Martin McCluskey MP: speeches

Speeches

• 21 May 2025 · Draft Scotland Act 1998 (Increase of Borrowing Limits) Order 2025 · Hansard source

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  I am looking at the hon. Gentleman because he clearly struggled with these figures last year as well. The order provides the Scottish Government with certainty over the cumulative borrowing limits for this financial year. It is for the Scottish Government to decide how they use these borrowing powers and the increased limits, and they are accountable to the Scottish Parliament for these decisions. In making this order, the UK Government uphold our commitment to the 2023 agreement and deliver for the people of Scotland. As ever, Scotland Act orders are possible only with the joint working of officials in both Governments, and I thank officials in the Scotland Office, the Treasury and the Scottish Government for their work on this order. This positive way of working delivers for the people of Scotland. I commend the draft order to the Committee.

• 21 May 2025 · Draft Scotland Act 1998 (Increase of Borrowing Limits) Order 2025 · Hansard source

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  I thank hon. Members for their contributions, which I will address in turn. For the record, this year’s increase is 2.37%, and that is based on the OBR’s GDP deflator at the time of the Scottish Government Budget. I am slightly surprised by Opposition Members’ comments about the devolution settlement. These are issues for the Scottish Parliament, and it is for the Scottish Parliament to scrutinise the Scottish Government. Opposition Members may not have confidence in Conservative Members of the Scottish Parliament to appropriately scrutinise the Scottish Government, but I have confidence in Labour Members of the Scottish Parliament to appropriately scrutinise the decisions of the Scottish Government. The hon. Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk will be familiar with the 2023 fiscal framework from his time as a Minister. It contains provision for the Scottish Government to notify the Treasury monthly on any planned capital borrowing, outstanding debt and the repayment profile. Obviously, that all has to be set within limits. As I said earlier, resource borrowing can take place only in very specific circumstances. It is not unconstrained, but is specific to two categories, which I laid out in my speech a moment ago. I agree with the hon. Member that the Scottish Government could do a lot more with their powers, and if there were any SNP Members on the Committee, we might hear about some of their plans. Whether or not we were MPs at the time, I think we all remember that extensive powers were devolved to the Scottish Parliament through the 2014 Smith Commission, and many of those are gathering dust on the Scottish Government’s desk. I am thinking specifically about welfare powers, but others could be taken up by the Scottish Government and have not been. I would have liked to have heard from some SNP Members about how they planned to use those powers. In conclusion, the draft order is an expression of joint work between the Scottish and UK Governments. I thank officials on both sides for their work on it. I commend the order to the Committee. Question put and agreed to.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Draft Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2025 · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2025. The draft order was laid on 11 February, and I am grateful for the opportunity to debate it. As with all the Scotland Act 1998 orders we have considered since the start of this Parliament, the draft order is the result of collaborative working between the UK and Scottish Governments. Like many others, it is made under section 104 of the Scotland Act, which, following an Act of the Scottish Parliament, provides the power for consequential provision to be made to the law relating to reserved matters or laws elsewhere in the UK. Scotland Act orders are a demonstration of devolution in action, and I am pleased that this Government have made seven such orders since we came into office in 2024. The draft order makes provision in consequence of the changes that the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 made to the disclosure regime in Scotland. The Disclosure (Scotland) Act, with which I know many hon. Members may not be familiar, concerns the regime for disclosures made by Scottish Ministers about a person’s criminal history and other information held about them by police and law enforcement agencies, such as fingerprint records. This crucial piece of legislation, which received support from all parties when it was passed by the Scottish Parliament, simplifies the system for disclosure in Scotland. Most people will come across the disclosure system when they apply for a PVG—protecting vulnerable groups—certificate from Disclosure Scotland, often so they may work or volunteer with children or vulnerable people. The order ensures the continued provision of information from UK law enforcement bodies to Scottish Ministers for the purposes of the disclosure regime. This includes conviction information, cautions, relevant police information and fingerprint records. This cross-border information transfer is necessary to ensure that Scottish Ministers can exercise their vetting and barring functions efficiently and effectively. Importantly, it ensures that the public are protected. I shall speak briefly to some of the individual provisions. Part 2 places duties on the chief officers of UK law enforcement bodies in relation to disclosure information that are equivalent to the duties that the Disclosure (Scotland) Act places on the chief constable of Police Scotland. That will ensure that the chief officer must provide information to Scottish Ministers in the same way that the chief constable is required to do in Scotland. The law enforcement bodies to which this duty applies are outlined in part 1. Part 2 provides provisions for a statutory review process of other relevant information before it is disclosed to a third party. This is a central provision of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act, and is intended to enhance the proportionality of the disclosure regime. Finally, part 3 places further duties on law enforcement agencies to make other information, such as central records, personal data to verify identity, and fingerprint records available to Scottish Ministers. If passed, the order will come into force on 1 April; guidance will be provided to UK law enforcement bodies before that date. The order is about keeping our communities and constituents in Scotland safe. Without it, there would be significant consequences for safeguarding across the UK, because the cross-border disclosure and information-sharing arrangements that are already in place under the Police Act 1997 would no longer operate. That would put our communities at risk and undermine a system that has operated effectively across the UK for many years.

• 19 Mar 2025 · Draft Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 (Consequential Provisions and Modifications) Order 2025 · Hansard source

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  I will try to pick up on all those questions, but if I miss any, I will make sure that I write to the hon. Lady afterwards. I am not entirely sure I understand her point about criminalisation. The Disclosure (Scotland) Act was put forward by the Scottish Government and passed by the Scottish Parliament to simplify the quite complex landscape of disclosure. It has been well received by stakeholders and others, and as I mentioned, it was passed unanimously on a cross-party basis in the Scottish Parliament by all parties represented in this room. It is an important part of Scottish Ministers being able to carry out those vetting and barring functions. In terms of the consultation, Disclosure Scotland has worked alongside officials in the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department of Justice in Northern Ireland and the Welsh Government on the policy for and drafting of this order. In advance of the Disclosure (Scotland) Act 2020 being introduced in the Scottish Parliament in 2019, there was extensive consultation with anyone affected, including businesses, volunteer organisations and others who make extensive use of the system. As I understand it, Disclosure Scotland has been running the information campaign for 18 months. I do not have statistics to hand on how it has operated; that would be a question for the Scottish Government and probably specifically for Disclosure Scotland, rather than for the UK Government. However, I know from discussions I have had that the campaign has been extensive, especially with stakeholders who make use of this system. They are waiting for this measure to come into force, and most people who have an interest in it are well prepared for it to come into force on 1 April. Guidance will be available before 1 April for the public bodies and law enforcement agencies that are affected by the order. The guidance for how the PVG system will work has already been provided to stakeholders, and as I said, they are expecting that to be implemented on 1 April. The guidance I mentioned in my remarks is specifically the guidance that will be offered to law enforcement agencies in the rest of the UK outside Scotland on how they implement the measures and respond to the duties placed upon them. The hon. Lady mentioned secondary legislation consequential to the Disclosure (Scotland) Act. We are discussing this order today, and the House of Lords will consider it next week. Secondary legislation that the Scottish Government might put through the Scottish Parliament is probably a question for them, rather than us. Through this order, we are discharging our responsibilities to deal with the consequential provisions that cannot be dealt with by the Scottish Parliament because of reserved legislation, in order that the system can carry on working effectively and operate after 1 April. I hope that answers all the hon. Lady’s questions. If it does not, I am happy for her to intervene again or to write to her on anything I have not covered. Question put and agreed to.

• 20 Nov 2024 · Draft Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023 (Consequential Modifications) Order 2024 · Hansard source

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  Yes, just in time. I also pass on the apologies of the Secretary of State for Scotland, who is appearing before a Select Committee. The order is the result of collaborative working between the two Governments, in Scotland and Westminster, and supports the Scottish Government’s decision to implement the Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act 2023. The order will be made under section 104 of the Scotland Act 1998, in consequence of the 2023 Act. A section 104 order is the most common type of Scotland Act order, and is used to make technical amendments to UK reserved legislation to facilitate the policy aims of an Act of the Scottish Parliament or secondary legislation made by Scottish Ministers. Scotland Act orders demonstrate devolution in action, and I am pleased that this is the fourth Scotland Act order put to the House by this Government. I will explain the effect and provisions of the order. Extradition proceedings take place in summary courts, which are magistrates courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and sheriff courts in Scotland. Were there changes to the legal framework for bail considerations in those courts, that might impact on extradition cases. That could happen in this instance, and both Scotland’s Governments agree that that would not be appropriate, so we using the order to prevent it. The order does not make changes to extradition law across the UK or affect policy and legal frameworks for extradition in any way. It will ensure that courts in Scotland continue to be able to consider flight risk as a ground for refusal of bail in the context of extradition proceedings, in line with the rest of the UK. The order will ensure that a limitation on the court’s ability to remand persons at risk of failing to appear in court, under the new test for bail in Scottish summary courts, does not extend to extradition cases. That will mitigate the risk of a person wanted for extradition being granted bail under the new regime when it would not have been granted under the previous regime. Without the order, individuals accused of serious crimes who are wanted for extradition could be granted bail under the new regime because the courts would not retain their current discretion to consider flight risk. That would create a risk that the requested person absconds and evades justice. The Bail and Release from Custody (Scotland) Act was passed by the Scottish Parliament in June 2023. It seeks to ensure that, as much as possible, the use of remand for domestic criminal cases within the Scottish criminal justice system is a last resort, reserved for cases where public safety requires it, or where there is a significant risk of prejudice to the interests of justice. The Act amends sections 23B and 23C of the Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 to limit the circumstances in which the court, in summary proceedings in Scotland, can refuse an individual’s bail application. In particular, the amendments to section 23C include a new subsection that limits the extent to which a court may take into account any substantial risk of a person absconding or failing to appear when it is determining whether there is a good reason for refusing bail in summary proceedings. That would remove sheriffs’ ability to consider whether an individual may abscond from further proceedings, unless the individual has already failed to appear in a Scottish domestic criminal court case. It should be noted that the restrictions would not apply to judges who are considering whether to refuse bail in solemn proceedings, which are the equivalent of Crown courts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The Extradition Act 2003, which applies across the whole UK, prescribes that the cases of individuals arrested, subject to an extradition request from an international partner, are to be overseen by a specialised extradition judge—in Scotland, that is the sheriff of Lothian and Borders. When hearing extradition cases, the sheriff has powers available in relation to bail as if the case were summary proceedings in respect of an offence alleged to have been committed by the person. Cases proceeding by way of summary proceedings in Scotland involve less serious crimes than extradition cases typically do. Under existing Scottish bail legislation, the sheriff considering bail in an extradition case can consider the question of flight risk from the outset of the case. That is important, as the nature of extradition means that the individual may pose a substantial risk of absconding or failing to appear. The order ensures that sheriffs retain their discretion to decide whether those subject to an extradition request are remanded in custody while they wait for hearings.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Defence Jobs: Scotland · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend has been a champion for the defence sector in his constituency since his election, and I commend him for that work. I agree that it is essential that any Government engage with the defence sector, not just because of the jobs created across Scotland, but because of the vital technology that the sector is developing. There is a real opportunity to create and retain skilled work in Scotland, and all of us have a responsibility to promote that as much as possible. I am happy to reassure my hon. Friend that the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Government will continue to champion the defence and manufacturing sectors in Scotland.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Draft Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Building Safety) Order 2024 · Hansard source

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  I thank the shadow Secretary of State for his contribution, and I echo his comments both on the work of officials and on his own work before the election on progressing the order. It is important to remember that this debate is purely on a constitutional order and the devolution of power to the Scottish Parliament to make a building levy; these decisions will be made by the Scottish Government. Many of the hon. Gentleman’s questions would be better answered by a representative of the Scottish Government. He will be aware that there was a joint UK Government-Scottish Government consultation that addressed many of these questions, and it gave us the assurance that there would not be the sort of impact to which he alluded. On the risk of divergence, there are already proposals for a building levy and a consultation in England. The risk of divergence would be greater were there not to be a building levy in Scotland too. As with a number of these areas, I expect the Scottish Government to keep the effects of this tax under review, but that is a decision for them. This instrument comes in the year of the 20th anniversary of the Scottish Parliament, which the last Labour Government delivered. It is in this spirit of devolution that this Government set out to reset relationships with the Scottish Government to deliver for the Scottish people. This instrument demonstrates the continued commitment of the UK Government to working with the Scottish Government to deliver for Scotland. Question put and agreed to.

• 30 Oct 2024 · Draft Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Building Safety) Order 2024 · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Scotland Act 1998 (Specification of Devolved Tax) (Building Safety) Order 2024. It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I am grateful for the opportunity to debate this order, which is the result of collaborative working between the two Governments and supports the Scottish Government’s request last year to devolve powers for the Scottish Parliament to establish a Scottish building safety levy. It also builds on work done by the previous Government before the election. The order will be made under section 80B of the Scotland Act 1998, which provides for devolving additional tax-raising powers to the Scottish Parliament by way of statutory instrument. Scotland Act orders are a demonstration of devolution in action, and I am pleased to say that the Scotland Office has taken through more than 250 orders since devolution began. The Grenfell Tower fire was a heartbreaking tragedy that sent shock waves across the UK and overseas. As the Prime Minister said, it was entirely avoidable. It uncovered the fact that many homeowners across the UK lived in buildings with serious fire and building safety defects. Our thoughts today remain with the victims and their families. The remediation challenge is significant. The Scottish Government estimate that around 49% of high-rise buildings above 18 metres and 10% of those between 11 metres and 18 metres require some level of remediation. That suggests that around 382 buildings above 18 metres and around 500 buildings between 11 metres and 18 metres require remediation; that is close to 900 buildings in total. The UK and devolved Governments have stepped up and committed public funds to help to remediate life-critical building safety problems. Industry has also assumed its responsibilities and taken ownership of the remediation challenge, but buildings remain for which a responsible party cannot be identified. It would be unfair on the taxpayer for the costs of remediating those buildings to fall on the Government, but it would be unfair on the homeowners for the costs to fall on them. The order will devolve power to the Scottish Parliament to enable it to legislate for a Scottish building safety levy to fund building safety expenditure in Scotland. The devolved power will be similar to the power of the Secretary of State under section 105 of the Building Act 1984, as amended by the Building Safety Act 2022, to introduce a building safety levy in England. This follows a request from the Scottish Government last year to devolve such a power. The UK Government will continue to work closely with the Scottish Government, and I am pleased that in this case the Governments have worked together to make sure that this issue can be addressed in Scotland.

• 15 Oct 2024 · Scotland’s Economy · Hansard source

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  We saw last week the Government’s commitment to carbon capture and storage. I am happy to take those points away and ensure that they are communicated to the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Chancellor. The Government’s focus on growth is in the service of our mission to tackle poverty, remove barriers to opportunity and put the country back in the service of working people. It is appalling that under the previous Government, child poverty in the UK went up by 700,000 since 2010. Today, more than one in five Scots and one in four children are trapped in poverty, trying to get by on less than they need. The child poverty taskforce, which this Government have established, is developing a strategy to reduce child poverty that will be published in the spring of next year. The previous UK Labour Government oversaw huge falls in poverty levels across the UK. It is what Labour Governments do—it is in our DNA—and we will do it again. The vital work of the taskforce comes alongside the Government’s commitment to make work pay. Last week, we published the Employment Rights Bill, the biggest upgrade of workers’ rights in a generation. I welcome the comments from a number of hon. Members, including my hon. Friends the Members for Coatbridge and Bellshill (Frank McNally) and for Edinburgh North and Leith (Tracy Gilbert), supporting this agenda and how it will impact on their constituents. This Government are calling time on unfair employment practices by ending exploitative zero hours contracts, introducing day-one employment rights and establishing a new fair work agency to enforce workers’ rights. That is all part of our plan to deliver economic growth for workers, businesses and local communities, right across the UK. As we have heard from others this morning, this Labour Government are pro-worker and pro-business, so these reforms will not just help Scottish workers but boost Scottish businesses of all sizes. We are going to tackle head-on the low pay, poor working conditions and job insecurity that have been holding our country back. Our plan will grow our economy, tackle in-work poverty and raise living standards for all. We recognise that rebuilding our public services and economy will require investment, and the Chancellor has been clear that there will be no return to austerity. I want to emphasise that point: she has said numerous times that there will be no return to austerity. Although funding decisions and details will be presented at the upcoming Budget, the UK Government are committed to retaining the Barnett formula and funding arrangements agreed with the Scottish Government in the fiscal framework. The framework provides the Scottish Government with greater certainty and flexibility to manage devolved public services, as well as higher per person spending. That does not remove the need for both Governments to take tough decisions to look after the public finances and stabilise the Scottish economy.

• 18 Jul 2024 · Clean Energy Superpower Mission · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the Secretary of State on his new position. He was lucky enough to visit my constituency during the election campaign and to visit the port of Greenock, where he saw the great potential that exists for Inverclyde and Renfrewshire West to contribute to the Government’s clean energy mission. What plans does he have to ensure that every part of the country, including in Scotland, can make a contribution? What message does he have for my constituents who are looking to the Government to make an investment in our ports and our marine assets?