Meeting of the Parliament 19 March 2026 [Draft]
Last month, a report commissioned by Unison into Scottish Water questioned the regulatory framework. It warned of creeping privatisation, the ripping up of trade union policies and procedures, the outsourcing not only of major capital works but of day-to-day operations, and the rise of a fat-cat bosses’ bonuses culture, which I know the cabinet secretary has to defend, if for no other reason than that the First Minister signed them off for over a decade when he was the finance secretary.
Will the Government back the calls in the report for a root-and-branch review into this creeping privatisation, this growing overreliance on private subcontractors and this extraction of profits from a public good to line the pockets of private shareholders, or is the cabinet secretary content to see this public utility privatised by stealth?