Mr. Angus Robertson:

I thank the Deputy for all the questions. I should say first that I have a long-standing interest in this area. I served for a number of years on the intelligence and security committee, which involves Members of both Houses of the British Parliament and which oversees the UK intelligence services. I have a very close interest in the area and a reasonably deep understanding of the work that these agencies do in the UK and internationally to keep us safe. It is largely women and children who are coming from Ukraine and I do not think they pose any security threat whatsoever. That is my first observation. My second relates to bad people who want to do harm in the UK. We have experience of such people coming from Russia, as was the case in Salisbury and in the attempted and, sadly, successful poisoning of others. That shows that the Russians do not need a refugee crisis to get into the UK. I make those two points. Speaking frankly, I view the arguments of the British Government as excuses to manage and limit the arrival of refugees. Do I think it is a sensible thing that our security and police services do everything that is proportionate and sensible to make sure that we are aware of who is arriving? I absolutely do. However, if that is required, it should be done once people have arrived. We should attain standard information about who is arriving in the country but we need to do it the other way around. To answer the Deputy's question in short form, I do not see that there are major security implications or different security implications from those that previously existed. Incidentally, if that were a particular issue for the United Kingdom, it must surely also be a particular challenge for European Union countries. The exceptionalism we often hear about from Ministers in London is beyond me. I have every faith that Ireland's policing service and the policing and border services in other European Union states will be doing what they need to do to ensure that states know who is arriving into their countries. That is right and proper but in the UK's case, it is being used as an excuse to use an administrative system to limit the arrival of refugees. That is my answer to the Deputy's first question.

The Deputy also asked about our longer term positioning. It is not very long term. We were elected last year with a majority in the Scottish Parliament. We believe the people should be able to decide our constitutional future. The Scottish Government has been elected with that mandate and it is our intention to deliver on it and ensure that the people can decide on our constitutional future in a democratic referendum. The UK still views itself as a voluntary union and because of that, we have an inherent right to decide the arrangements we wish to see. We want to see improved relations on our islands and we believe that becoming a sovereign state, working together with friends and neighbours in the rest of the current United Kingdom, who will be our closest political and economic partners, and our friends in Ireland and Northern Ireland, is important in that regard. It is important to understand Scottish independence in that context. We believe we will have a better future by becoming an independent state. It behoves us to think about what we can do to ensure we have the appropriate architecture on these islands to allow us work together better. Of course, we have the British-Irish Council, which brings together the Governments of the United Kingdom and Ireland while also including colleagues from Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland. That is a good start and there is much more we can do to develop that as an architecture to bring us together.

The Deputy also asked about the timeline. We were elected last year. We said that we wished to have a referendum after we emerged from the pandemic and, thankfully, we are all now emerging from the pandemic. We are in the process of making the necessary preparations within the Government to be able to hold a referendum, which would take place towards the end of 2023.