Meeting of the Parliament 10 January 2024
I will just continue because I am running out of time, Deputy Presiding Officer.
I would like to develop one theme that has not been covered: Ukraine and the supersponsor scheme. When the minister gave evidence to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee last month, I asked her about the scheme and whether there was any intention to restart it. She said that the Government had been reviewing the pause and that the next review would happen this month. Perhaps she can answer now or in closing whether that review has happened. Are we any closer to reopening the scheme?
I suggest to the minister that that has been a failure by the Scottish Government. The scheme was announced with great fanfare, but it has been beset by problems. Earlier last year, there were reports that some 7,500 Ukrainians, including almost 1,900 children, were stuck in temporary accommodation. We know that the SNP Government slashed the resettlement budget by more than £25 million and that it will not renew the £10 million in funding that it initially granted to local councils to support Ukrainian resettlement. I think that the City of Edinburgh Council described that as a betrayal. What was dressed up as a warm Scots welcome and a warm Scots future has, in many cases, ended up being neither.
It is a shame that the debate has already descended into an attack on UK Government policy. These are important issues, especially around housing in Scotland, which is crucial. I am sorry that the debate has taken the course that it has. Instead, we should be concentrating on what the Scottish Government and local government can do here and now in Scotland to make life better for asylum seekers.
15:44