Chamber and committees

I would ask the member what his party has managed to achieve through budget negotiations over the past seven years. I think that the answer is zero.

As we all know, the moral health of a society can be reliably judged by how it treats its most vulnerable members. I therefore especially welcome the focus on child poverty contained in the new fairer Scotland duty guidance, which provides a vital statutory basis for public bodies to consider fundamental issues of socioeconomic disadvantage when making their decisions.

In the coming year, we will see consultation on a new human rights bill—a key aspect in advancing the 30 recommendations from the national taskforce for human rights leadership. The bill will incorporate, as far as possible within our devolved competence, key human rights treaties. I am going to name them all, because this is a truly historic commitment. They are the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights; the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination; the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. The bill will also follow international best practice in including a right to a healthy environment, and equal access for all, especially older and LGBTQI+ people, to the rights contained in the bill. The incorporation of those treaties into Scots law must, of course, be accompanied by decisive, bold action.

The right to adequate housing is one of the ICESCR’s central provisions. We in the Greens have been especially determined to realise that right for private sector tenants. We welcome the start that has already been made in working towards ensuring that everyone has a safe, warm place to call home, with rights and security, regardless of tenure. We will work actively in bringing about the new deal for tenants, ensuring equality of outcomes and protection. We look forward to enhanced tenants’ rights, including greater flexibility to make their homes their own and keep beloved companion pets; greater protection from winter evictions; more stringent penalties for unscrupulous landlords; an effective national system of rent controls; and a rent guarantor for estranged young people. Taken together, that represents the biggest transformation for tenants in decades, and I am pleased that the Greens secured it as part of the co-operation agreement.

A few months ago, I said in the chamber:

“At the heart of our collective wellbeing must be social security—not as a system or an idea but as a fundamental right.—[Official Report, 8 June 2021; c 45.]

We know that the societies that guarantee their citizens’ social security are the societies that perform best: they have the longest life expectancy, the lowest levels of crime and the highest levels of innovation and economic performance.

There is so much more that I would like to say: on care and disability, benefits, child poverty and more, but I will close—

Yes, absolutely.

How Governments make spending decisions on behalf of people and communities has a huge impact on the direction in which a country moves, and the work of embedding equality and human rights within all stages of the budget process is an essential part of that wider transformation. By taking account of the equality budget advisory group’s recommendations, we can help to ensure that spending decisions advance equality and human rights for everyone in Scotland.

The past 18 months has laid bare the brutal inequalities in our society, but they have also revealed our will and capacity to heal them. More than ever, we recognise how the fundamental pillars of green politics support and strengthen one another—not just environmental sustainability but social justice; not just non-violence but genuinely participatory democracy. Our vision, and our imperative for action, is of a Scotland that is fairer, more inclusive, more progressive and more equal.

The history of the past century and the experience of communities across the globe show us the centrality of human rights in achieving that vision. We want to see a Scotland where people understand their rights and those of their neighbours, where they feel valued and included and where they are empowered to claim their own rights and to stand in solidarity, compassion and justice to help others to achieve theirs too.

That is why it is so important to embed equality, human rights and inclusion across the entire public sector and especially in Government decisions, policies and spending. It is only when those who hold the power—which is us—are reminded day by day of our specific obligations to fairness that we will begin to uproot the structural inequalities that are so deeply rooted and bitterly toxic. In the coming year, the beginning of the conversation about how we will embed those principles will be among the most important work that any Scottish Government has ever done.

I also warmly welcome the commitment to begin consultation in Scotland on the public sector equality duty and the potential regulatory changes that that will require. The new duty on relevant public bodies to develop accessible and inclusive communications and the expansion of existing duties to include reporting on the disability and ethnicity pay gaps will be vital tools in creating greater inclusion and fairness.

I am about to close.

I have no relevant financial interests, but I refer members to my entry in the register of member’s interests. I am a member of Unite the Union.

That links to what you said in answer to a previous question around diversification and loves local. There is a huge opportunity there.

I want to extend this a little bit and look more broadly. Decades of business support and economic development have not really changed systemic issues in our economy, with low productivity, stagnating rates of entrepreneurialism and so on. What could we do better in the coming years so that we do not just keep doing more of the same? How can we do that better and in a way that will drive the change in direction that we need, not only around net zero but longer term and more broadly? That question is for Adrian Gillespie and Malcolm Roughead.

We might come back to you on the learning that you get from that tool, because it sounds really interesting.

You both talked about linking economic transformation to community wellbeing. That is really important, and it is a strand of work that is in development around the wellbeing economy. My second question is on that subject. How are you supporting businesses and modelling the leadership to enhance activities in line with the wellbeing economy? I am particularly interested in the links to community wealth building and those kinds of fundamental transformations that will change how people relate to their local economies, never mind a broader economic system.

Thank you all for the information that you have provided so far this morning. I am going to pick up on something that allows us to look ahead and see how planning is shaping up for the immediate future and longer term. The transition to net zero is expected to be a significant theme across the new economic strategy for Scotland. I have a question for Adrian Gillespie and Malcolm Roughead. How aware and prepared are businesses in your areas, and what is your organisation doing to support the transition? Do we need to be thinking about different approaches around increased conditionality, for instance, with notions of fair work and the move to net zero as we look ahead? Adrian Gillespie can go first and then Malcolm Roughead.

I thank the panel for joining us. I have questions on two different but connected areas, the first of which is place-based economic development. The advisory group on economic recovery suggested that we need more regional place-based approaches to economic development as the current system is perhaps a little too top-down. Do you expect to see regional place-based approaches in the new economic development strategies that are under development? Given that your organisations are regionally based, what learning can you give us for thinking about this more generally? I ask Jane Morrison-Ross and Carroll Buxton to answer those questions.