Emma Roddick
Scottish National Party · Scotland
“Knowing all that I know about the high rate of comorbidity of ADHD and hypermobility, it did not come as a surprise when I was told in January this year that my mental health diagnosis, which came with a great deal of difficulty, stigma and, as it turns out, the wrong treatment over years and years, was misdiagnosed neurodivergence.”
“It might be that no one beyond the person’s GP is needed to manage the post-diagnosis situation. All that might be needed is guided self-management and the awareness of what their diagnosis is, which will give them the necessary confidence to ask for adjustments at school or the workplace.”
“A child with ADHD who can be managed with some changes to their school day should just have those changes made. Not dealing with those people creates urgent cases that never needed to become urgent.”
“I can now access the right people and I can read about my condition, not a label. What I cannot do is get help from the NHS. I have been advised to go private, which is something I hate seeing in a letter that is headed “NHS”.”
“I congratulate and thank Helen McDade for securing this important debate. I am glad to see that there are cross-party contributions this evening.”
“When someone feels like they do not fit in and they do not know why, they can start to resent the world and their peers, who think that the person is difficult and unfriendly instead of just quiet and busy thinking about 12 things at once.”
The complete record
Every one of 407 lines we hold for Emma Roddick, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 9.
“What a strange nationalist party we have in government that it lacks such ambition for our people. We must also be mindful of working people, who should not be left feeling that their hard-earned money is being used to fund people who are capable of working but who are choosing not to. We need to create the conditions for the creation of good work. Work must always pay. We must help people to feel that they have an opportunity to upskill, to make choices for themselves and to increase their capability to earn and to provide for their families. Instead of being penalised by punitive taxes, people should be encouraged to work and have ambition. Aspirations should be rewarded, not punished. We need a Government that believes in work, self-reliance and growth. 13:02”
“A successful Government sets goals to cut the number of people on welfare, not to increase it. The SNP’s approach is not compassionate. It is cruel, because it is designed to keep people stuck where they are, instead of to help people to move forward. We need to rebalance our economy. Alongside the welfare crisis, we have too many people working for the Government, while the private sector—our best source of new jobs—struggles. We must extend the tax base by making more people self-reliant—as they would desire to be— and less dependent on the state. We should be investing in skills, training and apprenticeships, yet, under the SNP, the opposite is happening: cuts to further education, an artificial cap on apprenticeships and a lack of investment in upskilling. That is a failure of ambition for Scotland.”
“In 2025-26, the Scottish Government intends to spend £1.3 billion more than the UK block grant adjustment on social security, with further increases anticipated. Despite repeated requests, notably from the Finance and Public Administration Committee, the Government has yet to outline a sustainable long-term funding plan—maybe the minister is going to conjure one out of her speech at the end of this debate. The SNP’s proposal to remove the two-child benefit cap would add at least another £200 million a year just to start with. None of that expenditure has been properly accounted for. The welfare system that we have created is not financially sustainable, and there is no point in pretending otherwise. I welcome the acceptance across the parties that we need to reduce the number of people dependent on welfare.”
“On the point of morality, does the member acknowledge that disability benefits are not all out- of-work benefits? Does he realise the impact that cutting those welfare payments to disabled people would have on their ability to stay in work and to feed and clothe themselves? Stephen Kerr: Therefore, the system should be geared around helping people to stay in work and to have as much self-reliance and independence as possible, but we should not be designing systems that trap people in dependency. According to the Office for Budget Responsibility, UK welfare spending this year is— as I have already mentioned—£350 billion. It is spiralling unsustainably, and reaching levels that even a Labour Government has acknowledged cannot continue.”
“When it comes to temporary accommodation and housing, we have to look at the overall support from the Scottish Government. The Scottish child payment is the only such payment in the United Kingdom, which sets us apart from others. In addition, the local housing allowance was a key point that was discussed yesterday. Local housing allowance covers the 30th percentile of rents in a given area as an absolute minimum. The UK Government’s decision to freeze rates from 1 April 2025 has therefore put more pressure on families that move into that sector. The Resolution Foundation estimates that permanently repegging rates to the 30th percentile would lift 75,000 children out of poverty by the end of this UK Parliament. I wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions in January, urging her to reverse the decision to freeze rates.”
“In addition to the total service costs and rents that we know lead to the very high cost of being homeless, one parent featured in the report spoke of spending £600 on transport every month to get their children to school or appointments. Others detailed the cost of inadequate cooking facilities and the burden of repeatedly purchasing essential items such as fridges. Some older children spoke of potentially losing their education maintenance allowance, because they were at a higher risk of missing school. In light of that, how will the Scottish Government help to ensure that living in temporary accommodation does not carry an additional financial penalty for children and families in particular? Paul McLennan: Emma Roddick has brought up a number of issues.”
“We will invest an additional £4 million in 2025- 26 in helping local authorities, front-line services and relevant partners prepare for the new prevention duties and respond to the housing emergency by preventing homelessness before it occurs. If homelessness can be more effectively prevented, life chances and outcomes will be improved and savings will be made across public services. Sanda Island Purchase 4.”
“I am sure that the minister will have been distressed, as I was, to see recent Scottish Government statistics showing that homelessness has risen in Scotland. In light of those worrying figures, what steps is the Scottish Government taking to ensure that the Housing (Scotland) Bill contains the strongest possible measures to prevent homelessness and reverse that situation? Paul McLennan: I recognise how challenging the recent homelessness statistics are. The homelessness prevention duties will build on the strong housing rights that already exist for people who are homeless by eliminating the need to go through the trauma of homelessness. The duties on the named relevant bodies will require them to ask about and act on housing situations and will require local authorities to act to prevent homelessness.”
“It is unacceptable that any UK Government would override the wishes of the democratically elected Scottish Parliament and I hope that people will stop accepting it, because there is a very clear alternative—you know where I am going with this, Presiding Officer—and that is independence. 16:24”
“Earlier, when Rachael Hamilton talked down the Scottish Government wanting to take a different approach to that of the UK on things such as controlling XL bullies—given that nobody thinks that the UK’s position on that is sustainable or sensible in the long term—I wanted to ask her, “What on earth is it okay for us to do differently?” We should do things differently here because we are a different country. We can take decisions to work with our closest neighbours or nations across the world when we agree on shared goals around tackling climate change and furthering human rights, but those agreements, treaties or unions should be voluntary. The use of the internal market act powers by Whitehall towards us is not voluntary. The act was not brought in voluntarily and the union is no longer voluntary.”
“I want to be clear that there is no excuse for Labour keeping the act. However, I still want to warn its ministers and members that they cannot legislate solely on the basis that they will be in power forever. I ask members to imagine a Labour Scottish Government—that is unlikely, but I ask members to imagine it—and what it would look like alongside a Reform Government at Westminster, which is a far more realistic possibility. Should the Government that Scotland elects, regardless of which party or parties make it up, govern in constant fear of being undermined and overruled by whoever is in power at Westminster? If that is really the position of Labour members or anyone else, I have no idea what they are doing in this place.”
“The democratically elected representatives of Scotland should be the people who make decisions about and for Scotland. That is an incredibly simple premise, but it is not being upheld. The act allows UK ministers to override decisions that are made here using the powers that everyone agrees we have. That is blatantly wrong. It was atrocious that the Conservatives brought in that attack on devolution, but it is unforgivable that Labour is keeping it in place despite the party’s opposition to it not too long ago. The internal market act pretends to be something that it is not. It is disguised as involving teamwork on consideration of shared goals and trade, but it is only about taking control. Scotland is not for sale. If the internal market act is the answer, Scotland was not asking the question.”
“I campaigned for independence in 2014 and I know full well that, had I said back then not only that the Tories would undo devolution but also that, when Labour got in after them, it would keep it that way, folk would have said that I was scaremongering and that it was our own project fear. They said, “Lead, don’t leave” and not, “If you try to lead the way, we’re going to stop you”. They promised us more powers and not a complete flip of what devolution means. The reality in which we are all living only a decade later is that the Sewel convention is meaningless and that not only is a hostile UK Government in place, but there is no prospect of a party taking control in London that will respect the decisions that are made in this chamber.”
“From recycling schemes to dog breeding and restrictions on products that are high in sugar, the internal market act is a sword of Damocles that hangs over anyone who is trying to govern Scotland or any of the other devolved nations in the UK. Those issues and the others that have been raised in the debate are ones that the Parliament can deal with, as they are devolved. It is all very well to shout that we should use the powers that we have, but that is what the debate is about—let us use those powers. The Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Senedd’s refusal to consent to that legislation should have been the end of it. In any normal, democratic set-up, it would have been.”
“The Deputy Presiding Officer: Please move your amendment, Ms Hamilton. Rachael Hamilton: I move amendment S6M- 16511.2, to leave out from “, which sets” to end and insert: “; recognises the fundamental importance of the UK internal market to Scotland’s businesses, investment and jobs, given that trade with the rest of the UK accounts for over 60% of Scotland’s total exports, worth over £52 billion annually; believes that the integrity of the UK internal market is essential to economic stability, consumer confidence and business certainty across Scotland; notes that the Scottish Government has consistently failed to make effective use of the extensive powers already devolved to the Scottish Parliament by presiding over declining public service performance and failing to roll out devolved benefits on time; further notes that, rather than constructively engaging with the opportunities afforded by devolution, the Scottish National Party administration has prioritised constitutional grievance over delivering for the people of Scotland, and condemns the Scottish Government for its attacks on the powers of the Scottish Parliament through its leaking of crucial policies to the press before being announced to the Parliament, passing legislation that bypasses proper parliamentary scrutiny and failing to answer questions from parliamentarians about important topics that are in the public interest.” The Deputy Presiding Officer: I call Neil Bibby to speak to and move amendment S6M-16511.1.”
“Will the member take an intervention? The Deputy Presiding Officer: The member is in her final minute. Rachael Hamilton: The handling of this issue perfectly sums up the SNP’s approach to government. The Parliament has been given extensive powers but, instead of using them effectively, the Government has squandered them, opportunity after opportunity. Right now, we see the state of the health service and we also see the state of education in Scotland, which was once world leading. Education has suffered under the SNP’s governance, and the programme for international student assessment results show that literacy and numeracy standards are tumbling in the global rankings. Scotland deserves better than this. It is time to move on, focus on the real priorities and deliver for the people of Scotland.”
“To ask the Scottish Government, in relation to its policies on land reform and land use, what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands has had with ministerial colleagues regarding any action that can be taken to tackle land banking investment scams in the Highlands and Islands, in light of the reported impact that such scams can have on the right of a community to have more of a say in how the land that they live on is used.”
“Unable to get the support that they really need, they return to the harmful support networks that they are used to, and they return to alcohol and drugs and to committing more crime. We heard from Elena Whitham that people’s experiences, disadvantage and trauma often seem to write their future for them. It is clear from the report that people are suffering something that they have no control or influence over. When people are in the justice system, we have the opportunity to recognise the high likelihood of their developing illness and to give them preventative treatment inside. There is no excuse for somebody who is dependent on alcohol and who is in the justice system not to have that dependency addressed. 13:12”
“Failing to support people costs us money and time, and it costs us fellow members of society who could be more functioning, happier and active contributors to our communities, rather than likely to return to prison after they are released. On my recent visit to HMP Inverness, I was struck by comments from prison officers, who said that they really get to know a lot of their prisoners; they get to build trust, and they understand and see the cycle that many people are caught in. They see how the poor treatment and judgment that those whom they have supported inside often go on to receive outside, even from those who should be offering them support, make them far more likely to return to the behaviours and the people who led them to their convictions in the first place.”
“Some of the rhetoric that we heard during First Minister’s question time is unlikely to help matters. Trying to make prison as punitive as possible will not reduce prison numbers or crime, and it will not make the lives of victims, families or anyone else any better. As Elena Whitham put it, “It is not soft justice—it is smart justice.” It serves absolutely nobody to keep people stuck in a cycle of addiction and crime, when we know what is causing it. We have a lot to learn yet about addictions and about the societal impact both ways—in other words, how the negative impacts of the treatment of people with addictions are felt not only by that person but by all of us.”
“I, too, thank Elena Whitham for raising this report in the Parliament. I know how important the issue is to her and how much work she has done to tackle harmful alcohol and drug use. The Parliament will be poorer for losing her insightful and empathetic contributions. The statistics in the report speak for themselves: almost two thirds of people in prison have an alcohol disorder and the best part of a third are possibly dependent. However, many of them are willing to take help. That is the important point, because, as we have just head from Carol Mochan, that is not always the case. A huge opportunity has been presented to us to support those people. There is undoubtedly an issue with stigma that will drive not only addiction but the severity of addiction in those who are in prison or who are reintegrating into society afterwards.”
“Although regulation in relation to many of the points that the member raises is reserved to the UK Government, we are taking a lot of steps in Scotland to promote the appropriate use of AI. The Scottish AI Alliance has a number of programmes, such as living with AI, the Scottish AI playbook and the children and AI project, which are pursuing the aims that the member has mentioned.”
“Last year, I secured a members’ business debate that gave MSPs the chance to discuss the rapid evolution and potential of artificial intelligence. I firmly believe that we have a duty to assess the risks and to protect society and vulnerable individuals from harm by taking swift action to regulate the reach and use of AI. In the light of that, what is the Government doing to ensure that, while embracing the positives of AI, it is also keeping a close eye on the developing dangers of it? Richard Lochhead: The member raises very important issues. Our AI strategy is built on the premise of delivering trustworthy, ethical and inclusive AI for the people of Scotland.”
“Last week, we heard Scottish Labour dismiss universal free prescriptions as “a good headline”, and every other month, somebody suggests that privatisation might be a good thing for the NHS. I do not remember a Scotland without an SNP Government, and we have always remained steadfast in our commitment to those policies, so I understand that people are used to them and maybe even take them for granted, but we cannot do that. If people value those things, they should remember who has delivered them for the best part of two decades, remember what we have managed to do with the limited powers of devolution and imagine what we could do with the full powers of an independent country.”
“That is why it invests in housing, with £768 million for the housing programme to deliver at least 8,000 more homes. Having engaged with the cabinet secretary and her predecessors on the issue, I am delighted that young islanders aged under 22 will be able to access interisland ferry transport in the same way that the bus scheme supports mainland kids to use buses. The budget also protects free prescriptions, free university tuition, free childcare for three and four-year-olds and eligible two-year-olds and an NHS that is free at the point of use. Those are not new policies, but we should be in no doubt that funding for them is not a given. It depends on who is sitting on the Government front bench.”
“That is not because they did not get their way or because they negotiated and did not get enough; it is because they announced in the press, from the off, that they were going to abstain without bothering to talk it through first. I am not sure what message that is supposed to send to our constituents, other than that Scottish Labour is aimless, pointless and cannot be bothered. Thanks to Labour’s commitment to abstain, the SNP did not actually have to negotiate with other parties, but the Scottish Government has done some grown-up politics, sat down with others anyway and worked out a deal. That means that the budget is a compromise that recognises the priorities of those across Scotland who did not vote SNP at the last election. It is a budget by Scotland, for Scotland.”
“Scottish Labour members would not come here today to brag about how much money the Scottish Government has to invest in Scotland if they had actually tried to design a budget, because then they would have to look at how much it is costing to undo the damage that UK Labour is doing and how much the national insurance hike is going to cost everyone. Scottish Labour is not willing to help us to protect people from those terrible decisions. Their members also will not vote for a £2 billion increase in front-line NHS spending or for a record £15 billion for local government. They will not vote for concrete action on climate change and an uplift to the culture budget.”
“Does she recognise that those welcome spending commitments must be paid for and where does she think that the money should come from if she is opposed to every means by which that money was actually raised? Emma Roddick: I think that the money should come from where it does in every normal independent country, which is through the revenue and financial powers that we would have if we could take all our decisions in this place rather than rely on the whims of a Labour Government that takes with one hand while giving with the other.”
“From restoring a universal winter heating payment to looking at how we can mitigate the two-child cap, the Scottish budget has committed £210 million to directly mitigate Labour’s policies. The national insurance hike has terrified everyone, from local authorities to social care providers working in childcare, nursing homes and third sector organisations. It is likely that the cost to our public services in Scotland will be £700 million. The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations says that the voluntary sector is likely to see £75 million gone, and culture organisations, which were excited about the Scottish Government’s uplift to their budgets, now worry that much of that new money will be swallowed by a tax on jobs. Michael Marra: I appreciate the member giving way once again.”
“A budget that seeks to mitigate UK Labour’s, frankly, terrible decisions to keep the Tory two- child cap, hike employer national insurance contributions and remove money to support pensioners with their heating bills over the winter would be quite an embarrassing one for Labour MSPs to vote against when they are still trying to trick folk into believing that their beliefs are different to Keir Starmer’s and are not directed by him. Perhaps that is why they have decided to sit the budget out entirely. The budget is the biggest opportunity for individual MSPs to directly influence what the coming year will look like and which priorities will get most funding, but Labour has chosen to abstain. Scotland needs action to protect to protect our communities, public services and pensioners from Labour’s disastrous first choices in Government.”
“Unfortunately, the requests that I made for a change of direction for Scotland and a new approach to the delivery of public services were not met. I assure her that the dialogue was there but, unfortunately, they did not rise to the challenge. Emma Roddick: It might have been only a few short weeks ago that Labour announced in the press that it would not make any further demands on the Scottish budget, but that was certainly long enough ago for Labour to negotiate something, as other parties have managed to do, in a respectful and constructive way.”
“However, Labour’s early announcement that its MSPs were going to take no interest in deciding how money will be spent in Scotland was genuinely surprising to me. We are supposed to believe that Labour is ready for Government, but Labour MSPs will not even talk about governing, and I wonder how much of their resistance to taking part in this process is the result of an inability to challenge their London bosses or to reconcile their vague calls for a new direction with what their own party has decided to do and say on welfare. Michael Marra: I assure the member that I have met the economy secretary and the finance secretary on numerous occasions and that we had discussions about the direction of the budget.”
“On complex tasks such as setting the budget, I think that people want politicians from different parties to sit down and work together. I was glad to see the Greens and Liberal Democrats doing exactly that—sitting down with the SNP, working on more money for hospices such as the Highland Hospice, giving Orkney Islands Council more flexibility in its settlement and extending free school meals even further. Those are all excellent policies. Meanwhile, Labour has said that it will abstain. I expect the Tories to oppose the SNP’s budget. Their contributions this afternoon show that they want tax cuts for the wealthy while we continue to expect those who have the most to contribute the most.”
“The Auditor General appealed to the Government last November, saying: “Fundamental change in how NHS services are provided is now urgently needed.” The Institute for Fiscal Studies rightly pointed out that the SNP appears unable to “translate the money and the staff into what it needs to deliver the appointments and the treatments.” Data published today shows that, in 2024, almost 50,000 fewer planned operations took place compared with the figure for 2019. The height of the SNP’s ambition is that, by 2026, patients will not have to wait more than a year for treatment. Even that meagre ambition is a reheated promise that it has failed to deliver previously. This budget will not bring change to our NHS.”
“In the past 15 months alone, Audit Scotland has published five major reports calling on the Scottish Government to urgently prioritise and act on public service reform. The Auditor General is now banging his head against the SNP’s brick wall every month. The Auditor General, the Scottish Fiscal Commission and the Parliament’s finance committee are all of one voice, yet nothing ever changes. The First Minister: Will the member give way? Michael Marra: No thank you, sir. Nowhere is the need for a new direction clearer to see than in Scotland’s NHS. Hard-working staff are being pushed to breaking point.”
“[Made a request to intervene.] Michael Marra: No thank you, madam. Those decisions have had devastating consequences: a lost year in Scottish house building, while homelessness hit record high levels, and tens of thousands of children woke up in temporary accommodation on Christmas day. The uplift in local government funding this year will not put right the damage that has been done by more than a decade of budget cuts—most of which were authored by the First Minister—which treated councils as an afterthought and decimated their funding. Only the SNP could think that reversing some of its worst mistakes was a triumph. This budget could have been so much more. A time of increased investment should be the moment for a serious Government to seize the opportunity to reform services for the better, but the SNP has declined that opportunity.”
“The Home Office replied on 7 January, saying that no changes to existing visa schemes and immigration routes were planned. We are extremely disappointed by that reply and continue to urge the UK Government to provide support for Palestinian families in their time of extreme suffering. Community Preservation 7.”
“I recently met Highland-Palestine, which is a group that does incredible work to raise awareness and show solidarity from the Highlands with the people of Palestine. Although the news that a ceasefire agreement has been reached is extremely welcome, the humanitarian situation on the ground in Palestine remains desperate. What further discussions has the Government had with the UK Government about allowing Palestinians who have lost homes and loved ones to resettle and find sanctuary in Scotland? Tom Arthur: Scotland has a long history of welcoming people who are fleeing war and persecution. The Minister for Equalities wrote to the UK Government in November to call again for a bespoke family reunion scheme to be established, to enable people in Gaza to seek sanctuary with family members in the UK.”
“The frustration that builds, along with the confusion for those who are not familiar with the road when it swaps from dual to single carriageway, does not lend itself to a safe journey. Many drivers on the A9 are not familiar with it and might not even be familiar with UK roads, so it is important that we make it as easy as possible to drive that road safely. I return to those whose lives have been most badly affected by accidents on the A9. My heart goes out to everyone who has been impacted, and I firmly believe that the best way to honour the lives that have been lost is for the dualling work to be completed. I look forward to seeing that happen as soon as possible. 15:50”
“For as long as central belters keep inviting us to morning meetings, we will need to drive there. When I have to drive, I plan my whole week around not doing so at night, because there are places where that can feel dangerous. However sensibly and responsibly we drive, we cannot control the actions of others. On Saturday, I expect to see multiple examples of terrible driving. That is not unique to the A9 but, on the A9, we have to plan for cars that choose to overtake dangerously or for getting stuck on a winding bit of single carriageway behind someone who is doing 45 miles per hour and braking at every average speed camera. My concern for the dualling of the A9 is based not on a belief that all roads must be dualled but on my knowledge of how that particular road design impacts the way that it is used.”
“My focus now will be on continuing to attend, along with colleagues, regular meetings with Transport Scotland and the cabinet secretary to oversee progress, raising the issues that constituents are still bringing to me and ensuring that my voice is one of those that sees the forthcoming progress through. The report gives us a really good foundation as to what those expectations should be. I will be driving on the A9 on Saturday. When I am going back and forth to the Parliament, I am a fairly loyal train user and I like to keep my car in the Highlands, but, sometimes, due to timings of work commitments or to train timetables, or just because I need to carry more than I can on my own, there is no other option. That is the case for a significant number of people who drive on the A9.”
“I agree with the statements in the report on the need for honesty and the duty of candour. Two years ago, I told a previous minister that trust had to be rebuilt. A lot of trust is still to be rebuilt, but I certainly feel that mine is being steadily rebuilt, in large part due to the cabinet secretary’s approach. On the A9 and the A96, her actions have aligned with her words, and I have found her to be approachable and honest. Most importantly, as I have seen on recent journeys, there are spades in the ground on the A9. The new A9 safety web portal is a great resource, and I recognise that the £5 million programme of interim safety improvements is to be completed by March. I have already noticed a really positive difference, particularly around Dunkeld and the Slochd.”
“That work will not only undoubtedly be useful for other large projects in the future but—I hope—reduce the likelihood of future delays to this project and build resilience in the plan from here on. Not everything can be foreseen—Covid and Brexit are examples of that—but how events are reacted to and dealt with makes a difference. Delays such as the incredibly disappointing one to the Tomatin to Moy section, which came about due to procurement issues, were, as the report states, avoidable, and reacting to changes in funding with greater speed than we have seen would give certainty to all who are involved in delivering the programme. In the Highlands, there is a strong sense that the process has not been transparent. People have been let down, and the Government was not up front about the timescale slippage as quickly as it could have been.”
“Like everyone else, I want accidents to be avoided, livelihoods to be supported and lives to be protected. Two thirds of respondents to the committee’s question on what the strategy should be said that it should be to dual as quickly as possible, regardless of disruption, which demonstrates the strength of feeling and urgency that exists for the project. That will not be lost on the Scottish Government, given that I and members from different parties and regions have been passing on comments from us and those we represent, saying just as much. A dualled A9 from Perth to Inverness must now be delivered as quickly as possible. Although I like to focus on the now and the next—and I think that progress is more important than recriminations—it is absolutely right that a committee in this Parliament has scrutinised past delays.”
“You do not have to wander very far in Inverness or strike up many conversations there to find somebody who has a lot to say about the A9 dualling. I admit to being one of those people. I thank the members of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee for their work and scrutiny in putting together the report, which has given us the opportunity to discuss it in the chamber. I also thank Laura Hansler, who is a constituent of mine, for lodging the petition and for her wider work locally, with which I am, of course, familiar. Accidents on the A9 have a huge impact on the communities along it. Not only have dozens of loved ones lost their lives, but every time that there is an accident, people worry that the person who was on their way home might be stuck in traffic or be in an ambulance.”
“The warmer homes Scotland scheme operates a national customer price model to ensure equal access to grant-funded installation of energy efficiency improvements across Scotland, including in the areas that the member mentioned. Conservancy Fee (Leisure Vessels on the River Clyde) 6.”
“I am frequently contacted by people in rural and island communities who are struggling to figure out what is available to them in order to make the improvements that they want to make to their homes. Will the minister lay out what additional support is available for energy efficiency improvements to households in rural and island areas, including through the Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme? Alasdair Allan: The Home Energy Scotland grant and loan scheme offers a £1,500 uplift to the grant funding that is available for energy efficiency measures in remote rural areas and islands. Through our area-based schemes, we provide an uplift to reflect higher delivery costs in those areas. Households in extreme fuel poverty in remote rural and island areas can benefit from insulation improvements worth up to £21,100.”
“Housing is a huge part of the picture. We cannot expect people to live stable and responsible lives when they have been left out in the cold. We must put at least as much energy into supporting them—giving them what they, individually, need to be safe—as those who prey on the vulnerable put into recruiting them. 13:01”
“The fact that the report highlights rights holders raising their inability to access support services, such as addictions services, tells me that people are living that nightmare right now. Professionals in Orkney noted to the SHRC that a lack of availability of cannabis and support services has led to an increase in the use of harder drugs. Services such as Addictions Counselling Inverness—a charity for which I have immense respect—do so much for the people who need help most. ACI is run by people who totally get the reality that their service users are living. It needs all the support that we can give, and such services should be available to everyone, no matter where they live. Scotland is growing up in its approach to addiction, but something is still missing for those who need help today in the Highlands and Islands.”
“That is not because people who are homeless are naturally likely to break laws or drink too much; it is because they are vulnerable, even if they do not feel like they are. Bad actors see the opportunity to take advantage, sell drugs, assault and rape. When I was homeless, I was frequently offered drugs and money. I did not take up those offers— or, more accurately, traps—but I often spent my cash-in-hand pay from temporary work on bottles of alcohol, in an effort to fast forward to my next shift, because I did not want to deal with, or look at, my own life. I completely understood why others around me opted for different substances to skip through their own living nightmares, and why young people end up stuck in a vicious cycle of being the middleman between out-of-area dealers and their next victims.”