Meeting of the Parliament

Time for Reflection Rev Barry Hughes, Minister, St Mark’s Parish Church followed by Topical Questions Russell Findlay S6T-01529 1. To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to reports that Police Scotland has issued more than 100,000 recorded police warnings over the past five years. Jackie Baillie S6T-01524 2. To ask the Scottish Government what steps it is taking to keep people safe, in light of reported concerns about the spread of new variants of COVID-19. Alex Cole-Hamilton S6T-01525 3. To ask the Scottish Government whether it has considered undertaking a comprehensive review into the reach of any Chinese state surveillance in Scotland. followed by Ministerial Statement: Drug Deaths followed by Scottish Government Debate: Celebrating the Resilience of Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector Mairi Gougeon S6M-10406 That the Parliament recognises the value of Scotland’s food and drink sector and the significant contribution that it makes to the national economy, as well as to local economies and communities; welcomes the plan, published by Scotland Food and Drink, to create stability, sustainability, resilience and innovation in order to support the sector to succeed and prosper over the next 10 years; further welcomes the Scottish Government’s commitment to invest £5 million to support delivery of this plan; acknowledges the challenges caused by Brexit, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climate change, and the need for the sector to respond and adapt, and believes that the hard Brexit negotiated by the UK Government has created serious, long-term harms, including labour shortages and new barriers to trade, especially for Scottish food and drink exporters, while driving up inflation in food and supply chain costs. Rachael Hamilton S6M-10406.2 As an amendment to motion S6M-10406 in the name of Mairi Gougeon (Celebrating the Resilience of Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector), leave out from “acknowledges” to end and insert “recognises both the challenges and the opportunities resulting from the United Kingdom leaving the European Union; acknowledges the challenges caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine and climate change, and the need for the sector to respond and adapt, and believes that allowing Scotland’s food producers to adopt gene-editing technology would boost the sector’s resilience, provide greater security against climate change disease and drought, and enhance crop yields, nutritional value and reliability.” Rhoda Grant S6M-10406.1 As an amendment to motion S6M-10406 in the name of Mairi Gougeon (Celebrating the Resilience of Scotland’s Food and Drink Sector), insert at end "; recognises the plan set out by the Labour Party to stabilise the economy after the turmoil of the UK Conservative administration, reset the relationship with Europe, improve trading relationships and use the power of the Scotland Office to promote Scotland’s excellent food and drink around the world; believes that it is unacceptable that so many people living in food poverty in Scotland are those who work in the food industry; considers that more action is needed to address low pay, zero-hours contracts and insecure work in Scotland’s food and drink sector, and therefore welcomes the proposals in the Labour Party’s New Deal for Working People; asserts that food production and a sustainable environment can work hand in hand for the benefit of both, and believes that the right to food should be enshrined in Scots law." followed by Decision Time followed by Members' Business — S6M-10068 Bob Doris: Tackling Child Poverty That the Parliament strongly supports all measures to tackle child poverty; understands that 32% of children in Glasgow were estimated to live in relative poverty in 2022, compared with the wider Scottish rate of 24%; condemns what it sees as harmful UK Government policies such as the benefit cap and two-child limit, which it understands have forced as many as 20,000 children in Scotland into poverty; acknowledges that Glasgow city is reportedly the Scottish local authority worst hit by the two-child limit with, it understands, 3,990 recipients, or 54% of the households in receipt of Universal Credit or Child Tax Credits, not receiving financial support for at least one child in April 2023; considers that the Glasgow Maryhill and Springburn constituency is among the areas most seriously affected as, it understands, it contains the highest proportion of deprived postcodes in Scotland, according to the Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation; believes that the two-child limit causes disproportionate harm to low-income families and women survivors of domestic abuse or sexual assault, and notes the calls on the Scottish Government to increase representations to the UK Government to reverse the benefit cap and the two-child limit, which it considers undermine the work done to lift children out of poverty, and to introduce its own equivalent of the Scottish Child Payment in support of low-income families.