Meeting of the Parliament 11 June 2026 [Last updated 19:16]
Does Mr Kerr want to intervene? I will get the time back, so I am happy to take his point. No, he does not. Okay.
We have already saved more than £50 million on estates. I thought that it was 12, but we have now, in fact, shut 13 Scottish Government buildings. Murdo Fraser has not thought the matter through, because we can exit a lease only at the point at which it expires; we cannot simply shut down leases willy-nilly halfway through, because that incurs more, rather than less, cost.
There are two important final points that I want to make. First, I think that this will be the last speech in the Parliament before Scotland’s men’s football team appears at the world cup, and I want to highlight a community organisation that deserves special attention—the Tartan Army Sunshine Appeal—for those who are not aware of the great work that it does. It is a community of interest, if you like, but it is worth highlighting, and it shows that community and voluntary work across our country extends as far as what is happening in the United States over the weekend.
My final point is that there has been much consensus around the chamber, as well as many indications of collaboration. The real test of that will come when we bring forward concrete proposals, which everyone is calling for us to do. That will happen sooner rather than later, right across the public sector landscape and in our support for the third sector. We will refer back to this debate and what members have said in due course, when we come to the nitty-gritty of taking proposals forward, but I would like to think that the proposals will be approached in a constructive manner and that there will not be oppositionism for opportunistic reasons.
I look forward to continuing this discussion with Opposition parties and others across the Parliament.