Hansard

As convener of the cross-party group on changing places toilets, I welcome another opportunity to discuss this important issue in the chamber. Indeed, it is our second debate this year. I thank my colleague Jeremy Balfour for securing the debate and for his on-going efforts, alongside those of colleagues across the Parliament, to hold the Government to account on the issue, in particular on its failure to advance the promises that it made on support for changing places toilets.

It was good to hear Jeremy Balfour speak about his pride in the achievement made in the previous parliamentary session through changes to planning legislation. I put on record my thanks to Mary Fee, my predecessor, who was involved in those efforts, and to Angela Dulley, the campaigner who is the secretary of the cross-party group, for her efforts in that regard, too. Indeed, I thank everyone in the cross-party group, who all campaign on the issue and call for better support for changing places toilets across Scotland.

I have already referenced the debate that we had on the issue at the start of January, when we discussed the delays to the establishment and opening of the fund. In that debate, and in the CPG meeting that took place the next day, the minister said that the Scottish Government would make the £10 million changing places toilet fund available across the financial years 2024-25 and 2025-26. However, we know that that promise did not play out. Instead of that fund opening in 2024-25, the autumn budget revision took it away. At the time, the minister said that that was a necessary decision for financial reasons during the SNP’s emergency budget revisions. However, she also said that preparatory work on the fund was continuing.

Although I am pleased that, since that autumn budget revision, the minister has told the CPG that the draft version of the fund criteria is almost complete, I am concerned that information that has been obtained under freedom of information requests shows that, prior to the budget revisions, the minister had been in only one meeting on the fund and that her officials had been at only one other.

Put together, all of that does not give us a lot of confidence that the issue is a priority for the minister. I would be keen to hear much more in her summing up about what has been done not only to secure the money in the forthcoming budget but to ensure that the fund can open quickly, with well-established criteria.

It will be shameful if the commitment is not fulfilled. It would be a shame not only for all the people who rely on changing places toilets but for the wider community of Scotland. Scotland is an attractive place that people want to visit, and we want to attract people regardless of their needs and the support that they require. As well as the basic fundamental human rights that we have heard about, we see the economic benefit that changing places toilets can make to our communities.

Every time that the cross-party group meets, we hear about the need for changing places toilets and the gaps that exist in Scotland. As Jeremy Balfour and others have done, I commend the work of PAMIS and others who support efforts to ensure that we have a clear picture of where changing places toilets are and where there is a need for further ones.

My next point has already been made: there is a record of failure for disabled people in Scotland on the issue that we are discussing. I am seriously concerned about some of the decisions that have been taken. In the year since we previously debated the issue, disabled people’s organisations have withdrawn support for the disability equality plan; the promises to provide health checks for individuals who have a learning disability have been completely unfulfilled, despite £4 million being spent on that; and the proposed learning disabilities, autism and neurodivergence bill and the proposed human rights bill have been shelved for at least this session of Parliament. Furthermore, the publication timetable for the strategy on young disabled people’s transitions to adulthood has been extended once again. Therefore, I do not think that it is accurate for SNP members to say that there are not serious issues with support for disabled people. It is clear that that is becoming something of a pattern.

The minister might think that I am being harsh on her and on the Government, but, if she was sat where I am, I think that she would be just as vocal about a Government that has repeatedly broken promises that it made years ago.

I will listen openly, as I always do, to the minister’s winding-up remarks, and I hope that, within them, there is a cast-iron guarantee that the fund will open next year. It is not just me who is listening; it is all the members of the cross-party group and all the campaigners and disabled people across Scotland who need these facilities.