Chamber and committees

Thank you.

I will absolutely be brief. I want to be consistent with my line of questioning on the issue last week, when I made the point to the Deputy First Minister that there is an 11.1 per cent increase in the social justice and social security budget, which is benefiting some of the most vulnerable communities across Scotland, including in my constituency in Maryhill and Springburn. The budget in the round has supported that, including the ScotWind moneys, I would imagine.

To get the step change that we need and the buy-in of communities across Scotland, we need to stand by those communities, so it is vital that we use the funds to support the most vulnerable communities. I just want to put that on the record. It is not an either/or—we absolutely have to do both with the budget.

I am interested in how, in this budget, we are using public funds to roll out public electric vehicle charge points across Scotland. I know that there was a £30 million commitment, in partnership with local authorities, over four years, which we are just over half way through. I think that the money goes through Transport Scotland. How much money has been drawn down so far in relation to that? In particular, I see that there was a budget of £4.48 million to local authorities. I am keen to know how that money has been spent and to get a bit more information on it before I ask a couple of follow-up questions.

That is helpful. I apologise, cabinet secretary; I should have name-checked the fund in my initial question in order to allow you to find those details in your briefing pack.

That £20 million is a significant amount of money. My understanding is that a lot of the works are in the pipeline, which means that we still do not have any additional EV public charging points, we do not have anything out to tender from local authorities, and we are still unsure as to how much private money will be leveraged in. It seems reasonable to ask when we will start to get some details of that so that the committee can decide whether the moneys that have been invested will deliver the outcomes that we want to see. Is that on track?

I understand that there is a pipeline of two years and that there is a four-year plan, but there has not yet been any delivery. When can we expect to see delivery, and when can the committee get some details around that?

That is helpful. I am not sure how much of that is in the public domain. Anything that you are able to provide to the committee in writing in relation to projections, and when we will get some firm details, would be helpful. I get that a lot of it might be commercially confidential and that things are being worked up, but the committee would nonetheless like to scrutinise it on an on-going basis.

I have a final question, which I suppose goes in partnership with what I said earlier about a step change for individuals, families and communities in relation to getting EV charge points at their own home or investing in an EV vehicle. I know that the fund is not specifically for that. I am conscious that there are no grants available for EV chargers at home in an urban setting and that the used car loan initiative has come to an end. I understand that there is a tight financial settlement, but might the Government return to that at a future date?

I see that your officials are nodding their heads. That is welcome. I declare an interest, as, if I can persuade my other half, we may be beneficiaries of the scheme. The EV loan scheme for used vehicles may reopen in the next financial year.

I am trying to get a baseline for what members and the travelling public would consider to be the appropriate frequency of ScotRail services. I am conscious that frequency on many routes was reduced during Covid and that it has not returned, because passenger numbers have not returned to pre-Covid levels and income has fallen.

I must declare an interest as I use my local line—Glasgow to Anniesland via Maryhill—almost daily. The service used to be every 30 minutes but, because of Covid, it is now hourly outside of peak times. I am sure you will appreciate that having an hourly service creates a tipping point; if a train is cancelled or delayed, there is a hefty wait for the next one. I have a local interest in that particular line, but my question is about aspiration and commitment. Without giving a period of time in which you hope to achieve it, can you say whether we will return to pre-Covid frequency of services? That is what my constituents would expect—although not right away.

I am not querying—as Mr Lumsden did—whether it was correct to take the railways into public ownership; I strongly support that move from the Scottish Government.

Here is what I am getting at. There was previously no Sunday service on the Maryhill line, for example, but when the service was franchised out, I persuaded the winners of the franchise to write that into their bid. We now have that service, and that is a positive thing. A service every 30 minutes was written into the pre-Covid franchise agreement, and it is clear that that is socially desirable, for a variety of reasons. I am now looking to ascertain whether there will be a return to that desirable outcome when finances allow.

The situation will be the same in many parts of the railway, even though it has been transferred into public ownership. Some people will be sitting around the table with a spreadsheet, asking where we can make savings. We need to ensure that we do things differently in the public sector, and that we do not make savings on train lines where that might be economically expedient but not socially desirable. It is socially desirable for services to go back to pre-Covid baseline levels at some point. That is what I am trying to flush out.

I genuinely was not pushing the issue at a constituency level, convener—it was just a helpful example. Thank you.

Cabinet secretary, I do not see how we can scrutinise the Scottish budget and not ask specifically about the £457 million for the Scottish child payment in the coming year. I know that it benefited more than 300,000 children in the previous year. However, money that is spent on that is money that is not being spent on something else. It is welcome spending, but it has to be evidence led.

In our parental employment inquiry, we heard that modelling work for the Scottish Government has child poverty at 19 per cent. I understand that the real figures that are available for Wales showed 28 per cent, and perhaps 31 per cent for England. That appears to be evidence that the investment is paying off. Can you give us the latest update on the impact of that £457 million on tackling child poverty?

If I have time I will come back with another supplementary, but I will look to the convener on that.