Meeting of the Parliament 20 January 2026
The Greens will support the bill this evening, for the reasons that I outlined at stage 1 although, at that point, I expressed some scepticism that I will come on to.
I begin by thanking the minister and the bill team for their engagement throughout the process. I also thank the minister’s predecessor, Graeme Dey, for his extensive engagement before he handed over the portfolio.
The Greens agree with the core premise of the bill. My starting assumption was that I, and Parliament, could not ignore what the reports from Audit Scotland and James Withers said about the Scottish Funding Council and Skills Development Scotland and, crucially, about the need for greater alignment within the system. Having more of that system under one roof should result in greater alignment.
Ministerial direction is the other key part. I have a lot of sympathy with what Daniel Johnson said, and we agreed on much during the stage 1 debate. What has consistently been missing from the system is clear ministerial direction and a clear strategy. We had a purpose and principles document from the Government that failed to set out a clear strategy across the sectors. We have a national strategy for economic transformation that was neither strategic nor transformative and a national performance framework that simply is not used and has sat gathering dust on the shelf from the moment that it was published. That is where the need for alignment is at its greatest—at ministerial level.