say that pupils and staff members of Bolwiri High School and my constituency for Coddy have set up their own initiative promoting secondary education in Malawi It all started when a group of students visited the country in 2012 Since then, the school has put great efforts into raising money for Malawian students and able to pay for high school themselves However, as emphasised by Bolwiri High School it has also been a great experience for schools and communities to learn more about their Malawian counterparts Bolwiri High School is also a member of the Scotland Lights Up Malawi project The project is built around the work of solar aid in Malawi to educate Scottish schools on the issues of energy, poverty, climate change solar light, global citizenship and sustainability Our schools in my constituency have engaged in similar activities By extending the boundaries beyond fundraising Malawi and Scottish children are encouraged to develop a deeper understanding of each other's life by fostering cultural awareness I see this project as a new and highly commendable form of international education and I'm happy to say that this has also been recognised by Education Scotland and the British Council I see education as a crucial step in stone to development looking at the new global goals for sustainable development another highly relevant issue we need to prioritise is good health and wellbeing As you all know health officers form is a key part of Scotland and Malawi co-operation agreement and a lot of activity is going on in that area This includes training of health professionals facilitating exchanges between medical universities and supporting community-based medicine and first aid training in rural areas Despite those efforts to improve health outcomes 90,000 child deaths in Malawi are caused by preventable diseases I'd like to mention that one project involving Aberdeen University and the Robert Gordon University The initiative is carried out in collaboration with Malawi's Minister of Health and is developing a sustainable model of midwifery education and practice Particularly focused is given the recruitment of midwives in rural regions whilst providing them with additional skills Presiding Officer it is impossible to name all the excellent projects that have been launched under the umbrella of Scotland's partnership in Malawi As we have heard today Scotland is ready aware of its responsibilities as a global citizen Co-operation agreements with Malawi reflects the commitment and I am confident that it will continue to positively impact on the lives of many Scots in Malawi and Selaik Thank you very much Now call on Dr Lane-Marie to be followed by Christian Allard up to four minutes please Thank you Presiding Officer and I'm pleased to make a brief contribution to this debate on the links between and my constituency in Dumfrieshire and Malawi The first project that I wanted to talk about was the collaboration between the Dumfries campus of Scotland's rural college and researchers from Malawi which is a project that has now been on-going for more than seven years It started off as a staff exchange project involving work and improving milk yield and quality but was developed further by research group under Dr Mizzak Traguda of the SRUC in Dumfries and in this project the researchers negotiated free air time with a local mobile phone provider and signed up 80 farmers who's texted into them information on their cows' milk production and if the yields were not as they should have been expected to be the farmers were provided by advice by an extension worker Thereafter several other partnerships followed between the Longway University of Agriculture and Natural Resources and the Mizzouza University training farmers extension workers development managers researchers and trainers Eight postgraduate students and one postdoctoral scientists have been involved 22 experts have worked between Scotland and Malawi 28 farmers and 43 extension workers have been trained in forage production feeding animal breeding and data recording and Dr Traguda received a special achievement award at the Malawi UK's award ceremony in April this year and recognition of his services to the Scotland-Malawi relationship A former student also at SRUC's campus in Dumfries, Betty Cindy Kawonga also this year received recognition in the shape of a $150 prize for her concept of incubation self-decenters helping young unemployed people to become dairy entrepreneurs thereby addressing two problems faced in Malawi youth unemployment and low agricultural productivity Betty is now a lecturer at Boondai College of Agriculture but she studied for her MSC in Dumfries funded through the Scottish Government's international development fund during which paid she had some very useful work with local primary schools another initiative I wanted to briefly describe was only launched in August this year but has already achieved considerable success Jan Jamison was a primary teacher and head teacher in Dumfries in Galloway when she sadly died of cancer at the age of only 47 she and her husband Sandy had been involved through their church in projects supporting young people in Malawi and after her death her family felt that the best way to remember her commitment both to education and to Malawi was to launch a foundation to support young people who have the academic ability to progress through secondary school and further education but don't have the financial resources and in recognition of the importance of educating women and the educational disadvantage girls suffer compared to their brothers in the first instance the foundation proposed raising funds specifically to support girls for at least four years and then possibly on through university amazingly the sum required to support one girl through one year of education is only £150 since the end of August the foundation has undertaken an incredible programme of fundraising involving several local primary schools and has already raised funds to support 11 girls capable of academic achievement but otherwise who would not have achieved the opportunity at the foundation's launch Sandy told an illustrative story which I think may have been of Malawian origin a small boy came across a huge number of starfish which had been washed ashore on a beach during a storm he said about trying to throw them back one by one into the sea and the passing adult asked why he was bothering when there were so many washed up the boy couldn't make much difference to which the boy responded by returning another starfish to the sea stating it makes a difference to that one global poverty can appear to be overwhelming when you look at its totality but many of these projects are making a difference one by one to the lives of some of the poorest people in our world many thanks I know Conde Christian Alart to be followed by Ansela Mallick thank you very much presenting officer as the minister said in his opening remarks that there is a human story behind every statistics and we heard a lot of statistics so far so I will spare you from more and just talk about a human story a human story and presenting officers because the relationship that we have in Malawi is to treasure and it's a great example of what can be done and what works I would like to thank as well the Scottish Government and the Minister for the Great Work has been done and the Scottish Executive before them for everything that we have done to ensure the safety, the respect the success and ambitious nature of our relationship with Malawi Scotland's connection connection with Malawi was recently brought to my attention not in Malawi I didn't have the privilege to visit Malawi but in Aford in Abedynshire when I went for a coffee morning we met Catherine Thompson and her husband who founded the family relief for orphans in Malawi or Frum for short they founded it in 2005 10 years ago and which corresponded very much with the anniversary of what we are celebrating today and this couple after visiting their daughter who lives there they were so affected by the face-to-face reality of the standard of life in Malawi and what could be done but they prompted them in 2005 to create the organisation and since 2005 presenting officer family relief for orphans in Malawi has grown in size and now is in position when they have done a lot and they provided for example one meal a day to over 2500 children at Phoenix station and orphanages they have sent out three crammed shipping containers with medical equipment and supplies and all donated of course in the region they supply 30 bicycle ambulances to all patients from remote villages to also get to hospital that's important to understand but there are rural challenges and I saw the photos of the bicycle ambulances and they are a fantastic use particularly I was told by the mother about a pregnant woman who had to be many many minds and she would have had to work to walk right up to the hospital and the journey was made a lot easier in these bicycle ambulances and of course a lot easier to repair they provided enough funds as well to build a clinic in Manayaya village which had no medical facilities at all and they funded bore holes to give access to clean water and solar power providing clinics and classrooms because of course it's about health and about education as well and there are a number of achievements that farming relief for orphans in Manayaya has reached since the beginning since 2005 it was a pleasure to have a great opportunity to meet the driving force between behind this initiative but there are not a lot in this effort they get a lot of collaboration in the region from various individuals and organisations and businesses for example in the North Sea we've got OAG offshore, mascot, bond, LTD and freelance LTD these companies have provided the crucial help required for shipping containers with hospital beds extra machines and medical supplies to Malawi to ensure that it reaches those who need it the most because at the end of the day what it is all about is is really to reach the people who need it the most as the work of this family is truly moving and it's got it to be seen as their daughter Tracy Morse from a small community of Pit Cable in Abernishaya I decided to make Malawi a home from now on and she's managing the Scotland Chic World Health Initiative since 2006 and they get great support from the Scottish Government this charity works with Headline Scotland Malawi partnership for example and head directly to the areas of Malawi in the region plus please so presently for of the same conclusion there are many a few examples of the successes of the 2005 co-operation agreement building strong links between Scotland and Malawi links based on respect humanity and security for all the people living in both countries Scotland's relationship with Malawi is a credit to the people of both countries thank you very much no call on Hans Anna Mallett to be followed by Richard Lyle thank you very much and good afternoon Presiding Officer I take this option if the time comes I use it for today's debate and clear breaker for our amendment it is an honour to speak about the relationship between Scotland and Malawi today on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the historic co-operation agreement between the two governments of Scotland and Malawi and its continued friendship this relationship shows the continued commitment that succeeds succession Scottish governments including those from different parties have shown over the past decade I would like to congratulate the efforts of the Scottish Government's international development programme and its importance around the world today and in particular Hamza Yousaf he seems to be doing a fine job so far I also believe that Scotland should continue its international development work which helps us develop our international position in particular our work with partners like Malawi as it is it has clear outcomes and I'm sure that Jack McConnell would be pleased to see the continued strength in his legacy I understand that today 46% of Scots personally know someone with a connection with Malawi I whole art a degree with this Scottish Malawi partnership which states that this is now a national effort and importantly this relationship goes beyond two ways more than 300,000 Scots benefit from the relationship between the two countries manage them through schools to school programmes it is important to note that everyone pound the Scottish Government gives around 10 times that amount is raised by people of Scotland themselves which we should be proud of I would like to I would like to note the contribution of Glasgow City Council and Strathclyde University Malawi Millennium project and forming the links between the two countries the millennium has set up in the year of 2000 to celebrate the links between Malawi and one of Strathclyde University's most famous students Dr Livingston and Hamza Yousaf alluded to the fact that he's been he was working there over 156 years which is an incredible contribution from Scots many of the projects and partnerships have sprung from the efforts of Strathclyde University and staff, students including inspiring Glasgow City Council to set up the Lord Provost Millennium Fund Glasgow City Council council has donated over 2000 computers for instance and money and medical equipment projects management and support as well as training in many areas as a glass vision that surely makes me proud and I'm sure many others are also this is very important ongoing work and what to take this I want to take this opportunity to thank all the Scots and particularly in the main glass visions who have gone the extra mile I have known unions uniform services churches and mosques NGOs ordinary people workers in Glasgow City Council and all the departments within that council have continued to work towards this impressive program and I have to say that students in particular have impressed me and I want to thank all of their contributions and I want them to continue this huge role of working and continuing to make an effort to bring a better life to people around the world we in Scotland ought to be and are proud of our inheritance that we've learnt from our ancestors and we continue to follow their footsteps in making sure that we make a positive contribution around the world Malawi is no exception thank you very much Lord thank you very much now Colin Richard Lyle up to four minutes Mr Lyle after which move to closing speeches thank you er, Presiding Officer and I actually think Mr Holmes of Yousaf is doing a very good job in my remarks this afternoon Presiding Officer I want to reflect on what we've done in that decade and in particular to share my views and impact that it has had and my awareness of that historic relationship which Scotland and Malawi have developed Scotland has an inherently special link with Malawi one of the world's poorest countries dating back to the work of missionaries and of course Dr David Livingstone for over 150 years Scots have worked with the people of Malawi to help them to deliver and develop basic education and health systems each year as already has been said more than 300,000 Scots and 2 million Malawians benefit from the relationship with Scotland and Malawi have developed in the areas such as agriculture, education, health and indeed renewable energy As many speakers have already said signed in 2005 the co-operation agreement between Scotland and Malawi has been a success which has delivered in its efforts to build strong links between our two nations In practical terms the Scottish Government's international development fund is making a real difference to the lives of some of the most of the vulnerable people in Malawi since the SNP administration began in 2007 the Government has doubled the budget protected it against Westminster funding cuts such as their commitment to delivering not only for Scots but for a fellow man and woman across the world Over the last decade action by success of Scottish Governments has met the investment of more than 37 million pounds to more than 100 projects to improve the lives of people of Malawi Just earlier in the year in January again Minister Humza Yousaf announced a further additional package of over 9 million pounds to fund 20 life changing projects through Malawi development programme over the next three years I welcome the many initiatives that the Scottish Government is delivering to help the people of Malawi From economic development projects to help creating jobs boost their incomes for some of the Malawais Malawi's poorest to the funding package of £150,000 in January 2015 to help Malawi deal with the effects of the severe flooding On a personal level I want to take the time also to recognise the many hundreds and thousands of volunteers which travel to Malawi each year in particular but not exclusively are young people who tirelessly fundraise travel to Malawi to help local projects deliver schools and support communities Just as Scotland's young people are an asset to our nation so too are they an asset to the people of the world I think we across the chamber should take the time to recognise the work of young people in Malawi but of course to whom who volunteered to help to make a lasting difference to people's lives I also note from my region examples such as the Malawi Provost Malawi fund run by the Provost of North Lanarkshire Council who seeks to fundraise to help to contribute to make a difference to the lives of those in Malawi I had the pleasure of attending the last Provost Malawi dinner and not only it was a thoroughly excellent evening but the proceeds go towards that fund to help support people and deliver for the people of Malawi Again as I said I'd like to take the time to recognise in particular the work done by Provost Jim Robertson North Lanarkshire Council and his particular commitment to Malawi I understand that Jim contributes personally part of his salary to help to make a difference to those in Malawi Jim shows many of us that working together we can make a difference Does on that thought I'd like to linger for a moment Presiding Officer as it is the case 10 seconds Scottish Government has done an excellent job in closing this government is one which I'm sure will make in it a significant investment in those relations between Scotland and Malawi Thank you Thank you Excellent We now move to closing speeches and I call on Cameron McCannan four minutes please Mr McCannan Thank you Presiding Officer I'm pleased that we have the opportunity to today to celebrate 10 years of Scotland's historic co-operation with Malawi Scottish Conservatives continues to support a strengthening of Scotland's links with Malawi as we share the conviction that emphasis must be placed on the localised projects making a difference As with all programmes it is vital for its long term success that all projects are evaluated and aligned with the original aims of the co-operation agreement covering civic governance health education and sustainable economic development Furthermore it is welcome that it is a high level of awareness of the relationship but we should press on to reach the level of awareness that this partnership deserves The agreement's high level aim to strengthen civic governance and legal expertise is rightly recognised as a key driver of the development This makes it particularly welcome that this goal has been followed through by the Edinburgh-based social enterprise challenges worldwide as it has organised mentoring for attorneys in Malawi's legal aid department by Scottish criminal lawyers which is exactly the sort of peer to bear sharing that this relationship is all about On health the agreement to contribute to the improvement of maternal health and increase the capacity of health colleges recognises crucial areas in need of progress Again the key is that co-operation has been at its direct expert level where the impact is highest as demonstrated by the University of Strathclyde training nurses and medical assistants in integrated maternal and neonatal services On the vital element of education to which many people have spoken the high level aim to build capacity at a local level and support the exchange of skills is crucial This makes it so important that the targeted projects are delivered directly with measurable outcomes so that we can judge their effectiveness and learn from its successes A stellar example of this is the project by Sense Scotland to deliver training courses for 1,029 parents 140 teachers and 746 influential community leaders which has led to the establishment of parent teachers associations Moving on to another key aspect of development enterprise the agreement was wholly correct in identifying the exchange of business skills and expertise as vital including collaboration between agricultural bodies As we businessmen know all too well advice from experienced hands and sharing ideas with your others goes such a long way to helping people It is therefore to be warmly applauded that the opportunity international which has an Edinburgh office translated this aim into direct help as they provided access to microcredit business advisory services for 740 people Furthermore the Macaulay research institute translated the agreement's goals into reality by increasing crop diversity and yield for up to 1,955 farmers As our cooperation continues it is important that we promote these success stories and use their lessons to spread their impact even wider I have spoken enough on the importance of learning from specific targeted projects in Malawi as the cooperation agreement continues but the same is equally true here at home in order to maintain the fantastic enthusiasm and can-do attitude from the Scottish public that is underlined in the agreement that has underlined the agreement's success so far We should not just celebrate the relatively high levels of awareness but aim to increase even further if we want the scope and impact of the agreement to grow Investment here needs to grow first Thank you Thank you very much I now call on Ann-Mac Taggart Six minutes please, Ann-Mac Taggart Thank you, Presiding Officer and I welcome the opportunity to conclude on the debate on behalf of the Scottish Labour Party As we have heard in the chamber this afternoon Scotland and Malawi have always shared close links and relationships ever since 1859 when Scotland's David Livingston received a warm and inviting welcome from the area that is now called Malawi Ever since, our citizens have enjoyed continued personal links in the region with 46 per cent of Scots who knew someone actively involved in a link with Malawi today and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank our latest Scottish Parliament MSP group Liam McArthur, Elaine Smith and James Dornan for their outstanding and stark reality speeches from their recent visits However, in my own region, Glasgow has been a constant supporter and grateful beneficiary of our relationship with Malawi Other members mentioned within their speeches the importance, the help of the Scotland-Malawi partnership the governments of both our nations signed an official co-operation agreement on November 3, 2005 This agreement set the goal of collaboration on four main issues civil governance and society sustainable economic development health and education Just 10 years after this historic co-operation agreement the spectacular results and positive impact of our collaboration are both exciting and encouraging and we strongly highlighted and they were strongly highlighted this afternoon by many of our members The impressive fulfilment of the intention set forth by the Scottish Government would not have been possible without community groups across Scotland In 2014, the membership of the Scotland-Malawi partnership consisted of 70 large organisations 23 medium organisations 49 small organisations 156 individual members 16 Scottish local authorities 116 primary schools 86 secondary schools and 176 youth members I'm just waiting for somebody shouting house for bingo there In Glasgow alone of the Scotland-Malawi partnership have had an immeasurable impact The Glasgow City Council has made Malawi a priority since 2005 as each Lord Provost has visited Malawi to maintain the relationships, raise funds and encourage Glaswegians to engage further with Malawi The council's Malawi leadership Leaders of learning programme improves the teaching and leadership of Malawian staff and young people and thus improves the educational outcomes for Malawian youth I would like to place on record the great work of my local secondary school at Night'swood secondary school and in particular to my latest school work experience Rhyma Gravy of all her hard work she is doing to help support and visit Malawi next year Further Other members have mentioned further groups such as the tier fund work with organisations in Malawi to support children to reduce exposure to national disasters and improve access to food, water and sanitation The Glasgow-based organisation sense has been working with small organisations in Malawi to establish projects assisting deafblind and disabled children and adults Those initiatives along with many others all across Scotland have directly benefited 2 million Malawians and have indirectly benefited 4 million While Scotland's organisations and institutions have used their connections to Malawi to improve Malawian lives for the past 10 years the mutual relationship between us cannot be ignored In conclusion, with 94,000 Scots and 198,000 Malawians involved our links with Malawi are an integral part of Scottish society and must receive continuing support The effort to connect with Malawi is a matter of unique national effort mobilised by all the people of Scotland I hope that the Scottish Government will agree with me that now more than ever we should continue our 156-year-old relationship with Malawi built on respect, mutual trust and understanding Thanks I now call on Minister Whom is it use to have to wind up the debate? Minister, you have until 459, please Thank you, Presiding Officer Well, that was a great debate from across the chamber I always enjoy hearing the stories of people's localities but I thought also some very good suggestions on how to take the relationship forward in the continuing 10 years and of course beyond that as well Let me try to address some of the points and reference some of the contributions that were made, Presiding Officer Claire Baker was right to ask a question about the international development fund I accept what she's saying in regards to the £9 million being frozen over the period that we've been in government I would put that in some context and say to Claire Baker that certainly in our manifesto in 2011 there was only two budgets that we committed to keep frozen one was the NHS arguably Scottish Government's most important budget and certainly its largest and the international development fund that was the importance that we attached to international development work that we do but notwithstanding that I accept what she says that there's some thinking that's always been done in government here certainly as we approach elections to that we'll certainly look to yeah but of course I will take an intervention Claire Baker I do feel except that the Scottish Government have managed to protect that budget and that it has been frozen but I think we as a Parliament should reflect on the power that we give to that fund and look at some way in trying to increase the value of it restore the value of it Minister Yes, I would accept that and as I say we are in the run-up to elections and I think rightly we'll be lobbied by a number of international development NGOs and we'll listen carefully to that but we'll also think about how we can do things innovatively within that £9 million I think which is important is a key feature of the work that we do I thought Liam McArthur's contribution was excellent and so on inherently but also he himself represents of course the fact that the length and breadth of this relationship is right up and down Scotland I remember the first week of my job meeting his friend Pastor Kester from Cholaw Highlands and I hope he'll pass my warmest regards to him and also to the community at Westry where they were twin but that demonstrates the depth of the relationship Jamie McGregor's right to highlight in his opening statement the work that DFID and other international partners do we have a very good relationship in the Scottish Government with DFID I met with the DFID head of Malawi Jennifer Marshall when I was out there had a good conversation I do think there's some things that DFID could do to tweak the work in Malawi and we can certainly look to even work together on certain projects but very pleased that that relationship is a strong one he was also right of course to mention Mary's Meals an organisation that has universal support across this chamber and as he said under the world class leadership I think is a phrase he used of Magnus McFarlane as well so Mike Russell I thought summed it up best this entire debate he mentioned three things history setting that historical context which I think was important for us to do because that shapes the work that we do the people to people relationship which is the cement is the foundation in fact that holds and underpins the entire relationship and then he spoke quite rightly about equity and equality in the partnership and I thought you know that was a proper tone that everybody took in this debate and nobody views the relationship between Scotland and Malawi as a big brother younger sister type of relationship was always spoken as mirror countries as equal countries as countries collaborating together as well I was also interested to hear Mike Russell's anecdote about Dr Laws and the fact that he told his students to grow a beard so it gave them 20 minutes extra with the Lord that might well explain why he himself has kept a beard I always thought he was a bit of a sinner as opposed to a saint Presiding officer all members talked about sustainability and this is what I will spend the rest of my contribution speaking about sustainability is hugely important in fact it's vital and if we want to continue this relationship not just for 10 years but beyond that as well so how do we do that because there's a number of donors already in Malawi Malawi has been receiving international development aid for the best part of four to five decades and in some indicators have actually got worse let alone got better so sustainability and doing projects in the best way possible so that they make an impact is key so here's some of the ways that I think we can be sustainable with work that we do Presiding officer the first is to use Scotland's expertise where Scotland has expertise and how we can make a difference to the needs of those in Malawi is going to be vitally important we have a relatively modest fund that does have of course a big impact but using our expertise in areas such as for example renewable energy will be key Jamie McGregor was right to mention some of the renewable energy projects that we fund here in the Scottish Government they're important not just because we set up solar panels or because we set up other micro micro hydro turbines or any other renewable energy projects they're important because we teach skills to those in Malawi so that they can take forward renewable energy solutions themselves so that when a solar panel breaks they can fix it so that we need to find an innovative renewable solutions they're the ones that can devise it as opposed to waiting for international donors to come to give them some of that expertise so that is one way we can make our work sustainable the second way we can make our work sustainable in Malawi is through governance many people spoke of the relationships of Scottish Parliament has with the Parliament in Malawi I commend that work I would encourage the Scottish Parliament and the CPA and others to continue to do that work I've seen first hand speaking to parliamentarians how important they find and they value that work I know many MSPs have a buddy with MPs in Malawi some of them are now ministers in the Malawian Government and I can tell you they really value that relationship and Malawi has had a difficult time over the last couple of years with the Cashgate scandal which has eroded some trust in the political process but we have a chance to try to help to build that up so I would encourage yes of course Llywydd Smith Thank you very much The Malawian MPs that I met when I was there were capable, confident and caring particularly the women I have to say when we're clearly motivated by working for the good of their constituents and their country so would the minister agree with me that we should do what we can to share our knowledge and experience with them but whilst also at the same time learning from them Minister Yes I would I would agree with all the sentiments made there particularly the point about women parliamentarians she'll probably be aware that unfortunately Malawi regressed backwards they have less female parliamentarians in the last elections than they had before and that's a matter of regaining something I think we should work with the Parliament of Malawi to try to and the political parties of Malawi to try to improve I would also look at the area of sustainable trade as well Claire Baker mentioned that one of the biggest in fact the biggest export for Malawi is tobacco that is not a sustainable future for Malawi as we all know tobacco thankfully the use of tobacco is going down across the world she also mentioned chance for change which is an organisation I've had a great pleasure viewing and seeing and the good work that they do and there we can work with young entrepreneurs we know that two thirds of Malawi's population is under the age of 25 you have there an opportunity to increase entrepreneurialism amongst young people which will help to create wealth in the future which will help to create jobs as well and Scotland can help with perhaps innovative finance solutions where access to capital with a 40 per cent interest rate is incredibly difficult sustainable how to make the relationship further sustainable is through education many people spoke about this Mike Russell spoke about this particularly well from his previous experience with education right from nursery right the way through to professional exams as well I think Scotland can play a key role in this we need to be able to build and help to build the capacity in Malawi in colleges and universities and schools of course so that we prevent a brain drain in Malawi lots of good projects and fellowships and scholarships are done in Malawi but all they do sometimes is have the effect of taking some of the best and the brightest minds away from Malawi from that country where they are vitally and desperately needed so we can work with Malawi in universities and educational institutes to help to build that capacity yes of course I'm very grateful to the minister for taking an intervention one of the points that was made to us when we were in the cross party group with glennifer high school was the fact that those schools that have the relationship are attracting in pupils from elsewhere to the detriment of other communities in other schools and that's something I think that looking ahead the next 10 years we probably need to look to address yes it's one of those unintended consequences that can often happen from good work the reason why it's important to highlight these is that if we can build a good relationship with the Government if something is working in one school or one hospital or one university hopefully with that relationship we have with the Government we can encourage them to perhaps roll it out further and nationally and this is where large international donors will also be important to finish off Presiding Officer I think we can also we must tackle the gender gap that exists many members spoke about it it's sustainable development goal number five all throughout life Malawian women are disadvantaged and there are some inspirational Malawian women Monica Zonzi is known to many members across this Parliament the work that she does with Bangway youth centre being an inspirational role model for other females if we can help to encourage them support them then of course reducing that gap and that gender inequality gap will only help to pay dividends in the future so that is how I think we can make the relationship more sustainable Presiding Officer it's a great priority for us in the Scottish Government I thank Hanzala Malik for his kind words to me but caveatted of course that he said I'm doing a good job so far I will do my very best in the future to continue that as we will in the Scottish Government and the last word goes to Dr David Livingstone on the 10th anniversary of the signing of the co-operation agreement I think of his words when he said I am prepared to go anywhere provided it be forward and I think with that that we should look forward to not just the next 10 years but in many decades to come renewing and strengthening that relationship between Scotland and Malawi thank you that concludes the debate on Scotland and Malawi 10 years since the co-operation agreement the next item of business is consideration of business motion number one four seven eight one in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out a business programme many member here wishes to speak against the motion should press the request speak button now and I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion number one four seven eight one moved no member has asked to speak against the motion therefore I now put the question to the chamber the question is that motion number one four seven eight one in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick would be agreed to are we all agreed the motion is there for agreed to the next item of business is consideration of business motion one four seven eight two in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out a stage one timetable for the Pentland Hill regional part boundary bill any member wishes to speak against the motion should press the request speak button now and I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion number one four seven eight two thank you no member has asked to speak against the motion therefore I now put the question to the chamber the question is that motion number one four seven eight two in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick would be agreed to are we all agreed the motion is there for agreed to the next item of business is consideration of business motion one four seven eight three in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on behalf of the parliamentary bureau setting out a stage two timetable for the carers Scotland bill any member wishes to speak against the motion should press the request speak button now and I call on Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion number one four seven eight three no members has asked to speak against the motion therefore I now put the motion to the chamber the question is that motion number one four seven eight three in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick would be agreed to are we all agreed the motion is there for agreed to the next item of business is consideration of free parliamentary bureau motions I would ask Joe Fitzpatrick to move motion number one four seven eight four and one four seven eight five on the office of the clerk and motion number one four seven eight six on the designation of a league committee on block moved on block the questions on these motions will be put decision time to which we now come there are four questions to be put as a result of today's business the first question is it motion number one four seven six eight in the name of Paul Wheelhouse on the succession Scotland bill be agreed to are we all agreed the motion is there for agreed to the next question is that amendment number one four seven seven five point one in the name of Clare Baker which seeks to amend motion number one four seven seven five in the name of Humza Yousaf on Scotland and Malawi be agreed to are we all agreed the amendment is there for agreed to the next question is that motion number one four seven seven five in the name of Humza Yousaf as amended on Scotland and Malawi be agreed to are we all agreed the motion is there for agreed to I propose to ask a single question ond motions 14784, 14785 a 14786. In the name of Joe Fitzpatrick on the office of the clerk in the designation of lead committee. If any member objects to a single question being put, please say so now. If any member has objected to a single question being put, the question is that motions 14784, 14785 and 14786 in the name of Joe Fitzpatrick be agreed to. Are we all agreed? The motions are there for agreed to. That concludes the decision time. We now move to members' business, members leaving the chambers to do so quickly and quietly.