Maggie Chapman
Scottish Green Party · Scotland
“Our prison system is not working. Like so many other institutions, including our national health service and our schools, prisons reflect the society that they serve. That society is deeply unfair and profoundly unequal. Schools struggle to help young people to learn and thrive, as too many children arrive in the classroom hungry.”
“Overall levels of crime are about half what they were in 1991. However, we have left prisons, just like our schools and NHS, to pick up the pieces of failures elsewhere in society.”
“Far too often, we take people who have already been failed by society and place them in institutions that fail them again—institutions that are increasingly unable to guarantee basic standards of welfare, dignity and human rights.”
“For those who have committed less serious crimes and are serving shorter sentences, it makes no sense at all to spend, as the motion states, £52,000 per year on prison, given that we know that, in many cases, prison will not help them to stop reoffending.”
“With greater use of effective alternatives to custody, and sentencing that follows the evidence, we will need fewer but better resourced prisons that can genuinely support rehabilitation and reintegration. That approach is working right now in other countries.”
“It is no surprise, then, that prisons often perform worse than alternatives when it comes to reducing reoffending and preventing future harm. Short sentences for non-violent crimes, in particular, for which there are the clearest alternatives, result in some of the highest rates of prisoners leaving prison and coming into conflict with th…”
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“I begin by expressing my solidarity with and concern for the welfare of staff and students at the University of Dundee. This is bigger than Timex and NCR. These are the biggest cuts that the city has faced in more than 30 years. Trade unions have been asking—begging—for proper engagement for four months now. They want to know how they can help, but they still have not seen the books or received answers to their questions. Does the minister agree that, rather than spending £200,000 on a hatchet man to come in and cut those jobs, that money would be much better spent on bringing staff and students round the table in a participative and engaging process to provide the help that the interim principal says he needs to get through the recovery plan process?”
“Whatever our differences in policies and priorities, the Scottish Parliament and all its members have been united before in recognising, protecting and advancing human rights. This afternoon should be no different. The Tories are wrong. They are deeply, tragically and bitterly wrong, and the motion is wrong—morally, legally and practically. Do not take my word for it. Scottish Trans, part of the Equality Network, explains on its website— [Interruption.]”
“They are living as they always have: some campaigning, some writing or speaking of their experiences, most just getting on with their lives, working, studying, eating, sleeping, cooking, dancing, reading—and, yes, going to the toilet and getting changed. It is what human beings do. Everything, it seems, has changed about the world we live in, though. The cruelty of Donald Trump, with his crude violence and naked power, has somehow excited and emboldened the transmisogynists elsewhere. Because he has forced his own fellow citizens out of their jobs, their sports and their social lives, his followers think that they can do the same. Do they think that humanity, human rights, simple decency and respect do not count any more? They do still count, and we stand up to be counted.”
“They know that its language, beneath the thin veneer of legal concern, is neither legal nor scientific but is associated with deliberate experiments in scapegoating and moral panic. They know that, unchallenged, it will endanger the health, the wellbeing, the rights and the very lives of our transgender neighbours, some of whom, in kinder times, might themselves have been Conservative voters. I remember Jamie Greene’s speech at stage 3 of the Gender Recognition Reform Bill, not so very long ago. There were tears of respect and admiration at his courage, his compassion and his integrity. I wonder if we will hear something similar this afternoon. Nothing has changed about our transgender friends, relatives, comrades, colleagues and neighbours.”
“It is with immense sadness and not just a little anger that I rise to speak this afternoon on behalf of the Scottish Greens. The tone and content of the motion are deeply damaging, intentionally or otherwise. They threaten the rights and wellbeing of all women, cis as well as trans; they obscure an accurate understanding of law and policy; they present a deterministic view that belies the lived reality of many; and they jeopardise serious and co-operative work to progress equality in Scotland. We have the opportunity this afternoon to minimise that damage. There are, I believe, Conservative MSPs who must be secretly mortified at the motion that their leadership has chosen for debate.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what discussions the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands has had with ministerial colleagues regarding what support can be provided to migrant workers in the agricultural sector in Scotland. (S6O-04415)”
“We now know that that will not happen and our disappointment is still bitter, so I echo the question that my Scottish Greens colleague Gillian Mackay asked: in the absence of that bill, how is the charter of rights for people affected by substance abuse adequately to be realised? Human rights are universal, but they are closer to fulfilment for some of us than for others. We know from panel members’ testimonies the stifling effects of stigma and silence. My constituents who are struggling with substance issues—struggling through poverty, exclusion and indifference—know that stigma and silence all too well. The panel has reminded us of much, not least the point that drug harm is a matter not only of public health but, centrally and crucially, of human rights. 16:08”
“Over the years, its nurses and volunteers have provided holistic support, especially for people who might have good reason to be wary of statutory agencies. The Reconnection Project offers skills-based training workshops across Dundee city and Arbroath, including work with RSPB Scotland that explores and uses the benefits of nature in growing and strengthening recovery. I will return to the work and recommendations of the Dundee drugs commission in my closing remarks. All the recommendations of the people’s panel are vital. They are set out in each section of the report in order of how many participants approved them. The first recommendation in the section on participation, rights and lived experience, which has 96 per cent support, is: “The Human Rights Bill needs to be passed by Parliament before the Parliamentary session ends”.”
“It is saving lives directly, by reducing immediate risks and responding quickly and effectively to overdoses, and indirectly, by enabling greater engagement with sources of support. I am proud of our Scottish Green councillors in Glasgow, who campaigned for the facility for so long and with such dedication. Another such city is Dundee, where I have my regional office. The challenges that we face in Dundee are acute. They are closely entwined with experiences of poverty, inequality and multiple deprivation and with people and communities being let down by those who should have protected them. However, at the same time, we have deep resources of fierce compassion, care and solidarity. There is much quiet work going on—work that is transforming lives. The Steeple church’s parish nursing project began in 2008 with only one part- time nurse.”
“It is not a matter of not knowing enough but one of not caring enough. Legal and illegal drugs are used by people across society—the rich at least as much as the poor—but it is overwhelmingly the poor who are harmed by them, who are further impoverished and are criminalised, disabled, killed and bereaved. Poverty, inequality and destitution were not within the remit of the people’s panel, but its members returned time and again to their reality. There are, of course, places in Scotland in which those situations are especially acute. One of those is Glasgow, where the Thistle safer drug consumption facility was opened last year. It was visited more than 1,000 times during its first seven weeks of operation.”
“Panel members spoke about the value of their deliberative discussions and about the ways in which they were able to reach consensus, contrasting that in a way that should give us all pause for thought in relation to the adversarial, sometimes antagonistic, forms of debate towards which parliamentary politics impels us. The question that the panel was asked to consider—what does Scotland need to do differently to reduce drug-related harms?—is a painfully salient one, especially with the rise of new synthetic drugs, such as nitazines, which carry an increased risk of overdose and death. However, as panel members pointed out, the question had really been answered before their deliberations began. The problem is not with finding solutions but with finding the political will to implement those solutions and prioritising them.”
“I express my thanks to the committees, clerks and, especially, the members of the people’s panel and all those who facilitated and supported their work. The panel’s report and the evidence that was given to the recent joint committee meeting were thoughtful, sensitive and wise. Grass-roots democracy is central to the Scottish Greens’ vision of a fairer, safer and more sustainable future. Democracy is not just about voting every four or five years for a representative and then letting them get on with it; it is about trusting people with decisions about their lives, their communities and their environments.”
“The motion that we are debating is about welfare cuts, but it could have been about immigration policy, Gaza or the plan to ravage UK aid commitments to fatten the defence budget, shamelessly turning ploughshares into swords. In each of those situations, the same pattern appears. There is the same betrayal of those with least and the same refusal to acknowledge our shared vulnerability. For it is only together that we are resilient and only together that we are human. We can and should do so much more to express that humanity for everyone. 13:16”
“I am grateful that, in some limited ways, we are able to do some of that work in Scotland. Secondly, we must not lose sight of the horizon of our progress towards greater agency. For most of us who are speaking in the chamber this afternoon, that horizon means Scottish independence—the freedom to shape a future that more closely embodies our values. Thirdly, we must urgently articulate those values. Vulnerability is not a defect to be cured by bullying and deprivation; it is a universal human condition that is masked only by a privileged few for a few years of pretended autonomy. We depend upon one another. We depend upon the earth. We depend upon care, compassion and creativity, upon sustainability and solidarity. Those are our sources of growth and of roots, as well as fruit and flowers. We can and should be proud to speak of them.”
“Thirdly, and most perniciously, the ideology of austerity makes the alternatives hard to express and even to imagine. It is an ideology of punishment, not for what people do but for what they are—for their bodies and homes and for their failure to get themselves born into greater comfort. The only release is through what is called striving—not for a better future but for a fuller bank account, and not for the common good but for the private and to build walls that keep the world outside. I believe that our shared responses must confront all three of those impacts. First, we must continue to extend and deepen our work of creative mitigation, finding ways, even within our current confines, that can protect those who are most in need and prevent the greatest harms.”
“Marie McNair is right to identify the policies as those of austerity, whether or not the Labour Government uses that word. Like the policies of the previous UK Government, those policies have, or threaten to have, a threefold impact on Scotland. First, they impose direct harm on individuals, families and communities: the harms of poverty, anxiety, exclusion and stigma. Many of our constituents know those harms intimately, as they are their constant companions through days of desperation and nights of sleepless fear. Secondly, by the nature of the so-called devolution settlement, those policies make the creation of alternatives much more difficult. Financial and constitutional barriers corral us into doing what Westminster does, however much our instincts rebel.”
“I thank Marie McNair for securing this important debate. Her motion reflects an alarm that I believe is shared by a great many members of the Parliament, although not all might be able to express it. The continuation of Tory policies by a Labour Government is, of course, not new, but the speed and scale with which Sir Keir Starmer has sloughed off his former principles is both breathtaking and terrifying. Perhaps the idea, in line with the mantra of the brotocracy, is to move fast and break things, but if the things that are broken are the welfare state, the social security system and the social contract of which the motion speaks, is that really a price worth paying for the illusion of any growth, either benign or malignant?”
“Fair work principles are central to good workplace conditions and culture, but with trade unions continuing to be excluded from meaningful engagement and participation in development of the recovery plan, the university executive group is not upholding those principles. Is it the minister’s expectation that staff will be involved in development of the recovery plan and not just presented with it after it has been drawn up by others? Graeme Dey: As I said earlier, I expect that a draft recovery plan will come forward. At that point, I expect staff representatives to be afforded the opportunity to make what will, I hope, be credible alternative proposals, which should be given appropriate consideration. Additional Support Needs (Motherwell and Wishaw) 4.”
“I move amendment S6M-16572.1, to insert at end: “; notes that the operation of ScotRail has cost £600 million more compared to when it was in private hands, and that rail fares also increased by 8.7% in the 2024-25 financial year; calls on the Scottish Government to deliver value for money for taxpayers, which is a significant concern for rail users; urges the Scottish Government to increase access to ScotRail by opening new railway stations, in areas such as Winchburgh, Cove and Newtonhill, and calls on the Scottish Government to consider how a nationalised rail service can provide for all people in Scotland.” 16:16”
“There are no projects, no priorities, no timescales and certainly no costings. The Scottish Government receives more money per capita for public services than the rest of the UK. It is high time that the SNP showed more common sense and used that money to give the public the vital services that they deserve at a cost that they can afford.”
“Will the member take an intervention? Sue Webber: No—sorry. We are short of time. Unsurprisingly, only one fifth of passengers think that ScotRail delivers good value for money. Polling found that 46.4 per cent of Scots thought that rail fares were too expensive. The SNP’s nationalisation of ScotRail has been a failure by any and every measure. Nicola Sturgeon promised passengers that Scotland’s rail service would improve with Government ownership, yet things are manifestly worse than they were when ScotRail was under Abellio. Taxpayer subsidies, ticket prices and complaints have all soared while the number of services and the number of passengers using them have plummeted. The just transition paper looks like another ploy to make the SNP look as if it is doing something while doing little—except squandering more public money.”
“That is why they march or climb or paint or speak upon whatever platform they can find until they are silenced. That is why we are here this afternoon. We are here for accountability, for integrity, for justice and for peace. We are here for Palestine. 15:21”
“The death of a child is a grief that we can know about and understand; it is one that we have probably shared or seen. We have held our arms out to the broken and wept for their loss, but tens upon tens of thousands? Can our minds and hearts stretch that far? Is it the very scale of the agony that makes us turn away? Perhaps it is. Perhaps we could just follow one family—or what used to be a family, now just a woman and her husband—walking back through Gaza after the ceasefire. They are not going home. They have no home left to go to. They are not looking for its remains in the rest of the rubble. They are only looking, in the bleak annihilation, for the bodies of their two children. That is why people stand in burning rage or silent vigil in city squares across the world.”
“Twenty years ago, Desmond Tutu and Jimmy Carter were both talking about Palestine and Israel. They were not afraid to speak of what they saw, to recognise its reality and to call it by its name. In 2006, Carter said of the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem: “There, apartheid exists in its more despicable forms, that Palestinians are deprived of basic human rights.” Tutu recognised that it is not enough to have the right sentiments. We need to take the right actions, too, and that means boycott, divestment and sanctions. In 2014, he said: “Those who continue to do business with Israel, who contribute to a sense of ‘normalcy’ in Israeli society, are doing the people of Israel and Palestine a disservice. They are contributing to the perpetuation of a profoundly unjust status quo.” Now, that status quo is even more unjust.”
“However, knowing what we know and seeing what we see—and we do see it, unless we choose to turn away—why do the words for what is done, apartheid and genocide, stick so timidly in our throats? When international law is broken so brutally and blatantly, and when our constituents protest, without violence, at the pain of Palestine and for peace, food and lives, why do our police, prosecutors and courts single them out for such exemplary punishment? We cannot blame the public this time. Labour and the Democrats both know that. Thousands of voters chose independent MPs because this mattered more to them than anything else. Donald Trump was elected because Democratic voters stayed at home, and the issue that kept them there more than any other was Gaza.”
“Politics is about the particular, and it is right that, in this motion, we are calling for something specific, tangible and measurable, and entirely achievable. There is no excuse for not answering that call. However, political integrity is also about the broader picture, the deeper truths and the longer pages of history. The anguish of Palestine did not begin in October 2023. It was not then that people were first ripped from their land or first had their homes bulldozed, their trees uprooted, their pathways blocked, their writers disappeared and their children killed with swift or slow violence. By that measure of history, we, in the global north, have failed. Yes, some of us have failed worse than others; we can weigh the complicity of Washington, Westminster, Brussels and Berlin.”
“To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how its work on international development and support for humanitarian aid is being used to ensure the safety and security of those who are fleeing war and persecution. (S6O-04346)”
“It needs resources—of funding, of course, but also of political and public will. As we know, poverty and adverse childhood experiences make people vulnerable to involvement in crime—as victims, as survivors and as those convicted—yet we still see traumatised children being described in utterly dehumanising language by irresponsible media and political figures. I hope that this debate will be free from that kind of contempt. I hope that we can find consensus on positive ways of making Scotland a safer, more just and more compassionate place, and I look forward to hearing, and talking later, about some of the transformational pieces of work that are already happening, that need support and which must continue. 15:44”
“It also means recognising and rewarding the difficult and vital work done by all those in the justice sector, including the third sector, with its invaluable expertise; the forensic specialists at the University of Dundee’s Leverhulme research centre, which, shockingly, senior management plans to close; our increasingly overstretched prison officers; and the staff, whose pressures have been described so vividly in the Public and Commercial Services Union’s recent “Rough Justice” report. I do not underestimate how difficult any of that will be. However, that is why the independent review is needed: to find out exactly what is happening, why so many people are still being sent to prison, what needs to change and how that can happen. It needs more than that, though.”
“That means having a radical ethics of care and compassion. It means recognising that genuine security is about wellbeing rather than control. It means giving restorative and community justice a chance to work and giving survivors well-founded confidence that, when properly implemented, non- custodial sentences will keep them safe. It means giving individual attention to people who need support, whether it be in primary prevention, in the community or in prison. It means managing cases swiftly and efficiently, making the necessary connections between civil and criminal cases. It means legal aid that works for all those who need it, including in relation to child contact.”
“Between a half and three quarters of people charged in court have mental illness, compared to around one fifth of the general population. The second reality is that, for most people, prison makes their mental health worse. Prison is not a safe place, and it does not make the world outside prison safer either—not for survivors of violence, not for wider communities and not for people who have been incarcerated, who are at serious risk of avoidable death in their very first week after release. The motion highlights that Scotland is part of the problem, but it also reflects the fact that most of us want to be part of the answer, too. Against a backdrop of brutality from Washington—and, tragically, from Westminster—Scotland wants to be different, and we in the Scottish Greens are ready to work to make that difference happen.”
“I welcome the information that the cabinet secretary has shared with us about the commission that will be chaired by Martyn Evans. I look forward to receiving regular updates on the work of that body. Research published in the medical journal The Lancet this month puts this debate into context. More than 11.5 million people across the world are incarcerated, and that number is rising; indeed, it increased by around a third of a million from 2023 to 2024 alone. At least one in seven of those people has a severe mental illness, and very many are in poor physical health. Behind those figures lie two stark realities. The first is that whether or not someone is incarcerated depends not so much on the harm that they have caused but on who they are, what their childhood was like, where they live and what illnesses they live with.”
“What is true for children is true for adults, too, especially those who are alone or who are isolated, excluded or marginalised. We are in LGBT history month and in race equality week, which this year has the theme of every action counts. In libraries, every action really does count. Library staff do fantastic work in curating collections around the themes that people really need. They give practical information, which is sometimes lifesaving, but they tell a true story, too. They say, “You are not alone, you are accepted and cherished and you are part of a community, here and beyond”. When we lose our libraries, we lose paths that we might have trodden, adventures that we might have taken and hope that we might have shared. My constituents stand for that hope—they stand in resistance, and I stand with them. 18:02”
“Most devastating of all is the complete failure to understand what libraries are, how they work, and why they are essential. The law’s vague promise of adequate provision is, ironically, inadequate. Even if we forget everything else that libraries do, and just talk about books, we can see how crucial that work is. In our child poverty crisis, parents and carers need that physical space where children can encounter and explore books, and where they can touch and play with them, hear and read them, and take them home. Click and collect and doorstep delivery cannot do that. Books are not DIY widgets or pints of milk; reading is not a transaction but an adventure, and we do not know where we are going until we get there.”
“The second is a failure of consultation—of genuine participation. People are making their views known, clearly and eloquently, but decision makers do not listen. It is not really consultation when people are simply told what is going to happen, or when it takes place only after closures have already happened. The third feature is a failure of evidence-based decision making. Cases for closures are unclear at best, with paltry savings or inflated running costs identified, and sometimes no explanation is given at all. Libraries that are selected for closure are often both the most efficient in terms of the cost per hour that they are open, and the best used, with rising numbers of local people active in them, especially since Covid.”
“Perhaps it is unsurprising that they are under attack, but it is utterly unacceptable. I stand with all those, especially those across the north-east, who are fighting to reverse closures and resist those that are threatened—those acts of societal and cultural vandalism. In Aberdeen, some of the most deprived communities are still bleeding from the loss of six local libraries two years ago. In Dundee, proposals are live for three to be merged into a hub—again, affecting those least privileged, with the fewest alternatives. Seven are threatened in Moray, and an incredible 13 in rural Aberdeenshire. There are common features to all of those attacks. The first is a failure of transparency. My constituents do not know what is being considered until it is too late, future plans are being hidden and legal advice is kept secret.”
“I thank my friend Mark Ruskell for securing this important debate, and I thank the groups and organisations who have sent us informative briefings. Most of all, however, I thank my constituents who have been in touch to share their experiences and insights, because this debate is about human stories: it is about how we live in community and how we share our lives in neighbourhoods. That is fundamental for us as Greens, because libraries are sites of radical redistribution, experiments in shared sustainability, and models of resistance against capitalist appropriation and waste. Libraries are where community happens, where creativity flourishes, and where literature, art and philosophy resist the oppression of the right’s culture wars. Every day in our libraries, quiet revolutions happen—revolutions that will not be homogenised.”
“We say: ‘Not in our name!’” For the victims of the Holocaust, the world closed its eyes, its hearts and its doors until it was too late. Today we remember and honour them with respect, with love and with bitter regret. Let us not close our eyes, our hearts and our doors in the face of the genocide and oppression that is happening today in Palestine. Let us not make the same mistakes again. 17:54”
“Hitler’s war against the Jews aimed to eradicate our history and the Jewish people. Nazism Is hatred of the other—it is racism.” She continues: “Judaism, the religion and its traditions, does not stand for racism. Conflating Zionism and Judaism is an unforgivable crime against the Jewish people, a crime against the Palestinians, and a crime to humanity. I was saved from Hitler by world solidarity. I was among the thousands of Jewish children in France who were saved by the solidarity of the Jewish resistance, communities of Christians in Southern France, and the peoples of the world united against Nazism. To be against Israel’s policies is not anti-Jewish. It is not anti-Semitic. We claim the Palestinians as our sisters and brothers. We are all humanity.”
“When the richest man in the world salutes the most powerful man in the world with a gesture that specifically recalls that older story, do we shrug and move on? When the most powerful man uses the language of cleaning when talking about the dispossession of already dispossessed people who are already bereft of their children, do we pretend not to have heard? Hannah Arendt wrote in the context of the Holocaust about the banality of evil. Evil can be banal, can be ridiculous, can come with buffoonery and bluster, without subtlety or nuance, but when it announces itself, we would do well to listen. We can also listen to the voices of those with experience and for whom that experience illuminates the realities of today. Suzanne Berliner Weiss writes: “I am a survivor of the Jewish Holocaust, and understand the system of hate first hand.”
“There were some bystanders who knew exactly what was going on. There were others who knew nothing. In between, across Europe and beyond, was a wide spectrum of simultaneous knowledge and ignorance, of eyes that were closed, and faces that were turned away. There was reassurance that rhetoric was just that, and only that, that genocidal intent was the expression of legitimate concern, that there was no need to open doors or hearts, and that reality was still represented by the diplomacy of gentlemen, while the bodies of children lay uncovered. We have learned the story of this deep, deep horror, but have we learned to recognise its narrative when it comes again, with different clothes, different names and different labels?”
“I am grateful to have the opportunity to speak this evening, so I thank Jackson Carlaw for securing the debate. A memorial is an act of remembrance, and today we remember in two senses. We remember who it was who bore this unutterable pain—each individual and precious human being—those who are now lost to the world and those who remain with us. We remember them with love, with sorrow and with anger, reiterating the humanity that their oppressors tried so hard to deny. We also remember how it happened. For us as politicians and parliamentarians, that is perhaps the harder memory. For the Holocaust was not an act of insurgency or a violation of domestic law and order. It came about not in spite of political processes, such as elections, legislation and policy implementation, but through and because of them.”
“To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how its draft budget 2025-26 will help enable individuals and communities to access justice. (S6O-04264)”
“The work that is done in our prisons is imperative not just in keeping people safe, but in their rehabilitation and, ultimately, the wellbeing of our society. Suicide prevention technology should not and cannot replace human contact. It will have to be tested in a prison environment, but it does have the potential to give more dignity and protection to people who are at risk. If staff have to check on someone every 15 or 30 minutes, we can imagine how that disrupts the person’s sleep. If we can use technology that is, perhaps, radar-based, so that we can monitor people’s respirations and movements, as well as the blind spots in the cell, that will be a more dignified approach and in keeping with trauma-informed care.”
“Can she also provide reassurances that suicide prevention technology will not replace the human, in-person support and contact that are important in sustaining and improving mental health for those who are in prison? Angela Constance: Prevention is, indeed, paramount. First, it is paramount that we prevent people from having contact with the justice system in the first place and, secondly, that we prevent unnecessary incarcerations. Prevention work must be pursued to ensure that, once they are in our care, our people are kept safe at all times. I have heard Ms Chapman make the point, which I would endorse time and again, that prison is not and cannot be the end of the line. People cannot go to prison and be out of sight, out of mind.”
“I, too, express my deepest condolences to the families and friends of Katie Allan and William Lindsay, whose deaths were preventable. The cabinet secretary spoke of much-needed operational, procedural and cultural change across multiple agencies and institutions, as well as specific actions and the monitoring of implementation. Prevention must be paramount, both the prevention of behaviour that leads to imprisonment in the first place and ensuring that those who must be incarcerated have the support that they need when they need it. Can the cabinet secretary say more about the mental health services that are available and whether the revision of the talk to me programme will be sufficient?”
“To ask the Scottish Government how its draft budget 2025-26 will contribute towards promoting anti-racism campaigns and initiatives. (S6O-04243)”
“I am thinking, in particular, of women in rural areas of Aberdeenshire and Angus, where there are fewer employment opportunities as well as fewer transport options. As Close the Gap has highlighted, the situation is also especially unjust for many “Disabled women, racially minoritised women, divorced women, self-employed women and women who have been lone parents”. That is why I have stood in solidarity with the WASPI women outside the Parliament, and it is why I speak for them here once again, calling for the justice that is long overdue. As George Adam said in last week’s debate, “Those women did everything that we asked of them”.— [Official Report, 15 January 2025; c 111.] Can the Government at Westminster do the one thing that we ask of it? 15:16”
“Close the Gap has cited research that shows that postponement of the pension age causes “a detrimental impact on women from lower socioeconomic groups, including widening health disparities, poorer physical health and an increase in self-reported depression.” That is why we should be especially concerned about the WASPI women in areas of multiple deprivation across our country. Women in our communities have borne heavy burdens and continue to do so. They have supported families and neighbours through the pandemic, the housing emergency and extreme inflation. It is the height of injustice to add this further weight to what they already carry. Differing environments affect the chances that WASPI women have to make up some of their loss.”
“As Close the Gap explained in its excellent briefing, the pension systems that we have were designed to reflect men’s traditional working patterns and to meet their needs. That fact and the pension gap that it creates are still the reality for young as well as older women. Women still have fewer opportunities for earning, for advancing their careers and for paying into their pensions. At the same time, with longer periods of retirement and more likelihood of needing care, their smaller pensions need to stretch further, which leads to longer and deeper times of poverty. Linda Carmichael has spoken of the financial and emotional difficulties that are experienced by many, including those who go into debt and those who lose their homes.”