Meeting of the Parliament 16 January 2025
Of course, your perspective on these matters is always welcome, Presiding Officer.
I go back to my earlier point that I am more than willing to consider these matters. I remind Mr Leonard that his party regularly has time to bring forward its own debates, and I am sure that he will speak to his business manager about allocating a debate in Labour Party time. I will, of course, give consideration to using Scottish Government time as well.
As I was saying, the report is wide ranging and the rights that are described in it touch on virtually every area of life in the Highlands and Islands. Many of the challenges that are described are interconnected. I recognise that the report rightly poses challenges to the Scottish Government. We are considering the report and we will come back, in due course, on how we intend to respond to it.
Although some of the issues that are raised apply beyond the Highlands and Islands, as Mr Carson has reminded us, we need to make sure that our actions reflect the specific needs of the communities that are directly referred to in the report, in order to advance the realisation of all of their human rights.
Before turning to members’ contributions in detail, I briefly acknowledge the approach that the commission has taken in the report. In particular, I welcome its efforts to pilot a new model of human rights monitoring that brings together the lived experiences of our Highlands and Islands communities with other qualitative and quantitative data that assesses that evidence against international human rights standards. I am aware that the commission plans to expand that model over the coming years to build a baseline picture of economic, social and cultural rights realisation across the breadth of Scotland. In some senses, the report is a trailblazer and its methodology will be applicable beyond the Highlands and Islands.
I am grateful to members for their contributions. The report is wide ranging and touches on work across all portfolios. Emma Roddick made some inference to that when she said that she could have delivered 12 speeches on the subject. I will not be able to respond to the full breadth of matters in detail, but I assure members that the Government is considering the report carefully.
The Government continues to take action that is geared towards improving service delivery and design, to meet the specific needs of communities in the Highlands and Islands. That includes action to address some of the issues that are outlined in the commission’s report on housing, transport and depopulation, for example.