Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) Tuesday 23 February 2021 Session 5 © Parliamentary copyright. Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body Information on the Scottish Parliament’s copyright policy can be found on the website - www.parliament.scot or by contacting Public Information on 0131 348 5000 Tuesday 23 February 2021 CONTENTS Col. TIME FOR REFLECTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1 POINT OF ORDER ............................................................................................................................................... 3 BUSINESS MOTION ............................................................................................................................................. 5 Motion moved—[Graeme Dey]—and agreed to. COVID-19 .......................................................................................................................................................... 6 Statement—[The First Minister]. The First Minister (Nicola Sturgeon) ............................................................................................................. 6 POINT OF ORDER ............................................................................................................................................. 30 BUSINESS MOTION ........................................................................................................................................... 31 Motion moved—[Graeme Dey]—and agreed to. HEAT NETWORKS (SCOTLAND) BILL: STAGE 3 ................................................................................................. 32 HEAT NETWORKS (SCOTLAND) BILL ................................................................................................................. 57 Motion moved—[Paul Wheelhouse]. The Minister for Energy, Connectivity and the Islands (Paul Wheelhouse) ............................................... 57 Alexander Burnett (Aberdeenshire West) (Con) ......................................................................................... 60 Alex Rowley (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Lab) ................................................................................................ 62 Liam McArthur (Orkney Islands) (LD) ......................................................................................................... 63 Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) ........................................................................................... 65 Willie Coffey (Kilmarnock and Irvine Valley) (SNP) .................................................................................... 66 Gordon Lindhurst (Lothian) (Con) ............................................................................................................... 68 Sarah Boyack (Lothian) (Lab) ..................................................................................................................... 69 Alex Rowley ................................................................................................................................................ 70 Graham Simpson (Central Scotland) (Con) ............................................................................................... 72 Paul Wheelhouse........................................................................................................................................ 73 DECISION TIME ................................................................................................................................................ 79 SCOTLAND’S RAILWAYS ................................................................................................................................... 82 Motion debated—[John Finnie]. John Finnie (Highlands and Islands) (Green) ............................................................................................. 82 Stewart Stevenson (Banffshire and Buchan Coast) (SNP) ........................................................................ 85 Graham Simpson (Central Scotland) (Con) ............................................................................................... 86 Colin Smyth (South Scotland) (Lab) ........................................................................................................... 87 Mark Ruskell (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Green) ........................................................................................... 89 Neil Findlay (Lothian) (Lab) ........................................................................................................................ 91 Pauline McNeill (Glasgow) (Lab) ................................................................................................................ 93 The Cabinet Secretary for Transport, Infrastructure and Connectivity (Michael Matheson) ...................... 94 1 23 FEBRUARY 2021 2 our names. We get annoyed with ourselves when Scottish Parliament we can picture a person but cannot remember their name. Tuesday 23 February 2021 In the book of the prophet Isaiah, we read this: [The Presiding Officer opened the meeting at “The Lord says, ‘I have called you by your name and you are mine. Do not be afraid for you are precious in my 14:00] sight.’” Time for Reflection We all matter in the sight of God. Even the least of us is precious to him. Let it be that Scotland is a The Presiding Officer (Ken Macintosh): Good country in which everyone matters and in which afternoon, colleagues. As we do every Tuesday, we remember that behind every number, there is a we begin our business with time for reflection. I am name. delighted to say that our time for reflection leader The Presiding Officer: Thank you for joining today is the Right Rev Dr Martin Fair, who is the us, Moderator. Please accept our apologies for not Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church being able to have you join us in person today. of Scotland. Good afternoon, Moderator. The next item of business will be consideration The Right Rev Martin Fair (Moderator of the of business motion S5M-24213, in the name of General Assembly of the Church of Scotland): Graeme Dey, on behalf of the Parliamentary Thank you, Presiding Officer. I extend the warmest Bureau, which sets out a revision to business. greetings of the general assembly to everyone who is gathering in the chamber and online. Three weeks ago yesterday, I listened with particular interest to the First Minister’s daily briefing and to the Covid statistics that she announced. My wife’s dad had died on the Saturday, in a care home, having contracted the virus. I guess that I just wanted to hear the numbers and to think that Mickey was included in them. What I would really have liked would have been for the First Minister to actually mention him by name—if she had given the total number of those who had died and then said, “And, of course, that number includes Mickey Wiley.” Of course, that is a daft notion. I understand that. Yet how vital it is—not just important, but vital—that we never forget that behind every number is a name, and that every statistic is a somebody. I cannot put into words how devastated my wife was to lose her dad in those circumstances, without having been able to visit him. I guess that the same is true in all the other similar cases. If that is true for Covid deaths, it is also true for all the other times when we announce numbers as part of our national record keeping. “Just another” drug death is someone’s precious son or daughter—someone who started primary school with all the potential in the world, who could have thrived and who had a name. Our hospital waiting lists name the people who are waiting for referral to a cancer specialist or a mental health service. Every line on every list is a life. We have statistics relating to children living in poverty and documenting the number of families using food banks. Behind every statistic is someone special. Everyone matters. Names matter. When we meet someone for the first time, we tell each other 3 23 FEBRUARY 2021 4 Point of Order body will share information with members when it is fit and proper for it to do so and when it can. That is the trust that we give to every other committee of the Parliament. 14:04 Neil Findlay (Lothian) (Lab): On a point of Thank you. I do not think that there are any order, Presiding Officer. other points of order, so I will go back to business. I reluctantly rise to make an urgent request. Last night, we saw publication by the Parliament of evidence that had been submitted to the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints. That evidence has now been withdrawn at the insistence of the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service and the Lord Advocate, who is a member of the Government—the very Government that I presume he advised to pursue the original flawed court case that resulted in its collapsing and £1 million of public money being lost. This is a crisis for the credibility of the Scottish Parliament. We, as members of the Scottish Parliament, and the public whom we represent, must hear from the Lord Advocate the reasons for that decision. We must make time today for that member of the Cabinet to come before us to answer urgent questions from members on this crisis of credibility, which cannot be allowed just to pass. The Presiding Officer (Ken Macintosh): I thank Mr Findlay for the point of order. I say for information that the decision was taken by the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body and was not taken