MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT Tuesday 24 February 2015 Session 4 © Parliamentary copyright. Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Information on the Scottish Parliament’s copyright policy can be found on the website - www.scottish.parliament.uk or by contacting Public Information on 0131 348 5000 Tuesday 24 February 2015 CONTENTS Col. TIME FOR REFLECTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 TOPICAL QUESTION TIME ................................................................................................................................... 3 Scottish Parliament Election 2016 (Votes for 16 and 17-year-olds) ............................................................. 3 LEGAL WRITINGS (COUNTERPARTS AND DELIVERY) (SCOTLAND) BILL: STAGE 3 ................................................. 8 Motion moved—[Fergus Ewing]. The Minister for Business, Energy and Tourism (Fergus Ewing) ................................................................. 8 Lewis Macdonald (North East Scotland) (Lab) ........................................................................................... 11 Annabel Goldie (West Scotland) (Con) ...................................................................................................... 13 Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP) ........................................................................ 16 Margaret McCulloch (Central Scotland) (Lab) ............................................................................................ 18 Nigel Don (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP) ............................................................................................. 20 Annabel Goldie ........................................................................................................................................... 22 Graeme Pearson (South Scotland) (Lab) ................................................................................................... 24 Fergus Ewing .............................................................................................................................................. 26 BUILDING SCOTLAND’S INFRASTRUCTURE ........................................................................................................ 29 Motion moved—[Keith Brown]. Amendment moved—[Mary Fee]. Amendment moved—[Gavin Brown]. Amendment moved—[Willie Rennie]. The Cabinet Secretary for Infrastructure, Investment and Cities (Keith Brown) ........................................ 29 Mary Fee (West Scotland) (Lab) ................................................................................................................ 36 Gavin Brown (Lothian) (Con) ...................................................................................................................... 40 Willie Rennie (Mid Scotland and Fife) (LD) ................................................................................................ 43 Mike MacKenzie (Highlands and Islands) (SNP) ....................................................................................... 45 Johann Lamont (Glasgow Pollok) (Lab) ..................................................................................................... 47 Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP) ........................................................................ 50 Nigel Don (Angus North and Mearns) (SNP) ............................................................................................. 52 Paul Martin (Glasgow Provan) (Lab) .......................................................................................................... 55 Jim Eadie (Edinburgh Southern) (SNP) ..................................................................................................... 56 Linda Fabiani (East Kilbride) (SNP)............................................................................................................ 59 Margaret McDougall (West Scotland) (Lab) ............................................................................................... 61 John Mason (Glasgow Shettleston) (SNP) ................................................................................................. 63 Willie Rennie ............................................................................................................................................... 66 Gavin Brown ............................................................................................................................................... 68 David Stewart (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) ............................................................................................. 70 Keith Brown ................................................................................................................................................ 73 SMALL BUSINESS, ENTERPRISE AND EMPLOYMENT BILL ................................................................................... 78 Motion moved—[Fergus Ewing]. DECISION TIME ................................................................................................................................................ 79 EATING DISORDERS AWARENESS WEEK 2015 .................................................................................................. 88 Motion debated—[Dennis Robertson]. Dennis Robertson (Aberdeenshire West) (SNP) ........................................................................................ 88 Malcolm Chisholm (Edinburgh Northern and Leith) (Lab) .......................................................................... 90 Christian Allard (North East Scotland) (SNP) ............................................................................................. 92 Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con) ................................................................................................ 94 Jim Hume (South Scotland) (LD) ................................................................................................................ 96 Rhoda Grant (Highlands and Islands) (Lab) ............................................................................................... 97 Mark McDonald (Aberdeen Donside) (SNP) .............................................................................................. 99 The Minister for Sport, Health Improvement and Mental Health (Jamie Hepburn) .................................. 100 1 24 FEBRUARY 2015 2 set, how money is spent and how the right Scottish Parliament resources find their way into the right places, somewhere way down the chain, a needy child Tuesday 24 February 2015 gets a new pair of shoes and a mother starved of affection gets the chance to weep. [The Presiding Officer opened the meeting at 14:00] Time for Reflection The Presiding Officer (Tricia Marwick): Good afternoon. The first item of business is time for reflection. Our time for reflection leader today is the Right Rev John Chalmers, the moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. The Right Rev John Chalmers (Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland): The Space is a drop-in centre in Govanhill run by the Sisters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul. One day, a mother of nine children who had been traded in for a younger model found her way in desperation to the Space. She had been left to care for her children alone, but her biggest challenge was her young son who had severe learning difficulties and was incontinent. The boy could hardly walk; his shoes were two sizes too small and they had not been off his feet in months. All I am going to tell you is that the worker at the Space bought socks and a new pair of shoes for that young boy, peeled off the old shoes, took the boy’s feet on her lap and washed them clean. While she did that, the boy’s mother wept. She wept because, where she stands in the pecking order of life, no one had ever done that for her or for her boy. The woman was experiencing love and grace being poured out. There were no words, but two things were true of that scene: real practical help was being given to someone on the margins of society, and the God that I believe in was present—present in a pair of shoes and socks from Asda. The God that I believe in is not some puppet master presiding over good and evil in the universe; the God that I believe in walks with the poor. The real reason for telling you that story is that I believe that there is a direct link in the chain of consequences that connects this place of government to that woman and her child and to the worker dedicated to her work at the Space. You see, I do not subscribe to the idea that people enter public life for self-aggrandisement. The people I know who give themselves to public life do so in order to make a difference and leave the world a better place than they found it. Today, I want you to know that, when you make the right decisions here about how priorities are 3 24 FEBRUARY 2015 4 Topical Question Time people were able to express their views and contribute in a substantive way in the referendum process. The concerns and views that the House of Lords committee report expresses are therefore 14:04 unfounded. Scottish Parliament Election 2016 (Votes for 16 Mr Crawford made a point about the extensive and 17-year-olds) engagement that the Devolution (Further Powers) 1. Bruce Crawford (Stirling) (SNP): To ask the Committee has undertaken. In a sense, that opens Scottish Government what its position is on the up the awareness and scrutiny