Laura Moodie
Scottish Green Party · Scotland
“To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the operation of the accessible vehicles and equipment scheme, including whether any of the changes to the United Kingdom Motability scheme, such as reduced mileage allowances, increased excess mileage charges and changes to lease conditions, will apply to people using th…”
“Gillian Martin: I will be honest: I will not support a moratorium on that, because we feel that planning regulations are already in place for any development, whether it is a data centre or another development, and that a lot of work is ongoing in relation to the particular conditions around data centres.”
“Six of the current proposed 24 data centres are in my region. The amount of detail for each one and the planning stage that they are at vary hugely.”
“Our equally safe delivery plan sets out a number of actions that we are taking in education, including supporting the equally safe at school programme, which is a whole-school approach developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance; publishing schools guidance with the gender-based violence in schools working group; and funding the…”
“What will the cabinet secretary do to ensure that every school is rolling out the guidance to reflect the issues that young people, particularly young girls, are sharing about their experiences in school?”
“The minister’s statement highlights the fact that there has been a cash underspend of £358 million, which is substantial compared with previous years. That includes underspends of £83 million on education, £98 million on housing, £35 million on climate and £59 million on transport.”
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Every one of 31 lines we hold for Laura Moodie, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account.
“To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the operation of the accessible vehicles and equipment scheme, including whether any of the changes to the United Kingdom Motability scheme, such as reduced mileage allowances, increased excess mileage charges and changes to lease conditions, will apply to people using the scheme in Scotland and, if so, when. (S7O-00133)”
“Gillian Martin: I will be honest: I will not support a moratorium on that, because we feel that planning regulations are already in place for any development, whether it is a data centre or another development, and that a lot of work is ongoing in relation to the particular conditions around data centres. The member has pointed to the fact that there is an awful lot of speculation in that area. Of course, I cannot comment on particular planning applications but, as I have said in the answers that I have given, we are working with local authorities to see whether any additional regulation is required in that area. That work will continue. The volume of questions that I have had, particularly on data centres, means that we might have to expedite that work.”
“Six of the current proposed 24 data centres are in my region. The amount of detail for each one and the planning stage that they are at vary hugely. The very favourable policy for addressing that, the national planning framework, came out four years ago but it feels as if no work has taken place in the interim on nailing down that detail. We have had a series of very muddled answers, which does not help my constituents from the Lammermuirs, some of whom are in the gallery, to feel that they are on a level playing field with landowners and developers. Will the cabinet secretary support the Scottish Greens’ call for a moratorium so that that detail can be ironed out and we can start afresh with clarity on what a green data centre actually is?”
“We are not talking about a one-year cliff edge; money will be reallocated when we come to the budget in 2027. When it comes to climate and energy in particular, the underspend that is evident in those budget lines has been caused by delays and reduced delivery across resource—£14 million— and capital programmes. That is primarily due to delays and underspends in projects relating to Grangemouth, the just transition fund, the offshore wind supply chain project that we put in place and project willow.”
“The minister’s statement highlights the fact that there has been a cash underspend of £358 million, which is substantial compared with previous years. That includes underspends of £83 million on education, £98 million on housing, £35 million on climate and £59 million on transport. In the context of the climate, nature and housing emergencies, and the high barriers and costs that Scots currently face in relation to childcare and bus fares, which have been highlighted in the Parliament, why is the Scottish Government not spending to match the budget allocation in those critical areas? Hannah Mary Goodlad: It is important to understand that what we are discussing today is a half-year outturn statement. That does not mean that funding allocations stop in March.”
“The Presiding Officer: Question 3 has not been lodged. A9 Dualling Programme 4.”
“What will the cabinet secretary do to ensure that every school is rolling out the guidance to reflect the issues that young people, particularly young girls, are sharing about their experiences in school? Màiri McAllan: I thank Ms Moodie for raising the issue of relationships, sexual health and parenthood education, which is an integral part of the health and wellbeing area of the school curriculum in Scotland. The RSHP education focuses on equipping children and young people with the knowledge, skills and values to make informed and positive choices about forming relationships. One vitally important part of that is consent, which Ms Moodie is absolutely right to mention. As education secretary, I will continue to work with school leaders and local authorities across Scotland to ensure that it is being fulsomely taught.”
“Our equally safe delivery plan sets out a number of actions that we are taking in education, including supporting the equally safe at school programme, which is a whole-school approach developed by Rape Crisis Scotland and Zero Tolerance; publishing schools guidance with the gender-based violence in schools working group; and funding the digital discourse initiative. Beyond equally safe, I believe that actions such as the Government’s confirmation that we will introduce legislation to end the use of mobile phones in the learning environment can make a difference by separating young people from what is often misogynistic content online. Laura Moodie: In February, the Scottish Government introduced new relationships, sexual health and parenthood guidance, which for the first time includes the importance of teaching consent.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking, through the education system, to support the local delivery of measures to prevent and eradicate violence against women and girls, in light of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities’ recent white paper, “Strengthening Local Delivery to Prevent and Eradicate Violence Against Women and Girls”. (S7O-00089) The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Culture and Gaelic (Màiri McAllan): Eradicating violence against women and girls fundamentally requires men to change their behaviour. However, our education system can play an important part in that.”
“We need services that work now, integrated timetables, new routes and fares that people can afford. Although I welcome the motion’s ambition and the progress that has already been made, I urge the Government to treat better buses legislation as a moment for real change that puts public need, climate action and regional fairness at the heart of our transport system. 16:44”
“A few hours ago, I received an email from Alex, a constituent who lives on a bus route and would like to use buses that connect to train services. He pointed out that consumer protection is lacking when buses fail and that there is no safeguard when someone cannot get the next service because their bus has not turned up. That goes back to the point that Ariane Burgess made about confidence in services and the point that Bob Doris made about the challenges of linking up different service providers. If the new powers that come are weighed down by bureaucracy, or if local authorities and regional transport partnerships are given responsibility without funding, progress will be slow and rural communities will lose out. In South Scotland, we do not have time for reforms that take years to materialise.”
“That matters not only for affordability but for our climate responsibilities. Transport remains Scotland’s largest source of greenhouse gas emissions. In rural and semi-rural areas, people are often forced into car dependency by the absence of affordable, reliable public transport. I thank Dawn Black for raising the issues of those who do not have a choice. If we are serious about cutting emissions while protecting household budgets, strong bus networks are not optional but essential. That is why better buses legislation is so important. We must reshape how bus services are planned and delivered, particularly in areas where the market has consistently failed. The legislation must be practical, accessible and properly resourced.”
“In South Scotland, the reality of bus fares is stark: a single ticket from Selkirk to Galashiels can cost £4.90 for a 15-minute journey; a return from Stranraer to Dumfries is £14; and even excellent community-run services, such as the 3C service from Strathaven to Glasgow, still cost £6.50 for a single journey. For families, low-paid workers and people in insecure employment, those costs quickly become prohibitive—and that is assuming that there is a service at all. Although a £2 fare cap will undoubtedly make a difference—as Ariane Burgess pointed out, it has increased passenger numbers by 25 per cent in only a few months—it should prompt us to ask why such intervention is needed in the first place. Fare caps are not a substitute for a system that works by design rather than by rescue.”
“It has also freed up household income to be spent in local economies instead of on bus fares, which is real progress that deserves recognition. I thank Paul Sweeney and Patrick Harvie for raising how crucial it is to maintain free bus travel for asylum seekers. The scale of Government intervention that is now required in our bus services—through free travel schemes, emergency support for operators and fare cap proposals—tells us something really important about the state of our bus system. It tells us that the current deregulated, profit-led model is struggling to deliver affordable, reliable services, particularly outside our biggest cities and urban centres.”
“I refer members to my entry in the register of members’ interests, which shows that I am the outgoing volunteer chair of Dumfries and Galloway bus users group. Along with my Scottish Green colleagues, I broadly welcome the intent of today’s motion. Affordable bus travel is not a nice-to-have; it is fundamental to how people access work, education, healthcare and community life, particularly in large rural and post-industrial areas such as the one that I represent. The expansion of free bus travel for under-22s has been genuinely transformative, and that policy—as we have heard, it was secured by the Scottish Greens through budget negotiations— has opened up opportunities across communities such as East Kilbride, Galashiels and Dumfries for young people to reach college, apprenticeships and work.”
“However, that will happen only if we are honest about the choices that are in front of us, because reform cannot be a cover for doing more with less and it cannot be austerity repackaged in the language of empowerment. The question for the Parliament is whether we will step up in the way that our communities have and back empowerment with investment, whether we will replace short-termism with certainty, and whether public service reform will be about fairness, not withdrawal. If we get that right, we will not just preserve services but build a Scotland that is fairer, greener and more resilient for the long term.”
“It is simply aligning funding with the reality of how change happens. Prevention does not deliver instant savings; it requires upfront investment and patience. Investing in youth work now will reduce pressures on the public purse in the future, whether that is through welfare, health or justice costs. As mentioned earlier, the Christie commission told us that years ago, and it remains true. Public service reform should be an opportunity, not a code for cuts, as we heard from Malcolm Offord. It should be an opportunity to build a wellbeing economy that is rooted in place, reduce inequality rather than entrench it and genuinely share power with communities.”
“Community wealth building must therefore be about shifting power and resources, not just expecting communities and the third sector to fill gaps as the state steps back. There is a real danger that we continue to talk about prevention while budgets remain locked in a crisis response. If we are serious about prevention—I am grateful to Andrew Baxter for raising the issue in his first intervention—we must move beyond short-term thinking. Community organisations repeatedly tell us that one-year funding cycles undermine long- term planning, workforce stability and the ability to build on what is already working. We know what helps: multiyear funding, flexibility and full cost recovery. Early evidence from fair funding approaches shows improved staff retention, stronger planning and greater resilience. None of that is terribly radical.”
“We need to match local decision making with long-term, reliable funding, not short-term competitive pots. Some communities have the capacity, confidence and professional expertise to navigate complex funding systems, but others do not. The evidence from the voluntary sector is that short-term, competitive and bureaucratic funding arrangements create instability, funding delays and growing stress for staff and volunteers, especially in the places that face the greatest disadvantage. The result of all that is a quiet inequality. Wealthier, better resourced communities manage to retain services. Communities with fewer resources, which often face deeper poverty and poorer health outcomes, lose out. That is not community empowerment; it is structural unfairness.”
“That is not a sustainable model for public services, and it is happening in a wider context in which Scotland has about 62,000 fewer public sector workers than it did in 2008, all while demand continues to rise, particularly due to our ageing population. Communities are being asked to carry more responsibility at the same time as the system around them is under strain. We have to be clear about what that means for workers, too. Reform cannot simply mean a smaller workforce, more automation and more pressure on those who remain. If there is to be a just transition, workers must be partners in change, not the price of it. That pressure does not fall evenly. As David Green said, decentralisation is fantastic, but localism without resources is not empowerment. It is responsibility without support, again.”
“Too often, empowerment risks becoming offloading, and that risk sits at the heart of the strategy, because although it talks about prevention and empowerment, it is also driven by a need to deliver savings, which raises a real concern that we end up cutting capacity today while promising transformation tomorrow. In many rural communities, residents are now taking on roles that were once delivered by the state, such as running transport schemes, building homes and keeping services alive. They do that because they care deeply about their communities, but they do it unpaid, often without adequate support and sometimes at real risk to their own health and wellbeing.”
“In the south of Scotland, we see community wealth building in action through development trusts taking on local assets, creating jobs and keeping wealth circulating locally. We see regional partnerships, such as the Galloway and Southern Ayrshire Biosphere, bringing together communities, businesses and public bodies to deliver economic development that works with nature and strengthens local resilience. That is prevention in practice, and that is empowerment done well. Michael Marra, in his intervention earlier, talked about empowerment. Communities should have power, but they also need support; otherwise, we are just passing the buck. We also have to be honest about the pressures that that brings.”
“As I close the debate for the Scottish Greens, I return to the question of what public service reform means for communities on the ground, because communities across Scotland are already doing remarkable work. The voluntary and community sector delivers services that are essential to daily life, from social care and community transport to services that tackle isolation and support people through crisis. About 40 per cent of the sector’s income comes from public funding, including more than £1 billion from our local authorities and a further £1 billion from the Scottish Government. That tells us something important: not that the sector is overreliant on public funding, as Murdo Fraser’s comments indicated, but that its work is not peripheral but central to how public services in Scotland function.”
“To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with Stagecoach regarding the reported ongoing punctuality and cancellation issues affecting the X74 service between Dumfries and Glasgow, including what steps are being taken to ensure value for money when services fall below acceptable reliability standards. (S7O-00017)”
“As my Scottish Greens colleagues have said, we cannot build a sustainable NHS without valuing the people who provide care, wherever it happens. Social care is a vital, skilled and deeply human form of work, yet too often it comes with low pay, insecure conditions and burnout. To invest in our NHS, we must invest wisely: in prevention, in community care and in people. To protect our NHS is to defend its founding principle of care that is free at the point of need. To renew our NHS is to recognise that health does not begin in hospitals but in strong communities, secure lives and a society in which people care for one another. That is the Scottish Greens’ vision of healthcare, and it is the future that our NHS deserves.”
“If we are serious about renewing the NHS and addressing depopulation in our rural communities, our maternity services must be safe, sustainable and accessible, and they must offer women the genuine choice that those who live in urban areas take for granted. Pressures on our NHS are growing, so doing more of the same will not be enough. If we want a sustainable health service, we need to invest more in prevention and in community-based care. For rural areas, that really matters. Strong local services can reduce the need for long journeys and help people to get care closer to home, but that will require long-term investment, establishing a supported and valued workforce and having a willingness to look at bespoke solutions for communities that do not fit central models.”
“They are not a small inconvenience; they are a real barrier to care. I also welcome the cross-party contributions that have been made on maternity services, especially those in Caithness and Galloway. As a mum of four, that is the aspect in which I have had the most interaction with the NHS. I had two home births in Glasgow, but that opportunity was not available to me in Galloway when I was pregnant with my fourth child. Despite having excellent individual staff members, the community midwifery service was chronically understaffed overall and could not guarantee that two community midwives would be available to support me at home, so I faced a long journey, in winter, to deliver my youngest in hospital.”
“One of them then took her in her car to the local GP’s surgery, which, thankfully, was open, and from there she was taken to hospital. She had broken an arm and her pelvis. Although I understand that she is recovering, the incident reminded me of Nye Bevan’s statement that “no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of a lack of means.” In my region, such a lack of means is often shaped by their ability to access transport. I thank Lloyd Melville for mentioning that issue in his comments. I regularly hear from people who have travelled long hours on public transport to attend specialist appointments in Edinburgh or Glasgow. For someone who is unwell, such journeys are exhausting, stressful and at times physically painful.”
“Therefore, I begin by saying thank you to staff in our NHS. Even under enormous pressure, they continue to deliver extraordinary care with professionalism, kindness and compassion. That experience is shared by many families, which is why people feel such extraordinary loyalty to their local NHS services. However, if we are serious about investing in, protecting and renewing the NHS, we must also be honest about where it is not working well enough, particularly for rural communities. Last week, I was concerned to learn about an elderly woman in my region who had fallen while out and about in a local village. Two passers-by had separately phoned 999 and each had been told that an ambulance would not be dispatched until the woman had been assessed.”
“Thank you, Deputy Presiding Officer. In my first speech, I would like to congratulate you on your recent appointment and also congratulate the cabinet secretary. I thank the voters of South Scotland for placing their trust in me; I can only hope that I deserve it. I am glad to close the debate on behalf of the Scottish Greens. I speak as someone who believes in the values that our NHS was built on: fairness, dignity and care that is based on need. I think that everyone in the chamber will have been moved by Morven-May MacCallum’s words about what happens when those values are not honoured—I was really sorry to hear what happened to her. I also speak as a parent, as the sister of an NHS midwife and as someone who has listened carefully to people across South Scotland about their experiences of healthcare.”
“My affirmation is to the sovereign people of Scotland, whose interests I will always serve before those of the monarchy. I, Laura Moodie, do solemnly, sincerely and truly declare and affirm, that I will be faithful and bear true allegiance to His Majesty King Charles, his heirs and successors, according to law.”