This week the Scottish Parliament introduced the Scottish Budget 2025-26. This is a budget by Scotland, for Scotland. Covering many policies designed to support people, I look forward to seeing this budget pass when it comes before the parliament again at Stage 3 later this month.
On Wednesday evening I was a panellist on BBC Debate Night. Some interesting questions came up and I thoroughly enjoyed being part of the debate. You can watch my contribution to the discussion around Grangemouth Refinery at https://fb.watch/xC45umzMu1/ or you can watch the full debate on BBC iPlayer.
I also asked a question at First Minister’s Questions on Thursday regarding the Grangemouth Refinery. I repeated the broken Labour promises and asked for the First Minister to agree with my calls. I also asked what support the Scottish Government can give to workers at the refinery and what can be done to ensure there is a skills cluster to transition from.
At General Questions on Thursday, I asked about the impact employer National Insurance contributions will have on the hospice sector and how these can be mitigated by the Scottish Government. This was a main concern raised with me at my recent visit to Strathcarron Hospice. I was pleased to hear the commitments made by the Minister, which you can listen to on my previous post.
I finished off the week by meeting with the Falkirk Health & Social Care Partnership. Their active consultation on their service provisions runs for 6 weeks and looks for all views on their proposals. If you would like to take part in the survey, you can do so here: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=653523093686250&set=a.204441265261104
