Hansard

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in this evening’s debate, and I thank my colleague Jeremy Balfour for bringing it to the chamber.

To be clear, changing places facilities should not be considered to be luxury facilities. They allow certain people with disabilities to access public spaces in a way that they simply would not have been able to do without them. Changing places toilets should be commonplace in communities across the country. As things stand, however, that is far from being the case.

The consistent closure of council-run facilities across many parts of Scotland, including in my region, has meant that many locations no longer have changing places facilities at all. That is very much the case in my Mid Scotland and Fife region. The announcement of £10 million of funding for changing places toilets in the 2021 programme for government was very much welcomed at the time. That same pledge was repeated by several different ministers at different times through a number of announcements. We heard members across the Parliament challenge the Government to allocate the money where it was needed. However, three years later, the funding has still not been allocated.

Just a few months ago, the Parliament learned that the money for changing places facilities was to be reprofiled. We know that “reprofiled” means that something will not necessarily happen according to the timescales that were given. That means that the measures might not happen for the foreseeable future. The Scottish Government has stated that it is still committed to introducing the funding during this parliamentary session. At this stage, however, it is looking very likely that the funding will be kicked further down the road, so the measures might not happen until after the 2026 elections.

The news from the Scottish Government is that it appears to be backtracking on its commitment, which is deeply concerning to disabled individuals and charities, which had supported and been part of the Scottish Government’s processes. Jeremy Balfour’s motion describes that as

“the latest in a long list of examples of the Scottish Government not taking seriously the needs of disabled people”.

The 2021 programme for government discussed creating a new disability equality plan, which would be created in partnership with disabled people. Three years later, several disabled people’s organisations and individuals have made it quite clear that that still requires to be fulfilled. The organisations have been working with the Government for more than 20 months on creating a plan that, they hope, would empower disabled people in every part of Scotland. Now, however, they have been left disappointed, with organisations saying that the process has seemingly collapsed, and all the ambitions that they had no longer seem to be moving forward.

Organisations such as Disability Equality Scotland, the Glasgow Disability Alliance and Inclusion Scotland have all participated, and they are all feeling let down. Their members have been led down the garden path by the Scottish Government, which failed to engage properly with those individuals and organisations. They have called on the Scottish Government to take “urgent and bold action” on the issue. I certainly hope that the Government is able to listen, and I look forward to hearing what the minister has to say when she sums up the debate.

The debate has been able to shine a light on some of the problems that disabled people in Scotland face. It is now time for the Scottish Government to work with disabled people and their organisations, to deliver the equality plan that disabled people deserve and to ensure that the funding for changing places facilities is delivered in full. Disabled people deserve nothing less.