All living former First Ministers of Scotland – Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond, Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish – have agreed to give oral evidence to Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee as part of its ongoing inquiry into intergovernmental relations.
The inquiry, named Intergovernmental Relations: 25 years since the Scotland Act 1998, is looking closely at the structures which underpin relations between the UK and Scottish Governments, including the new IGR framework introduced in 2022.
In sessions due to take place in the first half of 2024, MPs will have the chance to question Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond, Jack McConnell and Henry McLeish on their experiences of intergovernmental relations between Edinburgh and London during each of their tenures as First Minister.
The witnesses led the Scottish Government during significant political events, including the 2014 independence referendum and the UK’s exit from the EU. The Committee will also be taking evidence from a number of former Secretaries of State for Scotland who have held the post since 1998.
So far, the inquiry has received written evidence from Tony Blair and Lord David Cameron, as well as hearing from former UK Government ministers and senior civil servants to assess whether the intergovernmental processes have delivered on the aspirations of politicians in 1998.
The Committee also questioned leading academics at the University of Glasgow and University of Stirling for their expert views on whether current intergovernmental processes are working effectively.
Alex Salmond will be questioned by the Committee on Monday 19 February.
The date of the other former First Ministers’ appearances will be confirmed in due course.
Chair of the Scottish Affairs Committee, Pete Wishart, said: “It’s a clear demonstration of the importance of this work that all living former Scottish First Ministers have agreed to appear in front of the Committee as part of the inquiry into relations between the UK and Scottish governments since 1998.
“Given that we will hear from all living former First Ministers of Scotland, we will be inviting all former UK Prime Ministers who have been in power since the implementation of the Scotland Act to appear in front of the Committee.
“I sincerely hope they will match the commitment of their Scottish Government counterparts and accept our invitation.”
Housing Secretary launches a consultation proposing new legal requirements for England’s social landlords to address hazards including damp and mould quickly
plans to clamp down on rogue social landlords who fail to provide safe homes have been announced today, supporting the Government’s pledge to deliver Awaab’s Law.
The two-year-old from Rochdale died from a respiratory condition caused by extensive mould in the flat where he lived, and the Government is taking action to introduce lifechanging reforms in social housing to prevent future tragedies.
The Awaab’s Law consultation has been launched by the Housing Secretary, which proposes introducing new strict time limits for social housing providers and force them to take swift action in addressing dangerous hazards such as damp and mould.
It proposes new legal requirements for social landlords to investigate hazards within 14 days, start fixing within a further 7 days, and make emergency repairs within 24 hours. Those landlords who fail can be taken to court where they may be ordered to pay compensation for tenants.
Landlords will be expected to keep clear records to improve transparency for tenants – showing every attempt is made to comply with the new timescales so they can no longer dither and delay to rectify people’s homes.
Housing Secretary, Michael Gove said:“The tragic death of Awaab Ishak should never have happened. His family have shown courageous leadership, determination and dignity to champion these changes and now it’s time for us to deliver for them through Awaab’s Law.
“Today is about stronger and more robust action against social landlords who have refused to take their basic responsibilities seriously for far too long. We will force them to fix their homes within strict new time limits and take immediate action to tackle dangerous damp and mould to help prevent future tragedies.
“Alongside Awaab’s Law, our landmark Social Housing Act will drastically improve the quality of life in social housing, granting residents a proper voice to fight those who think they can cheat the system and ensuring rogue landlords face the full force of the law.”
Faisal Abdullah, Awaab’s father. said:“We hope that Awaab’s Law will stop any other family going through the pain that we went through.
“Landlords need to listen to the concerns of tenants and we support these proposals.”
Social Housing campaigner, Kwajo Tweneboa said:“As we know many families across the country are still living in homes with damp and mould, creating misery but more worryingly risks their health and safety.
“I’m pleased to see Awaab’s Law reach the consultation phase and hope that it goes far enough to prevent other families going through the tragedy Awaab’s family have had to. It’s crucial the government are able to make sure this law has teeth and is enforced for it to work as intended.”
Through the measures announced today tenants will be able to take their landlords to court if they fail to fix dangerous hazards. This builds on the progress already made to drive up standards in social housing.
The UK Government says there has been consistent improvement in the quality of social homes since 2010 – with a reduction in non-decent social homes from 20% in 2010 to 10% last year – but recognises ‘there is more work to do’.
The Social Housing (Regulation) Act, which became law last year, will equip the Regulator of Social Housing and tenants with stronger powers and rights to hold the small minority of rogue landlords accountable.
New enforcement powers will also be available for the Regulator to weed out bad landlord practices – including issuing unlimited fines and entering properties with only 48 hours’ notice to make emergency repairs in the most severe cases.
As part of changes to deliver Awaab’s Law, the Government recently consulted on what more tenants need to better understand their rights and challenge social landlords when things go wrong – the direction to the Regulator will be published in the coming weeks.
This is the latest step in addressing systemic issues identified following the Grenfell Tower fire – not just the safety and quality of social housing but how tenants are treated by their landlords.
Awaab’s Law consultation will be open for eight weeks and further details on how to respond can be found here
Attendance hubs to more than double to support 1,000 more schools and £15 million investment to expand the attendance mentor pilot programme
Driving up attendance and tackling persistent absence is at the centre of new stronger measures launched today as pupils return to school in England.
More than one million children and young people will be supported into regular education as part of a major expansion of the attendance hubs, which provide a range of tailored support to families and pupils to boost time in school.
There will be 18 new attendance hubs across six regions, bringing the total to 32 and will see nearly 2,000 schools helped to tackle persistent absence.
Hubs are run by schools with excellent attendance that share practical ideas with other primary, secondary, alternative provision and special schools in England who need help to boost their attendance.
From direct pupil engagement initiatives like breakfast clubs and extracurricular activities, to improving their processes and analysis of attendance data, lead hub schools provide a range of support to schools that they can tailor to their pupils and families.
The Westminster government is also increasing the direct support offered to children and their families with the expansion of the attendance mentor pilot programme.
With an investment of up to £15million, over three years, this programme will provide direct intensive support to more than 10,000 persistent and severely absent pupils and their families.
The programme will see trained attendance mentors working in 10 further areas from September 2024. These areas are in addition to the existing pilot programme with Barnardo’s which is already operating in Middlesbrough, Doncaster, Knowsley, Salford, and Stoke on Trent.
The programme provides intensive one-to-one support to pupils who are persistently absent working with them and their families to find out why the child is skipping school. This can lead to extra support, more intensive work with teachers or in some cases bridge-building between school and family.
Being in school has never been more valuable with standards continuing to rise. 89% of schools are now rated good or outstanding, up from 68% in 2010. We are constantly seeing the success of our reforms rising up the rankings in maths, reading and science.
Just this month, England was ranked 11th in the world for maths, up from 27th in 2009, and in May, England was named ‘best in the west’ for primary reading.
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan said: “The benefits of our success in raising education standards can only be when all children are in school.
“Tackling attendance is my number one priority. We want all our children to have the best start in life because we know that attending school is vital to a child’s wellbeing, development, and attainment as well as impact future career success.
“I am hugely grateful to all our brilliant teachers, heads, and everyone whose worked with us to make the progress we’ve already made with 380,000 fewer children persistently absent.”
Children’s Commissioner Rachel De Souza said: “As Children’s Commissioner, I have made school attendance one of my top priorities because children tell me how much they value their education and want to be in school.
“Every day counts: when children miss school, it’s not just about missing lessons, it’s also about losing valuable moments spent with their friends and teachers.
“I very much welcome the government’s announcements today which include the recommendations made last year in my report on school attendance.
“I am hopeful that these measures will arm local authorities and schools with real-time information about school absence rates and provide vital support for children who face barriers to attending school.”
Chief Executive of Barnardo’s, Lynn Perry MBE, said: “Our Attendance Mentoring pilot scheme shows that one of the best ways to improve attendance is working individually with children, building trust and listening to their concerns.
“Our mentors encourage children to talk openly about issues such as family finances, bullying, or mental health worries – anything they feel may be preventing them from going to school.
“In Middlesbrough, 82% of the children we have worked with improved their attendance through one-on-one support from an attendance mentor, with almost two-thirds of the children saying their mental health also improved.”
Rob Tarn CBE, Chief Executive of Northern Education Trust said: “We are delighted that the hard work around attendance at North Shore Academy has led to significant impact for our students and their outcomes.
“The fact that this work was recognised as a best practice model meant we felt compelled to share what we are doing with other schools and academies in similar contexts and help where we could.
“This was, in essence, the beginning of the attendance hub programme. Seeing this work extended, with more hubs supporting more schools, is a source of great pride for the trust.”
A national communications campaign on the importance of attendance is also launching today targeting parents and carers.
Under the strapline ‘Moments Matter, Attendance Counts’ it outlines the importance of attendance for attainment, wellbeing, and development as well as signposting to advice for further support.
Key advice includes a recent letter from the Chief Medical Officer that outlines best practice when it comes to attendance and illness.
The intention is to ensure that parents have the guidance they need when it comes to making decisions when deciding to send their child to school or when to keep them home.
The UK government has also committed to further legislation in the coming months that will mean all schools will be required to share their daily school registers.
This, together with reforming pupil registration practice, will modernise how schools record and share data on attendance and support them to understand what is driving absence in their school and provide early support and intervention where pupils are displaying worrying trends of absence.
Westminster committee urges UK Government to act with urgency to tackle global deforestation
UK consumption is unsustainable, with the nation’s appetite for commodities including soy, cocoa, palm oil, beef and leather putting enormous pressure on forests, Westminster’s Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) warns today.
Forests host 80% of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity, support the livelihoods of 1.6 billion people and provide vital ecosystem services to support local and global economies. Deforestation threatens irreplaceable biodiverse habitats and contributes 11% of global carbon emissions.
The intensity of UK consumption on the world’s forests – its footprint per tonne of product consumed – is higher than that of China.
The EAC is calling on Ministers to develop a Global Footprint Indicator to demonstrate this impact to the public, and a target to reduce the UK’s impact on global deforestation. Such a measure will only be meaningful if sufficient monitoring and reporting is embedded for forest risks – including mining – so EAC recommends that the Government work with international partners to improve oversight in the UK and globally.
Through legislative provision in the Environment Act, the Government has committed to establishing a regime to require forest-based commodities to be certified as ‘sustainable’ if they are to be sold into UK markets. At COP28 the Government announced that the first four of these commodities are to be cattle products (other than dairy), cocoa, palm oil and soy, which the EAC was pleased to see.
While the Government’s intention to tackle sustainability concerns of products is welcome, EAC is concerned over the seeming lack of urgency about the implementation of this regime, given global commitments to halt and reverse current deforestation trends by 2030.
For instance, no timeline has been offered as to when this important legislation will be introduced, and its phased approach of incorporating products gradually into the regime does not reflect the necessity of tackling deforestation urgently.
The Government should also bring other forest-risk commodities, such as maize, rubber and coffee, into the certification regime as soon as possible to be ‘sustainable’.
The Committee recommends that the Government strengthens the existing legislative framework so as to prohibit financial sector businesses from trading or using commodities linked to deforestation.
At global COP summits, the UK has been instrumental in delivering ambitious agreements to address global deforestation. However, despite this, the world does not appear to be on track to halt deforestation by 2030: a key commitment made during COP26 and at the Kunming-Montreal COP15 summit in December 2022.
The Government has announced large sums for programmes on climate and nature, amounting most recently to £11.6 billion with £1.5 billion earmarked for deforestation.
However, the Committee has heard concerns that there is a lack of transparency over how this investment will be spent. The Committee is therefore calling for clarity from Ministers as to how the money will be used to support activities to halt and reverse deforestation.
The Committee was alarmed to hear from Global Witness that one person is killed every other day defending land and the environment. Indigenous peoples are protectors of the world’s forests and can possess detailed knowledge on biodiversity and ecosystem trends. It is therefore critical that they are facilitated to participate fully in negotiations to address deforestation activity.
To fulfil its commitment to put environmental sustainability measures at the heart of global production and trade, the Government must ensure that biodiversity considerations are more consistently applied into its trade agreements and operations.
EAC therefore repeats its earlier calls for sustainability impact assessments to be conducted for all future trade agreements. Ministers must also develop strategies to monitor effectively and deliver environmental net gains in the UK’s international activity, including gains through halting and reversing deforestation.
Environmental Audit Committee Chair, Rt Hon Philip Dunne MP, said: “UK consumption is having an unsustainable impact on the planet at the current rate. UK markets must not be flooded with products that threaten the world’s forests, the people whose livelihoods rely on them and the precious ecosystems that call them home.
“Yet despite the recent commitment before and at COP28 to invest more in reforestation measures and The Amazon Fund to help halt the speed of global deforestation, the UK needs to take tangible steps to turn the dial at home.
“The Government’s ambition and stated commitment at COP26 to halt deforestation by 2030 was very welcome: but it is not on track now. Its legislation for a regime to require certain products to be certified as ‘sustainable’ before they can be sold in UK markets was welcome: but the implementing legislation has still not come forward. There is little sense of urgency about getting a rapid grip on the problem of deforestation, which needs to match the rhetoric.
“Countries all around the world contribute to deforestation, and the international community of course needs to do much more to tackle deforestation. Yet on some measures the intensity of UK consumption of forest-risk commodities is higher than that of China: this should serve as a wake-up call to the Government.
“To demonstrate genuine global leadership in this critical area, the UK must demonstrate domestic policy progress, and embed environmental and biodiversity protections in future trade deals.”
In a major report today Westminster’s Science, Innovation & Technology Committee calls for steps to develop the potential of bacteria-killing viruses – called bacteriophages or phages for short – that can provide an alternative to antibiotics that are attracting growing resistance.
Phages have been used as therapy for over a hundred years, but interest has increased in recent years as the widespread use of antibiotics is leading to alarming antimicrobial resistance (AMR) to even the most effective treatments. But they have never been licensed for therapeutic use in the UK. They have only been used as “compassionate” treatments of last resort in isolated cases of otherwise intractable infections.
One of the problems has been an impasse: in order to be deployed in clinical trials phages must be manufactured to the Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) standard – but investment in compliant manufacturing plants will only be justified following successful clinical trials.
Rt Hon Greg Clark MP, Chair of the Committee, said: “Phages offer a possible response to the increasing worldwide concerns about antimicrobial resistance.
“But the development of phage therapies is at an impasse, in which clinical trials need new advanced manufacturing plants, but investment requires clinical trails to have demonstrated efficacy.
“The Committee is asking the Government to consider whether the mothballed Rosalind Franklin Laboratory in the West Midlands could provide a suitable facility.
“The Laboratory, which has already received over £1 billion of public funding, was established by the Government to bring to an end the inadequacy of testing capacity that so hampered the national response to Covid.
“It consists of modern, secure laboratory facilities and was meant to be an important source of national resilience against future pandemics. But the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory has suddenly appeared for sale on the property website Rightmove, to the astonishment of the science and health communities.
“Our Committee’s report on phages asks for the Rosalind Franklin Laboratory to be considered for this purpose, rather than be lost to the nation and to science in a firesale.”
The Committee recommends that the Government should consider establishing a small GMP facility on the lines of the Catapult network which provides shared facilities for companies who cannot afford to make the level of investment on their own.
The Committee also calls on the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA), Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC), and phage researchers to work together to make for a more promising route for phage research to be funded and its products licensed for use.
The Committee calls for:
Awareness-raising for healthcare students and professionals of the antimicrobial potential of phages where antibiotics have failed or are failing
Government and its agencies to make a definitive and positive statement on the role of phages in the national approach to anti-microbial resistance (AMR), which is important in research funding decisions and for private investment in commercial phages
The MHRA to consider allowing the compassionate use of non-GMP phages produced in the UK for last resort medical cases where other medical approaches have failed or are failing
The MHRA to review how current regulations would govern liability for clinicians and hospitals who used UK non-GMP phages,
JUDGES have ruled that the UK Government’s block of Scottish gender legislation was LEGAL.
The Holyrood parliament passed legislation to make it easier for people to change their sex last year, but the UK Government blocked the law, arguing that Scotland’s gender law would impact on equality laws across all countries of the UK
The Scottish Government challenged Westminster’s action through the courts, but yesterday The Court of Session in Edinburgh upheld the UK Government’s decision.
The Scottish Government is studying the detail of the judgement and has yet to make an official statement, but First Minister said the Supreme Court judgement marks ‘a dark day for democracy’.
Scottish Secretary Alister Jack takes a different view, of course.
The Secretary of State for Scotland, Rt Hon Alister Jack MP said: “I welcome the Court’s judgment, which upholds my decision to prevent the Scottish Government’s gender recognition legislation from becoming law.
“I was clear that this legislation would have had adverse effects on the operation of the law as it applies to reserved matters, including on important Great Britain-wide equality protections.
“Following this latest Court defeat for the Scottish Government, their ministers need to stop wasting taxpayers’ money pursuing needless legal action and focus on the real issues which matter to people in Scotland – such as growing the economy and cutting waiting lists.”
The Scottish Government is unlikely to take Mr Jack’s advice and has 21 days to decide whether to lodge an appeal.
Victoria Atkins aims to make health and social care system faster, simpler and fairer for patients
Health and Social Care Secretary sets out intention to make the system faster, simpler and fairer for patients
Victoria Atkins thanks staff for a week of delivery, in which two manifesto commitments were met
Health and Social Care Secretary Victoria Atkins has thanked health, social care and research staff for delivering on patients’ priorities, as she set out her commitment to make the health and social care system faster, simpler and fairer for patients.
Her words came days after pharmacies across the country began offering new contraceptive services and additional blood pressure checks, and after a breakthrough in talks to end consultant strikes, which saw the British Medical Association Consultants committee agree to put an offer on contract reform to its members.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Victoria Atkins, said: “Since joining the department, I have been bowled over by the way health and social care staff just keep on delivering for patients. The important milestones we’ve reached this week – reaching 50,000 additional nurses and 50 million more GP appointments – demonstrate real progress.
“I have spent the past few weeks meeting doctors, nurses, GPs, pharmacists and other health workers and heard wonderful stories about how they have gone above and beyond to deliver outstanding care for patients and cut waiting lists.
“But I have also heard about their frustrations and where they feel they are not able to deliver the best possible care or where prevention or early intervention could have made a real difference. That is why I am committed to making health and social care services faster, simpler and fairer.
“We face a difficult winter ahead. And though our early winter planning is seeing some results we know there is much more to do. But having seen what our excellent staff can do I am confident that with the government’s support we can continue to deliver for patients over the coming months.”
The Health and Social Care Secretary has committed to making health and social care services:
Faster for patients, by making it easier to get treatment locally, improving A&E performance and cutting waiting lists
Simpler for patients, with joined up, integrated care, and simpler for staff, by reducing bureaucracy and giving them the latest technology to free up their time to care for patients
Fairer, ensuring children are protected from health harms, that health outcomes are not determined by where you live, that government supports older people to maintain their independence for longer, and that government delivers a more productive NHS that is fairer for taxpayers.
She added that she would continue to work with the NHS to manage the ongoing winter pressures. The government prepared for winter earlier than ever before and data released by the NHS on Thursday shows the government is making good progress.
Compared to the same time last year, ambulance handover delays have fallen by 28%, thousands more 111 calls are being answered within 60 seconds, and there were nearly 1,500 more hospital beds available.
The Secretary of State said: “We face a difficult winter ahead. And though our early winter planning is seeing some results we know there is much more to do.
“But having seen what our excellent staff can do I am confident that with the government’s support we can continue to deliver for patients over the coming months.”
The Health and Social Care Secretary was appointed on 13 November. She has now set out her priorities in a week in which the government and NHS hit a number of major delivery milestones:
NHS England data published on Thursday showed there were 51,245 additional nurses in September 2023 compared to 2019 – hitting the government’s manifesto commitment to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses six months early.
NHS England data also showed that for the year to October 2023, there were 51 million additional general practice appointments delivered when compared to October 2019, meeting another manifesto commitment.
On Monday the government announced that it had put forward an offer that will modernise the consultant contract and reform consultants’ pay structure, paving the way to end consultant strikes. The British Medical Association and Hospital Consultants and Specialists Association will put the deal to their memberships in the coming weeks.
On Wednesday the Secretary of State announced funding for a research project to evaluate the rollout of the hugely successful HIV opt-out testing programme to 46 new sites across England.
On Friday 1 December pharmacies across England began offering the new contraceptive services announced recently as part of Pharmacy First. This is part of the NHS and government’s Primary Care Recovery Plan, announced by the head of the NHS and the Prime Minister in May, which committed to making it quicker and easier for millions of people to access healthcare on their high street.
WESTMINSTER’s Scottish Affairs Committee has published the UK Government’s response to its report on Promoting Scotland Internationally, in which MPs found the UK and Scottish Governments often collaborate well when promoting Scotland’s interests abroad but more work is needed to highlight modern Scottish successes.
In its report, the Committee found a clear strategy was needed to ensure UK embassies have access to guidance and clear expectations for holding events on key Scottish dates such as St Andrew’s Day.
The cross-party group of MPs recommended embassy staff of all levels be trained up on the current Scottish industry landscape and the UK Government’s priorities for Scotland in order to ensure a more consistent base of knowledge.
They also found more needed to be done to celebrate contemporary Scottish successes in fields such as scientific research, space and energy in addition to the more traditional attributes of the Scottish brand which still resonate on the international stage.
In its response, the UK Government highlighted past events but didn’t commit to implementing a strategy for celebrating key dates in the Scottish calendar across all embassies.
The UK Government also indicated senior staff receive adequate training but did not commit to giving staff of all levels updated training on the Scottish market and industry landscape.
The UK Government indicated agreement with the Committee that officials from the UK and Scottish Governments regularly work collaboratively overseas in order to deliver the best possible outcomes, and also acknowledged the importance of maintaining regular communication between teams.
The UK Government failed, however, to address a number of the Committee’s recommendations, including no commitment to provide specific information on the UK Government’s current priorities and objectives for promoting Scotland internationally.
Scottish Affairs Committee Chair Pete Wishart MP said: “Scotland is home to a fantastic array of research and development organisations, businesses and academic institutions – so it’s critical that Scotland’s success stories are promoted in a consistent and coherent way on the world stage.
“As a Committee, we found there were differing levels of engagement and knowledge related to Scotland’s key interests around the globe as well as a lack of a clear idea of exactly what the UK Government’s priorities are for promoting Scotland internationally.
“As Scots worldwide celebrate St Andrew’s Day, I’m disappointed that the extent to which embassies around the globe are telling the nation’s story and celebrating Scottish culture will remain inconsistent.
“Unfortunately, it was hard to identify a clear plan which will ensure Scotland receives the international recognition it deserves. It is, therefore, difficult to see how the UK Government will fully support Scotland to maximise the potential offered by our brilliant industries.”
The Home Affairs Committee is inviting members of the public to take part in a survey to inform its inquiry into fraud.
The cross-party committee of MPs wants to find out more about the different types of fraud that people are experiencing in the UK. They also want to hear about the impact this has had and what support people have received.
Fraud is the most common form of crime in England and Wales, accounting for 40% of reported offences and costing UK households over £1 billion every year. It can take many forms including phishing scams, identity theft and romance fraud. Fraud increasing takes place using digital technologies and online platforms; and perpetrators can often be based outside the UK making detection and protection more difficult.
The quick-to-complete survey consists of multiple choice questions, with the option for people to provide more information if they would like to. Everyone is welcome to take part, but they should note that the Committee is unable to take action on individual cases.
Launching the survey, Dame Diana Johnson said: “Fraud is the most common form of crime in this country with over 3 million cases recorded every year, and probably millions more going unreported.
“But behind these figures are individual victims of all ages and backgrounds, many of whom will have suffered h long-lasting financial and emotional consequences.
“We have launched this survey to find out what types of fraud people experience in the UK. The information you give us will help us understand how well current fraud strategies are working.
“It will also help us to learn what gaps there may be in the support that victims of fraud receive, and to identify where improvements can be made.”
Where to get help
We understand that the issues raised in this work may be sensitive or upsetting. If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this inquiry, you may wish to contact your GP, local MP or the following organisations:
Police Scotland – call 101
Reporting fraud and cyber crime | Action Fraud Call 0300 123 2040 Monday to Friday 8am – 8pm. Action Fraud will guide you through simple questions to identify what has happened and their advisors are available twenty four hours to give you help and advice if you need it.
FIRST MINISTER CALLS FOR RECOGNITION OF STATE OF PALESTINE
MSPs have voted in favour of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas, following a debate in the Scottish Parliament.
Opening the debate, First Minister Humza Yousaf said the chamber was unified in resolute condemnation of Hamas’ abhorrent terrorist attacks and the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza.
This followed a letter sent by the First Minister to the Prime Minister and Sir Keir Starmer this morning, calling for the UK to officially recognise the State of Palestine in order to break the political impasse that has condemned Israelis and Palestinians to successive cycles of violence.
The First Minister said: “In Scotland, the Muslim and Jewish communities have enjoyed decades of friendship, decades of shared humanity and faith. Nowhere is that more evident than in East Renfrewshire, home of Scotland’s largest Jewish community, and a significant Muslim population too, who have lived side-by-side in harmony for many years.
“But we cannot be complacent. We must all be proactive in rooting out any hint of Islamophobia or antisemitism wherever it occurs. Presiding Officer, even though it feels impossible to look past the current horrors of war, we must ensure that this perpetual cycle of violence that we see occur far too often finally ends, once and for all, in a peaceful resolution.
“To that end, there must be a renewed, and serious international effort towards a two-state solution. Israeli and Palestinian states that can co-exist in safety, security and with equal rights for each of its citizens.
“Unfortunately, the world has not kept its promise to the Palestinian people. They have not been given a free sovereign state, along the 1967 borders, as they were promised. Quite the opposite.
“The continued expansion of Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank is not only illegal but works against a peaceful resolution. So it is simply not enough anymore to pay lip-service to a two-state solution, we must take steps to turn that into a reality.
“To that end, I have written to the Prime Minister, and to Sir Keir Starmer, and urged them to immediately take steps to ensure the UK recognises the State of Palestine. It is only with full recognition of Palestine, as a State in its own right, that we can truly move forward towards a two-state solution.
“To conclude, Presiding Officer, to prevent further deaths, the bombs, the rockets – they must stop. The Scottish Government continues to call for an immediate ceasefire, for the safe release of all hostages, for an end to the killing of innocent civilians in Gaza, for an end to the siege of Gaza, and for all parties to abide by international law.
“The UK government and the international community must use their influence to prevent the further loss of innocent life. Every child the world over deserves to grow old. The children of Gaza and Israel deserve nothing less. It is our moral obligation to act. Let us hope even in these, the darkest of times, that humanity prevails.”
First Minister Humza Yousaf has written to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak calling for the United Kingdom to officially recognise the State of Palestine to break the political impasse that has condemned Israelis and the Palestinians to successive cycles of violence.
The FM’s appeal came on the day Scotland’s MSPs voted in favour of ceasefire in Palestine.
The letter, sent ahead of a debate on the situation in the Middle East in the Scottish Parliament yesterday, has also been sent to the Leader of the Opposition in the UK Parliament Sir Keir Starmer.
The First Minister later opened the Holyrood debate on a Government motion which condemned the Hamas atrocities on 7 October, called for the release of the hostages and for all parties to agree to an immediate ceasefire.
