Chamber and committees

I thank Paul Sweeney for bringing this hugely important report to the attention of the chamber. I also extend my sincere thanks to Marie Curie and Loughborough University for researching this urgent issue and bringing the reality faced by those dying in poverty to our attention. I commend him for the way in which he narrated the experiences of his constituent—none of us can fail to be touched by what he put to us.

We rightly spend a lot of our energy and resources in the Parliament combating the scourge of child poverty and doing all that we can to ensure that, from the very beginning of life, this nation nurtures our youngest. Despite all the challenges, we are making good progress in that regard.

However, what we do not talk enough about in the Parliament, in our communities and in our homes is dying. As a nation, we find it too difficult, too awkward and too upsetting to speak to one another about the reality of death, dying and terminal illness.

In addition, when we are creating policies and strategies to eradicate poverty, what we do not think about enough in the Parliament is how poverty manifests itself for people who have a terminal illness and their families. No one who is dealing with a terminal prognosis should be worrying about ensuring that they are warm enough, can run any specialist equipment that they rely on and have enough money to get the nutrition that they need to be as well as they can be.

Dying from a terminal illness will always be the most difficult thing that we might face as human beings, and Paul Sweeney outlined how that affected that young mum. It is an existential crisis. However, as a nation, we cannot thole the reality that is faced by too many who simply do not have enough money to live their last moments in comfort and, instead, live in cold surroundings with mounting debt and ever-increasing worry about what they are leaving behind for their loved ones. That anxiety alone is a heavy burden to bear.

In East Ayrshire, which forms part of my Carrick, Cumnock and Doon Valley constituency, 28 per cent of people with a terminal illness die in end-of-life poverty and 23 per cent die in fuel poverty. Far too many of my constituents in rural areas who are reliant on an oil heating system face the most horrendous fuel poverty when dying.

I recognise the issue that Finlay Carson has put to me. I have made representations to the Government on that on several occasions, and have gone back and forth between the health and social care partnership and registered social landlords. I absolutely get the point that Finlay Carson raises, and I will continue to challenge the issue.

Paul Sweeney set out that 10,400 people die in poverty in Scotland—there has been an increase of 27 per cent from 2019. As we have heard, the figure is even higher—one in four—for people who are of working age. In Scotland, one in five people die in fuel poverty in their last year of life.

The report identified particular groups that are at risk of dying in poverty, including working-age parents with dependent children, women and people from minoritised backgrounds. That is why collecting and collating disaggregated data is essential in understanding the issues across groups. As Paul Sweeney outlined, 25 per cent of those from a white ethnicity die in poverty when they face a terminal illness, but a staggering 47 per cent from a black background with a terminal illness die in poverty. We need to understand all the drivers behind that so that we can make coherent policy.

There are steps that the Scottish Government can take that will make an impact, and I ask the minister to reflect on them. We should extend the eligibility for the Scottish child payment to parents living with a terminal illness with dependent children under 16 on the presentation of a benefits assessment under special rules in Scotland—BASRIS—form that confirms that they are eligible under the special rules on terminal illness situations. We should provide extra financial support for terminally ill people with their energy bills, which could include extending eligibility for the winter heating payment to all terminally ill people and reinvesting in the fuel insecurity fund. We should bring forward a minimum income guarantee and work even harder towards eradicating the gender pay gap, which has an impact on women who are dying in poverty.

We urgently need a social tariff for energy to prevent fuel poverty at the end of life, and I urge the United Kingdom and Scottish Governments to make that a reality.

I also support the calls for the UK Government to unlock pensions for people who are close to pension age who have a terminal diagnosis. For those who have not paid enough national insurance contributions at that point, the Government should ensure that they have a pension-level payment. That feels like the right thing to do.

To ask the Scottish Government what recent assessment it has made of how successful the Bella centre in Dundee and Lilias centre in Glasgow have been in acknowledging the experience of trauma and adversity and supporting successful transitions for women back into the community. (S6O-04066)

Foysol Choudhury touches on something that is important to my heart. As a young Scot over in Canada, I was able to partake in a college course called Scots in 1991, well before there was any such education here. That little migrant child was able to support students over there and to translate Scots text for them. There is a huge thing about the diaspora across the world, but we need to focus on what happens here in Scotland to make sure that our own people and the people who come here to live have those tools.

The Bella and Lilias community custody units are world-leading facilities and are the only ones of their kind in the United Kingdom, and as such, they have rightly garnered national and international interest. I was hugely impressed when I visited them in my former ministerial role. I was so struck by the sense of calm and the psychologically informed design that they embodied. I said at the time that they felt more like a women’s refuge than a custody setting. Will the cabinet secretary provide an update on the continued assessment and evaluation of those centres moving forward to ensure their success in delivering a safe, stable and trauma-informed service, especially to those women who have experienced severe and multiple disadvantages?

To ask the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body whether it will review whether the Parliament is providing sufficient resourcing for the legislation team to support MSPs to lodge amendments to bills. (S6O-04053)

There are more and more MSPs seeking to lodge more amendments, which is great to see and is a testament to our desire to create robust legislation. The dedicated, hard-working team that supports us is very small, however—and I put on record my thanks to them this week in relation to our emergency legislation.

The last 18 months of a parliamentary session are always busy, with bills making their way through. What more can be done to increase the team, ensuring timeous support for MSPs and, therefore, the efficient passage of legislation?

Good morning, minister. I want to explore some issues around the fair work agenda. We have already touched on some of that, but I would like to go into a bit more detail.

Stakeholders have advised that a definition for ethical commissioning should be discussed and agreed, emphasising that that is critical in delivering the fair work agenda.

We have heard from you this morning about the sectoral bargaining issues that you have been discussing with your UK counterpart, which was quite helpful. It might be good to get a bit more information about that.

We have also heard about the pressures that will be put on the system by the estimated £21 million in additional costs for the third sector because of the national insurance changes. We know that there are good examples of collaborative commissioning and procuring arrangements, such as the Granite Care Consortium and the Fife care at home collaborative. How do you intend to further facilitate and accelerate more ethical commissioning models and improved procurement practices, bearing in mind that those new pressures will perhaps put some spanners in the works?

I have one other wee question—you touched on it earlier—about many of the workers within the sector being part time; also, a lot of them are women. I would like to explore a little how we will make sure that the workforce will have their lot improved, as far as we can possibly do that.

If we are not proceeding with the national care service at this stage, how can we protect that workforce as much as possible in the meantime, given the precariousness that we are now seeing, with the added pressure of that national insurance change?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on what action it is taking to improve access to audiology services. (S6O-04002)