Meeting of the Parliament 25 November 2025
I am going to hold the minister and the Government to account, and I am going to ask for more transparency and scrutiny so that the Government does not repeat the mistake that it is presently trying to fix.
Having messed up once already, the Government is now seeking permission from the Parliament to rush through a piece of legislation to cover a mistake that is entirely of its own making. As Opposition MSPs, we do not have an army of civil servants at our disposal to produce amendments at short notice and, unlike the SNP Government, we do not have dozens of spin doctors to create a smokescreen. We need time to scrutinise the bill. The SNP Government published it only yesterday, but it wants it to be passed in two days.
The SNP is using the distraction of the UK budget as a smokescreen to cover for its own incompetence. Worse still, it is trying to fix rushed legislation with rushed legislation. Given the Scottish Government’s track record, we believe that there should be much more scrutiny of the bill, because how do we know that it will not make the situation worse?
John Swinney’s Government wants to pass an emergency law to keep £400 million that it took from businesses but was not legally entitled to take. I recognise that what has happened creates financial pressures—pressures that the Scottish Government has brought on itself through its incompetence—and those pressures could add to the pressures that are already felt by local government.
Let me ask the Government a few questions. It might want to respond to them in writing or find a means to respond to them today. Given that we are being asked to pass emergency legislation, will the Government confirm that it has taken sound legal advice on the competence of the bill? If so, is it watertight? What is the Scottish Government’s assessment of the likely success of any legal challenge that might be initiated against the new legislation? My understanding from speaking to stakeholders today is that several property owners are giving active consideration to such legal challenges. Most important, does the minister think that it is right for businesses and Scotland’s councils to pay the price for the SNP’s incompetence?
For those reasons, we cannot support the use of emergency powers. Even if the motion is agreed to, we cannot support the timetable for the bill, which is the direct result of SNP incompetence. That reflects the fact that we need significantly more scrutiny and transparency in relation not just to this SNP bill but to its general dealings with the Parliament.
16:43