Meeting of the Parliament 29 March 2017
If Patrick Harvie reads back the Official Report, he will find that I have already done the first two of those things. I will come back to the others in my closing remarks.
I was making a point about article 50; Amnesty International makes the point in its report. Brexit means that there are about to be a number of new deals that otherwise would not be required, including a number of bilateral deals. It is important that international deals are made in the coming years, and we have to be part of that process. We want to remain an open and accessible country in which to invest. We should also ensure that that investment meets the very high standards that we all expect for Scotland.
I said previously, in response to Patrick Harvie’s point, that we take responsibility for this situation—I have said that already—and that we regret some of the issues that have arisen. I will come back to the other points that Patrick Harvie has raised in my closing remarks.
I move amendment S5M-04919.2, to leave out from “notes that extensive” to end and insert:
“recognises that Scotland has a strong track record in attracting investment as evidenced by the fact that Scotland has ranked as the best place for inward investment outside London for five of the last six years; further recognises that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was about developing a working relationship to explore potential investment and that no legal, contractual or funding obligations on behalf of the Scottish Government have been made and there has been no engagement with the company since September 2016; notes with concern the human rights record of China Railway No.3 Engineering Group’s parent company, China Railway Group; regrets that the signing of the MoU gave rise to concerns, and commits to considering and taking account of these concerns in any future such situations; agrees that the Scottish Government must always consider the human rights implications of its engagement with countries and business; believes that investment agreements should only be signed where appropriate due diligence, including on the human rights record of companies involved, has been undertaken; welcomes Scottish Government engagement with Amnesty International and other organisations on human rights ahead of international engagements, and believes that, with appropriate care, it is possible for international trade to co-exist with support for human rights around the world.”
16:05Motions, questions or amendments mentioned by their reference code.