Official Report 1017KB pdf
Good morning. The first item of business is general question time.
Older Patients (Care)
To ask the Scottish Government what alternatives are being piloted to enable older patients to be cared for outside of hospitals. (S6O-04882)
Our approach to reform focuses on primary and community care, aiming to shift the balance of care where appropriate for people and their families. Our immediate focus is on enhancing capacity in the community, and work is under way to increase hospital at home provision to 2,000 beds by December 2026, meaning that people can receive hospital-level care in their own homes. To ensure that all of our population can access a hospital at home service that meets their needs, we have commissioned Healthcare Improvement Scotland to support integration authorities to adapt services to meet the needs of rural and island communities.
I thank the cabinet secretary for that answer, but the hospital at home initiative, which he mentioned, is not currently available in Aberdeenshire. Following a pilot in Westhill, the health and social care partnership had to pull out due to a lack of support and resources from the Scottish Government. The service is available just a few miles away in the city, but the shire is left with stacked ambulances, two-tier healthcare, general practitioner practices shutting down and village hospitals shutting. Is there anywhere else in Scotland that will not be running hospital at home? Will the cabinet secretary now provide resources to the shire for it to proceed?
I am grateful to Liam Kerr for his questions. As he will know, decisions on how to deliver services for local communities are ultimately for integration authorities to make. In this case, it is the Aberdeenshire integration joint board. However, following NHS Grampian’s escalation, officials have been working with NHS Grampian to confirm the additional funding based on the development of its whole-system plan, taking into account the recommendations that were made in the KPMG report. Through the assurance board process, extensive work is under way with NHS Grampian to develop robust whole-system work so that its share of the £85 million of unscheduled care funding can be allocated. I expect hospital at home to be part of that consideration.
I very much welcome the investment that the Scottish Government is making in the hospital at home initiative, which will make it the biggest hospital in Scotland, with 2,000 beds by the end of next year. Hospital at home is allowing elderly patients in my constituency to benefit from being around their home comforts with family and friends nearby, and I very much welcome that. Beyond that, can the cabinet secretary outline what more is being done to support elderly and vulnerable patients to be treated more effectively in hospitals? For example, how will the new frailty units work?
David Torrance is absolutely right that hospital at home can be transformational in terms of the delivery of services. The fact that we are moving to 2,000 beds by the end of next year will make hospital at home the largest hospital in Scotland.
For people who are living with frailty, hospitals can increase the risk of harm if their needs are not identified quickly and if our systems and services are poorly co-ordinated. That is why we have committed to delivering direct access to specialist frailty teams across every emergency department in Scotland. That will mean that frail patients with complex needs will bypass our busy accident and emergency departments to receive the specialist care and support that they need, minimising the risk of prolonged hospital stays. By providing co-ordinated multi-agency care both at the front door of our EDs and in the community, we can provide the right care in the right place, helping people who are experiencing frailty to remain as independent as possible.
Fire Station Services
To ask the Scottish Government for what reason it is reportedly downgrading fire station services across the country, including in Helensburgh. (S6O-04883)
It is important to be clear that the Scottish Government is not downgrading fire station services across Scotland.
Decisions on the location of fire stations, along with vehicles, equipment and the people who are needed to deal with responding to emergencies, are a matter for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service’s chief officer. The emergencies that the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service responds to have changed significantly over the years. For example, dwelling fires have reduced by 20 per cent since 2013. At the same time, we have seen the risks of flooding and wildfires increasing. It is therefore sensible for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to carry out a service delivery review to ensure that its resources are in the right place at the right time. It is currently consulting on its review, with a closing date of 16 September. Until the results of the consultation have been properly analysed, no decisions have been taken.
I thank the minister for her response, but it is the Scottish Government that has cut the fire service budget by millions of pounds, so, ultimately, it is her responsibility.
The proposal to downgrade Helensburgh fire station is quite simply reckless. The station already has a problem with recruiting sufficient numbers of retained firefighters to cover the existing appliances, never mind the additional overnight cover under those proposals. In the previous year, the availability of appliances was at only 50 per cent at night and a staggeringly low 20 per cent at the weekend. That lack of coverage makes the downgrading short-sighted. Will the minister agree with me and her Scottish National Party colleague Brendan O’Hara that the proposal is reckless and should be scrapped?
First, I need to highlight that, since 2017-18, there have been substantial year-on-year increases of funding to support the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. The current annual budget is more than £97 million more than it was in 2017-18. This year alone, there is an additional £18.8 million in support for front-line services.
We understand that this is not a cost-cutting exercise. The Scottish Fire and Rescue Service is undertaking a service delivery review, and there is a live, full public consultation. I encourage everybody to take part in that consultation.
I have been contacted by constituents who have expressed concerns about the change in working patterns at Helensburgh and Milngavie fire stations. Last month, I met Scottish Fire and Rescue Service representatives who cover the west of Scotland and I expressed the concerns of local residents. The representatives to whom I spoke admitted that response times could increase, as on-call firefighters would have to travel from their homes to the station and then to the destination. Does the minister agree that that model risks putting lives in danger?
No, I do not agree with the member’s assumption. As I said, this is an operational issue for the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service. No decisions have currently been made, and I encourage the member and her constituents to take part in the consultation.
The Promise
To ask the Scottish Government how it will deliver on its commitments in the Promise, in light of the publication, “Education Outcomes for Looked After Children 2023/24”, showing a decline in most key educational outcomes. (S6O-04884)
I appreciate Mr Whitfield’s concerns. However, it is important not to lose sight of the positive difference in educational outcomes over the long term. The gap in the proportion of children achieving one Scottish credit and qualifications framework level 5 qualification or better reduced by more than 20 percentage points between 2009-10 and 2023-24.
We have introduced a range of targeted support measures, such as the care-experienced students bursary, the Skills Development Scotland mentoring scheme and the provision of more than £70 million to local authorities through the Scottish attainment challenge fund to support the attainment and wellbeing of care-experienced children and young people.
However, I appreciate that the measurements in 2023-24, where progress was static or showing small declines, require increased focus. It is important for us to understand how our investment could be more impactful.
I am grateful to the minister for that response. Schools in Scotland must be ambitious for care-experienced children and ensure that they have all that they need to thrive.
The independent care review resulted in the Promise, and yet the latest results show that the percentage of pupils leaving school early is rising and there is a 10-point gap in relation to positive destinations. Those statistics are a damning picture of the SNP Government’s failure to keep the Promise. What is more concerning from the minister’s answer is that the Government does not appear to understand why. Is that the case?
I do not agree with all of that. The statistics show that we need to go further to continue the positive long-term trends that I referred to.
In the statistics, it is good to see an increase in the proportion of looked-after leavers going on to positive destinations nine months after leaving school. That means that we now have more children and young people from the most challenging circumstances getting the chance to succeed at school and in life.
We and key partner agencies, such as local authorities, need to accelerate our efforts to keep the Promise. Earlier this week, the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills met local authority directors of education to reflect on the progress of 10 years of the Scottish attainment challenge and to look ahead at what more we need to do to give more children a chance to get the skills and qualifications that they need to succeed in life.
The minister will know about reports of 15-minute timetables for care-experienced children. That means that they attend school for just 15 minutes in a day, without any other support when they leave the school grounds. In my view, that is exclusion by another name, and it should be stopped, as was stated in the Promise. What investigation has the minister done into the 15-minute timetables?
Mr Rennie refers to exclusion. As I have spoken about previously in the chamber and at committee, our national policy on exclusion has a strong focus on approaches that can be used to prevent the need for exclusion. Exclusion should be the last resort and, when it is used, it should be a proportionate response where there is no appropriate alternative.
Mr Rennie also refers to 15-minute timetables. I will not go into specific cases, but there can be a number of reasons why the school setting might not be the appropriate place for a child at a certain point in their life. The Scottish Government is taking a number of measures, some of which I have already alluded to, and there is the virtual school network, which involves looking at a child’s specific needs, how to build an education around them, and transitioning them back to a school setting.
The Scottish Government is taking a number of measures to tackle the issue and to ensure that care-experienced children and young people get the education that they need.
Damp and Mould in Homes
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding its definition of what constitutes “substantial” damp and mould in a home, at what threshold such conditions are considered to require remedial action by social landlords. (S6O-04885)
All homes in Scotland are required by law to meet the minimum tolerable standard, which requires housing to be
“substantially free from rising or penetrating damp”.
The Scottish Government developed guidance for local authorities on the tolerable standard, which includes guidance on assessing damp. Every case is different, and assessors are expected to use that guidance, as well as their professional judgment, to assess on a case-by-case basis whether a house is substantially free from damp.
I take the issue of damp and mould extremely seriously, which is why I committed to bringing in Awaab’s law across the social and private rented sectors from March 2026.
The Scottish house condition survey, in its most recently published data, found that 10 per cent—that is, 250,000—of the homes in Scotland have damp and mould. For two decades, the issue has been actively monitored. As woeful as that situation is, it is not spread evenly across the population. Low-income families living in rented accommodation are often left to the whim of rogue landlords and big insurance companies, which all too often do not put the householder first. Their tactic is to ignore and delay and to put numerous hurdles in front of the householder so that, they hope, the householder either gives up or goes away.
The risk to human life that is associated with having damp and mouldy conditions present in a family home is far too great to leave the protection of families to woolly legislation. Does the cabinet secretary seriously believe that it goes far enough?
To frame Davy Russell’s question in another way, I note that the 2023 Scottish house condition survey showed that 90 per cent of homes in Scotland were free from damp, condensation and mould. Do I think that that goes far enough? No. That is why, this week, we have confirmed that we will implement Awaab’s law, starting with damp and mould, across the private and social rented sectors from spring next year.
Food Sector (International Exports)
To ask the Scottish Government how it supports the food sector to export to international markets. (S6O-04886)
Food exports are vital to our national and rural economies. In 2024, food exports were worth £2.1 billion. We have announced an increase in the export support that we provide to Scottish companies through the six-point export plan, which builds on the significant support that we already provide to Scottish exporters, such as the £705,000 that we provided this financial year towards the Scotland food and drink export plan, which helps to exploit the most significant opportunities for Scotland.
The United Kingdom Government must secure a European Union sanitary and phytosanitary agreement to remove the complex and costly barriers to trade with our largest single export market, as we have consistently called for.
Scotland’s mackerel industry is a global success story, and Scottish mackerel now accounts for a fifth of the Japanese market. However, processors tell me that they are worried about the possibility of a significant quota cut in 2026, which might put their growth at risk. How will the Scottish Government ensure that processors have access to product, so that Scotland can continue to build on its export success? Will the minister meet me and industry representatives to discuss that challenge?
Karen Adam mentioned the success of the mackerel sector, and it is a global success. Scientific advice will be published at the end of this month. However, the bilateral arrangements that we have secured with Norway and the Faroe Islands increase the United Kingdom’s quota in 2025 by more than 26,000 tonnes, the vast majority of which comes to Scotland. We estimate that, following the introduction of amended economic link licence conditions, an additional £52 million worth of mackerel was landed in Scotland in 2023-24.
We met the Scottish Pelagic Processors Association on 22 July in Peterhead. I am happy to consider another meeting to discuss the issue further.
Housing Emergency
To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with local authorities regarding solutions to the housing emergency. (S6O-04887)
Since declaring the housing emergency, we have taken an activist and interventionist approach and have worked extensively with local authorities, particularly those that are experiencing the most acute housing pressures. Over the summer, I met extensively with partners across the housing sector, including local authorities and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities, in order to understand their challenges and hear their proposed solutions. Much of that fed into the housing emergency action plan, which I presented to the Parliament this week.
Scotland’s biggest city is enveloped in a homelessness crisis that is impacting all of Central Scotland. Some 44 per cent of people who present as homeless in Glasgow come from asylum seeker households. Asylum seeker families also make up more than half of all temporary accommodation placements and account for more than 60 per cent of the children who are in such housing. Does the cabinet secretary agree that the Scottish National Party policy of open borders would only make the housing emergency worse?
Stephen Kerr, not for the first time in this chamber, should be utterly ashamed of the contribution that he has made. Given his colleague Craig Hoy’s contribution about a change of “character” in the south of Scotland, he, too, should be ashamed. Scotland is an open, welcoming and inclusive country. The homelessness prevention support that we provide is for everybody in this country.
Funding (Arts and Public Performance Venues)
I apologise for being slightly late to this question session.
To ask the Scottish Government, regarding the future award of any grants or loans to arts or public performance venues, whether it or any public authority, including Creative Scotland, will require applicants to observe and respect freedom of expression under the law in order to be eligible for financial support, and that failing to do so will require any funding provided to be repaid. (S6O-04888)
Freedom of expression is vital to the culture sector, in which the exploration of new ideas and debate are key to innovation. It is for individual artists and cultural organisations to engage with others in debate and discussion as they see fit. Therefore, Creative Scotland does not include conditions relating to freedom of expression in its funding terms and conditions. Clearly, though, all organisations, whether they are publicly funded or not, must operate within the wider framework of the law.
I commend the cabinet secretary for his masterful ambiguity. However, an arts venue in Edinburgh was awarded £608,000 of taxpayers’ money and then went on to ban, censor and cancel our very own Deputy First Minister, asserting that she was somehow a threat to the safety and wellbeing of its staff.
Will the Scottish Government unequivocally condemn that ludicrous decision? Even more important, will it prevent such a thing from ever happening again by making it clear that any grant of taxpayers’ cash will be clawed back from offenders? Otherwise, the Government is sending out a message that Scotland is where censorship rules okay.
The record has been put very straight on the issue that Mr Ewing asked of me, but I am sure that he would acknowledge that there are long-standing examples of freedom of expression in our national and cultural life, as well as issues of controversy—this is not new. I am a strong supporter of freedom of expression but also of recognising the arm’s-length relationship between Creative Scotland and ministers, which is for very good reasons.
Mr Ewing will be aware that a review of Creative Scotland is on-going. I will look closely at any recommendations that it makes in relation to Mr Ewing’s question. Indeed, he will no doubt have made a submission to that review, and I will be happy if he wishes to forward it to me.