Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 12 August 2020
I alert members to my entry in the register of members’ interests.
The coronavirus pandemic is something that no living person has ever experienced before but, sadly, the experience of this debate is all too familiar. First, the cabinet secretary’s promise to respond to the advisory group’s report by the end of July was broken. Then, it was slipped out under the cover of John Swinney’s education disaster and the lockdown that was imposed on Aberdeen, which was caused principally by the failure of the Scottish Government’s supposedly world-beating tracing programme. The irony of Fiona Hyslop highlighting the investment in that programme—in bold, in paragraph 3 of the response document—as some sort of Scottish Government achievement will not be lost on those of us living in the north-east.
Like many other people across Scotland, many of my constituents in Aberdeenshire West have been working from home for more than five months. One oft-repeated issue is the need for better broadband across Scotland, particularly in rural areas. The reaching 100 per cent—R100—programme was promised to be delivered by 2021, yet we now face another delay, with the north-east contract still not awarded and the programme not due to be completed until 2023. It is simply not good enough for the SNP to blame that on the pandemic, as those targets have been in place for many years. This may be the week when SNP ministers should resign, but it was Fergus Ewing himself who said that he would do so if the R100 was not delivered by 2021.
The Government identifies this issue itself. On page 18 of its response, it notes that
“every public pound invested in broadband in Scotland delivers nearly £12 to the Scottish economy”.
The briefing from BT—[Interruption.] No, I will not give way—sorry.
The briefing from BT makes the call that
“efforts to ensure that the population is equipped with the necessary skills for the future must be an immediate priority”.
Why, in the Government’s response, are we not seeing an acceleration in such investment?
The FSB has pointed out that
“action to address both patchy broadband infrastructure and the dearth of digital skills have been on the agenda for many years ... what we need to see is some detail about how policymakers will actually achieve these outcomes.”
Instead, we get another digital planning strategy—this one to be published in November—to add to the ever-growing list of plans, consultations and reviews that are the substitute for action, delivery and outcomes under this talking shop of a Government.
On a related topic, I was also surprised to see a complete absence of home-working or home-office support in the cabinet secretary’s response. Many constituents across Scotland will be disappointed to be ignored, while the Government continues to ask them to work from home and it becomes the new normal.
Working from home is not a novel idea—it has been building up over many years—and developers have previously designed areas for home working into new houses. However, the effectiveness of such home-working spaces has never been tested until now. I would ask the Scottish Government to look into that and to make recommendations for improvements.
I go back to the Government’s response. Despite managing to list every existing policy and pound spent by the Scottish Government, it found space for only a single word of welcome—and no mention at all in any detail—for the near 1 million Scottish jobs that have been saved and the £15 billion that has been spent by the UK Government. Similarly, the complete absence of recognition and of plans to expand our contribution to the UK single market should be worrying for everyone.
If there is a way in which the SNP has shown that it does not understand business, its 70-page response is it. Douglas Fraser of the BBC describes it as
“turgid ... combining defensive past commitments with often vague future plans.”
He adds:
“Some recommendations are accepted, but on terms that risk them becoming bogged down in a task force, further reviews or a scoping exercise.”
The pandemic has widened the gap between rural and urban areas and has brought frustration to many constituents and businesses alike, but those problems have existed for many years, and it is disappointing to see the SNP Government continuing to miss opportunities to invest heavily in our rural communities. I can only express frustration that we are here once again talking about issues that existed well before coronavirus.
The Confederation of British Industry has said:
“real urgency is needed to spur a recovery that turns around Scotland’s economic fortunes.
Focussing on immediate priorities will provide some reassurance for business”.
Sadly, we know all too well what the SNP’s priority will be in the coming months.