Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 22 December 2020
This country is at a time of crisis on many fronts. I welcome the passing of the UK Withdrawal from the European Union (Continuity) (Scotland) Bill today as an offering of stability against our exit from the EU. I particularly identify myself with the remarks of my colleague Anas Sarwar.
The bill is fundamental to our way forward for our devolved settlement and our environmental protections. We are in the midst of a climate and nature emergency. We are seeing the Scottish Government reporting back on the 2020 Aichi targets, and it is anticipated that the scorecard will not be exemplary. With one in nine Scottish species threatened with extinction, getting the provisions in the bill right has been a priority for Scottish Labour and indeed for many others.
Although there is still vast room for improvement, we have come a long way with the bill. I know that no one wants to see Scotland and the UK return to being known as the dirty man of Europe, as they were in the 1970s. Maintaining the progressive standards is crucial if we are to end the decline in our natural world, meet emissions reduction targets and deliver a green recovery from this awful pandemic.
There has been much to welcome in today’s stage 3 proceedings. I was pleased to work effectively with Mark Ruskell in committee, especially on climate change issues. I am also pleased that the Government changed its position on ministers giving “due regard” to environmental principles and corrected the undue exclusion of climate change from ESS’s remit.
My amendments on a statutory environment strategy will, along with Mark Ruskell’s work, be instrumental in structuring environmental policy making and keeping it to the fore. I thank the cabinet secretary and her officials again for their efforts and their compromise in relation to my amendments, and I thank Scottish Environment LINK for its wisdom.
My amendments to protect the right of an individual to raise a complaint against a public body were, in my view, immensely important. The very purpose of the bill is to keep pace with the EU, and the failure to include the amendments, in my view, represents a terrible erosion of environmental governance and citizens’ access to justice. The conviction that I expressed in lodging the amendments was affirmed by many constituents, who took the time to write to me and others to share their concerns, as well as the more than 6,000 people who signed Scottish Environment LINK’s petition.
Our environment laws are only as good as the institutions that uphold them, and the watchdog will be effective only if it is independent of Government and its powers are not constrained. On that theme, Liz Smith’s amendment, which provides for a check-up on how well ESS is functioning and consideration of an environmental court for the future, is welcome.
Scottish Labour is pleased to be voting for the bill, which will underpin the accountability of future Scottish Governments. It will keep us aligned with what many consider to be the progressive force of the EU in the dire circumstances in which we find ourselves, with only nine days to go, and, indeed, it will mitigate the potential degradation of our environmental standards.