A Week in Parliament

Committee Appointment

I have now been appointed as the SNP representative on the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy [BEIS] Select Committee. This aligns with my Energy and Climate Change Spokesperson role so I am looking forward to working on this committee. It is a committee with a very wide remit. However, with COP 26 taking place in Glasgow in November I am hopeful the committee will have a focus on the climate change issues. I will certainly hope to steer some reviews in that direction.

Cash Retentions

I secured a debate about eliminating the use of cash retentions in the construction industry. Retention is effectively a cash bond that a subcontractor pays to a contractor as part of their tender award. There have been historical issues with this system though with contractors holding onto the money, sometimes for years casing cashflow issues for the subcontractor. If the main contractor goes bust, then the subcontractor then loses their money altogether. Over the past 4 years, there has been over £1bn of cash retentions lost due to insolvency. Yet the UK Government has done nothing for decades despite being advised to eliminate this system.

They did have a consultation closed in January 2018. By some amazing coincidence, they decided to publish the consultation results the day before my debate! They fooled no-one with this burst of “activity”. The ministerial response to me was also woeful - apparently, we don’t realise how complex the situation is and he wouldn’t even give a timescale for change. Cash retentions have been eliminated in most other countries and the Scottish Government are consulting on their preferred option. It looks like this is another matter the Scottish Government will show the UK Government how to take action.

Drug Summit

I know people can get frustrated with what they see as the UK Government and Scottish Governments not working together. Many like to blame the SNP Scottish Government. Yet when it comes to tackling the drug and addiction crisis we have, the UK Government opted to have their own summit in Glasgow, the day after a Scottish Government one. They also deliberately excluded the Scottish Government and opposition MPs. Also, the UK Government summit was headed up by Kit Malthouse, a Minister of State for Crime, Policing and the Fire Service. This is illogical as most of Malthouse’s remit doesn’t even extend to Scotland. It confirmed the Tory UK Government is not willing to look at ways to resolve the problem and debate alternative solution such as drug consumption rules. In a radio interview, all Malthouse spoke about was finding new ways to clamp down on supplies. Everyone can agree we need to clamp down on drug dealers. However, it is clear that the “war on drugs” hasn’t worked to date, so other solutions need to be considered. It seems this is yet another example of Westminster coming to Scotland to “tell us what to do”. It is time they worked with the Scottish Government on this as a public health matter.