I agree. It is often said that the art of soldiering is the “controlled application of violence” on behalf of the state. That is essentially the purpose of the army: to close with, make contact with and kill the enemy. At the end of the day, that is what fixing a bayonet at the end of a rifle is about. When you have been taught to do that under certain circumstances, as controlled by officers, it can be challenging to have that control mechanism taken away. That can often be difficult for people.

When I speak to veterans, they tell me that the loss of structure and purpose that the military environment offers, with clear rules and routines—as well as a cohesive identity as a group within the military—is particularly tough to lose. A lot of self-esteem is wrapped up in that: the regiment, the tradition, the ship, or whatever it might be. It is difficult to transition to life outside the armed forces.

The loss of such a tight structure can make someone feel as though they have lost their identity and that they no longer have a clear purpose. That can often have a knock-on effect on veterans’ mental health, and anxiety, depression and substance abuse are all too often common features of people in the veterans’ community, and of younger veterans in particular. So, it is crucial that the appropriate services are in place.

Although it is welcome that priority has been given to the healthcare of veterans, the Government cannot be complacent about the quality of the services—in particular, the quality and accessibility of mental health services.

We know, for the reasons outlined by Ms Gallacher, that veterans might, unfortunately, end up in the justice system, and we must ask ourselves whether the correct support was ever available to them to avoid that outcome. Certainly, we must not diminish the seriousness of criminal offences. However, when veterans find themselves in the justice system, NOVA Scotland can be there for them at all points. Whether that is assistance in the wake of an arrest or support for those serving a custodial sentence, it is on hand and able to act as a mentor and a consistent point of contact.

It is good to know that NOVA Scotland works across Scotland with all 32 local authorities to assist vulnerable veterans so that they can rebuild their lives. As mentioned earlier, that was a key part of the recommendations made by the Scottish veterans commissioner. Those interventions could prevent offending and allow veterans to rebuild their lives in a more productive way. That would be good for the community and for everyone involved.

With its experience elsewhere in the United Kingdom over the last decade, I know that it has unrivalled experience and I look forward to seeing its work develop in Scotland. It is very encouraging to see it do that. That one-stop-shop approach and consistent point of contact is critical, and I commend its work.

I share the sentiments of members from across the chamber in welcoming the official opening of the overdose prevention pilot in Glasgow. I was fortunate enough to visit it last week with members of the joint committee on tackling drug deaths and drug harm, and it was clear to me that the facility is equipped to provide an opportunity to reach the established cohort of people in Glasgow who inject drugs in public and to provide them with the support or resources that they might need. I have always said that the facility has to be accessible and integrated with other services, particularly residential rehabilitation, given that the nearest such facility is Phoenix Futures, in Anniesland, which is some 5 miles away.

Can the cabinet secretary reassure members that the facility will be geared towards supporting people where they are at, without judgment or setting tests that people are doomed to fail? Will he advise what assessment the Scottish Government has made of extending the opening hours of the facility from 12 hours a day, as at present? Will he provide an update on the approval of a licence for a drug-checking facility at the site?

Will Mark Ruskell give way?

Will the member take an intervention?

The member for Motherwell and Wishaw mentioned Bill Forsyth’s “That Sinking Feeling”, which is one of the films that I remember watching with my mum as a kid. It was striking, because we used to sit and look at all the places that we recognised from growing up in our city. That reminded me of the late Alasdair Gray’s line from “Lanark” about Glasgow being a magnificent city. The character asks,

“Why do we hardly ever notice that?”

and the answer is,

“Because nobody imagines living here”.

So many other cities around the world are projected to a global population in imagination, through books, films and music, in a way and to a degree that perhaps Glasgow is not. Perhaps that is why we do not recognise the magnificence of the culture that surrounds us every day. So often, in Scotland, we do not fully appreciate the extent of our cultural inheritance from previous generations in particular.

That is why I have been so taken by the agenda of trying to safeguard the city of Glasgow’s built environment. I declare an interest as a trustee of the Glasgow City Heritage Trust. It feels like a constant war of attrition to safeguard our cultural inheritance in Glasgow. The museum service has had to make cuts of £7 million because it is 80 per cent dependent on council funding, which is under continued pressure every year. That has left just one curator to look after more than a million objects in the museums’ collections. That is an absurd situation. The national museums in Edinburgh are given far greater resources, yet no one could say that Kelvingrove is anything other than a museum of international standing.

Similarly, we see those pressures play out with the great Mackintosh inheritance, which is nothing short of a globally significant architectural inheritance. I mentioned to the cabinet secretary the impasse with regard to the Glasgow School of Art Mackintosh building. It is to be hoped that we will see progress this year. Nonetheless, Glasgow City Council has put Mackintosh’s Martyrs school up for sale, with its fate to be determined. Similarly, there is an impasse over the future of the Lighthouse, the former Glasgow Herald building, which was opened as Scotland’s centre for design and architecture in 1999 but has been closed since the pandemic.

There is an on-going threat to our built environment. Many charitable and cultural organisations are custodians of some of our amazing built heritage. The member for Edinburgh West mentioned the Royal high school in Edinburgh. There is finally progress there, which is great. We could take the example of the Govanhill baths on the south side of Glasgow. There has been a long-running community campaign to revive the building, and progress had been made with capital funding in recent years. However, as a result of the escalation in building material costs, the project has fallen into deficit and progress has been stymied. The council has also changed its policy on business rates and non-domestic rates as a result of pressure on its funding. In the last financial year, it removed the exemption for listed buildings that had given them rates relief.

On the one hand, that could be a positive thing, because many private interests own listed buildings but do not preserve them or do anything with them, so it could create an incentive to do something with those buildings. One the other hand, many cultural organisations that are running on a shoestring are caught up in that. I therefore urge the cabinet secretary to look at the application of non-domestic rates across Scotland, particularly in relation to non-profit organisations, and how we can provide a degree of exemption.

I also urge the cabinet secretary to consider what more his office could do to preserve our built environment. I have been working in Paisley with my colleague Neil Bibby to save the territorial army drill hall, which is under imminent threat of demolition. The council feels that it cannot take on the risk of serving an urgent works notice, because that would leave the council with a financial liability. However, under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997, it has the power to recover the costs from the owner, but it is not minded to do so. The cabinet secretary could directly intervene and serve an urgent works notice. I wonder whether he could look at that case and perhaps more actively use the powers in the 1997 act to safeguard more of our built heritage.

I congratulate Ms Gallacher, the member for Central Scotland, on securing the debate. It is a privilege to be able to take part in the debate, and I put on record that members on the Labour benches have a huge admiration for the work of NOVA in supporting veterans to address their challenges. I pay tribute in particular to Ms Gallacher’s constituent, Scott, who is clearly doing admirable work such that it has caught the attention of the member; I hope that he continues to persevere and innovate in serving the constituents of Central Scotland in that endeavour.

As I said in December during the Government debate on support for the veterans and armed forces community in Scotland, Labour members

“are eager to work on a cross-party basis”—[Official Report, 5 December 2024; c 70.]

to ensure that armed forces members and veterans are supported, whether they are in service or are transitioning to civilian life.

That transition is often very successful. As members have mentioned, veterans are some our finest and most achieving citizens. However, the transition can also be very challenging. The physiological and emotional impacts of their service, often in very traumatic circumstances—especially in the last 20 years or so—mean that everyday life can be challenging.

From personal experience, I know that some of my friends who served in Afghanistan often found civilian life somewhat trivial when they came back and that everyday challenges—which I suppose we would colloquially describe as first-world problems—could often lead to low frustration tolerance. When we were younger, I remember going out in Glasgow after people had come back from Afghanistan, and there was an increased tendency to get into scraps because they found arguments more frequently than might otherwise have been the case. Patience was low.

That was often countered by having what was known as “decompression,” where units would stay together after coming back from hot conflict zones and try to maintain some cohesion as they slowly transitioned back into civilian life. However, people often found that very difficult—not least those who had lost colleagues, where there was an underlying sense of guilt.

In May, it will have been 12 years since my friend Robert Hetherington was sadly killed in Afghanistan. I still very vividly recall attending his funeral just a few yards from here at the Canongate kirk. It was a harrowing experience for all of us, because that should have been his wedding, not his funeral. Seeing people in their 20s in that context is a very jarring experience. I think that a lot of us still struggle to come to terms with the fact that he is no longer with us—particularly in recent years, as the conflict in Afghanistan has come to an end. We often question what the purpose of it all was, in the end.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on the progress to restore the Mackintosh building of the Glasgow School of Art. (S6O-04157)

I am sure that the cabinet secretary will share my admiration of the achievement of the French people in the successful restoration of Notre-Dame de Paris that was completed last month, little over five years after the fire. However, more than seven years on from the fire here, there has still been very little progress on the restoration of Glasgow School of Art, Scotland’s greatest architectural achievement.

This year, in the 850th anniversary of the granting of Glasgow’s borough charter, will the cabinet secretary agree to convene a cross-Government summit with the architectural sector in Scotland to bring together a special-purpose vehicle or a special sponsor body to take forward the Glasgow School of Art restoration project? That project is currently being stymied by the on-going litigation and dispute with the insurers and the Glasgow School of Art. The project is simply too big and complex to be left to the Glasgow School of Art alone. It is a national project and should be treated as such.

The cabinet secretary said that services are holding up well this winter, but those words are of little reassurance to many staff and patients, including my constituent who is in his 80s who had an emergency urology problem on new year’s day but was told that no urology services would be available at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital until at least the following week. After phoning around, he was advised to attend Glasgow Royal infirmary’s A and E department, but no ambulances were available for six hours, so he had to take a taxi. He was admitted and an emergency urologist was called in, but that was after hours of agonising pain, confusion and frustration for my constituent.

What assurance can the cabinet secretary offer to elderly constituents, such as mine, who are understandably frustrated about the lack of provision of specialist services over the Christmas period, when many of them are at their most vulnerable?

Is it not the case that the Government has never met its target of 90 per cent of children being seen by CAMHS within 18 weeks and that, in the past quarter, almost 30 per cent of CAMHS referrals were rejected? How is the Government meant to deal with that positively when it has cut the mental health budget by 1 per cent in real terms and there has been a cash cut of £20 million year to year?