Hansard

I start by wishing Aileen Campbell all the very best. We both came into Parliament in 2007 and she has been good company and an effective minister since then. I wish her all the best.

I congratulate Andy Wightman and thank him for all his work on the bill. It is a fitting tribute to the contribution that Andy Wightman has made to the current parliamentary session, and the Scottish Liberal Democrats strongly support the bill. Indeed, in 2015, my former colleague Tavish Scott sought amendments to the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Bill to place the charter on a statutory footing. He will be sad not to be here in person and contributing to the debate but I am sure that he will raise a glass of something in honour of this moment.

Tavish Scott recognised, as many of us recognise, that devolution was always supposed to be about more than the transfer of powers to Scotland—it was about the transfer of powers within Scotland. Two decades since the establishment of the Parliament, that remains unfinished business. Indeed, if anything, despite all the fanfare about the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 and the Islands (Scotland) Act 2018, we have gone backwards in some respects. Local authorities and local communities feel more powerless, and less able to influence the decisions that most directly affect them. Whether it is neutering them through prolonged council tax freezes or the centralisation of services, the effect is the same.

Democratically elected local authorities should be given the power to act in the best interests of the communities that they serve. That should be self-evident, regardless of which party or parties are in power at national level. Embedding the principles of the charter in Scots law seems a very good way of moving us in that direction.

We hope that doing that will help to ensure that decisions about how local services are shaped and delivered are decided at a more local level. It may not offer any guarantees, but it increases the likelihood that those decisions will be informed by people with the clearest understanding of local needs and circumstances, thus improving services or, at the very least, improving accountability for those services.

Scottish Liberal Democrats are committed to that—it is in our DNA. However, as Andy Wightman will, I am sure, testify, that is not a truth universally held. My hope is that by enshrining the charter in Scots law there will be more opportunity to push back at the relentless agenda of centralisation that we have seen from some quarters. Indeed, I can draw on recent examples.

The islands impact assessment of the proposed centralisation of air traffic services away from the islands to a remote tower in Inverness shows how important it is to have a legal ability to challenge. The assessment showed beyond doubt that the plans were not being progressed in the interests of island communities such as the ones that I represent. Despite SNP ministers defending the policy to the hilt, the assessment revealed only negative and significantly negative impacts for both Orkney and Shetland, from the direct loss of well-paying and highly skilled jobs to ripple effects on the local economy. The policy is being driven through with no real concern for the communities that will be most directly affected.

The compelling case for much-needed investment in the modernisation of air traffic services in each of our island groups has been used as an excuse to rip them out and relocate them. It is like dealing with a headache by prescribing decapitation. Today, Orkney Islands Council will debate a motion on the subject. Shetland and Western Isles Councils have already taken firm stands against what is being proposed. I hope that, with Andy Wightman’s bill passing, those island authorities will stand a better chance of having their voices heard on that and similar issues, because in a range of policy areas, from policing to health and economic development to transport, decisions are too often made that ignore the needs of rural and island communities.

The duty for Scottish ministers to act compatibly with the charter, and the requirement for courts to read legislation in a way that is compliant, will be another valuable tool. The principles of the charter received unanimous endorsement from the Council of Europe in 1998. I hope that the Scottish Parliament will be just as emphatic in supporting the bill at decision time today.

Once again, I thank and congratulate my friend Andy Wightman on his achievement in piloting this worthwhile legislation through Parliament.