Meeting of the Parliament 11 June 2024
I am sorry. If I have time at the end, I will come back to the First Minister.
In the 2021 election, the SNP Government promised to end homelessness and rough sleeping. It was going to end homelessness and rough sleeping, yet the figures are going in the opposite direction. How can the First Minister eradicate child poverty if thousands of children in Scotland do not have a permanent home right now?
Another issue that we should be considering is education. A topical question has just been asked about education. Conservative members know that good schooling and delivering opportunity for young people is the best route out of poverty for them. What chance do our most deprived children have if they are hungry and unable to focus on learning? That is why one of my first proposals as leader of the party was to pledge to deliver free school breakfasts and lunches to every school pupil across Scotland in primary schools. We were the first major party to do that, and I was encouraged when other parties had the same commitment.
Yet, more than three years on from the election, when that pledge was made by every party in the Parliament, the roll-out is still not complete, and there are warnings that it may now not be in place in time for the next Holyrood election. Can the First Minister or the Government give us a cast-iron commitment that every Scottish primary school will have access to free school breakfasts and lunches by the end of the current parliamentary session? That is a crucial point around which there is consensus and one that we all hope can be delivered.