Chamber and committees

I will pose a question to Kirsty Garrett on a slightly different topic. It follows on from Dr Gulhane’s points about black, Asian and minority ethnic women and girls. You mentioned initiatives taking place in February that tried to look at some of those areas. To what extent has Glasgow Life sat down and spoken to people from communities about their needs and what could be delivered that would help them? We will get the most acute and correct knowledge of the barriers when people who have that lived experience tell us about them. To what extent have you had engagement?

I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement. I offer my condolences to anyone who has lost a loved one to drugs here in Scotland

Perhaps especially this week, it is worth taking a moment to stop to assess the progress of this Scottish Government in getting to grips with this public health emergency, which was declared more than three years ago. Tragically, the statistics tell a sobering story. Scotland has recorded 2,269 confirmed drug-related deaths and, last week, we learned that there were 1,000 suspected drug deaths last year, including a significant spike in the last quarter.

It is also concerning that there have been delays and, at times, a seeming lack of urgency. MAT standards implementation was, for instance, promised and then delayed. We have known about the correlation between mental health and substance misuse for many years, but, by the minister’s own admission in her statement, work to deal with that has not always been clear or, indeed, quick enough.

I have two questions for the minister. The first is about timescales. The minister has stated that implementation will start by the end of this year. Can she guarantee to Parliament that that will happen? As she knows too well, there have been too many delays already in addressing this public health emergency.

Secondly, it strikes me that the big thing missing from the statement is data, which was a key recommendation of the rapid review. Last week’s publication in relation to the suspected spike in drug deaths clearly demonstrates that there is a problem in knowing exactly where the issues are and how we should tackle them, and indeed whether action is working. What will the minister do to get data right?

We are talking about people who have died. In the final quarter of 2022, excess deaths in Scotland rose by almost 10 per cent above the five-year average, which means that 1,433 more people died than would have been expected on the basis of historical trends. Each death is a tragedy, but those deaths are not a statistical coincidence. They are evidence of widening health inequalities; the normalisation of 12 hours waiting in accident and emergency; and a failure to increase cancer diagnosis rates. That is the heartbreaking reality of Humza Yousaf’s disastrous record as Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, and it will be the legacy of this First Minister. Why has she allowed the national health service to decline into such a state of perpetual crisis? Does she agree with clinicians, staff and patients—and indeed her Cabinet Secretary for Finance and the Economy, Kate Forbes—that Humza Yousaf should not be anywhere near running our health service?

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to tackle any economic inequalities faced by unpaid carers. (S6O-02014)

Each drugs death is a tragedy for the family who are left behind, particularly for parents who lose a child. This week, we have seen that suspected drugs deaths reached the highest number recorded in a single quarter since 2021. Public health experts have said that data is vital in tackling the crisis, but Parliament’s Public Audit Committee has said that there is a significant risk that the scale of the problem is not being properly captured or understood. Data collection must be robust in order to support people and their families. What steps is the Government taking to improve the quality of data collection relating to drug use—in particular, use of potent new drugs that might account for the spike in the number of deaths in the last quarter of 2022?

As we move into spring and summer, we all hope for some needed respite from household expenditure, with energy use dropping. However, that is little comfort to tens of thousands of households across Scotland who continue to exist on the precipice of financial insecurity due to exorbitant energy bills. Indeed, unpaid carers can face significantly higher energy costs, as some must operate essential life-sustaining equipment.

In response to questions in the chamber from me and my colleague Jackie Baillie, the Government has stated that it will look to provide additional support for unpaid carers in relation to that life-sustaining equipment, but no detail has yet been forthcoming. Can the minister say if and when the Government plans to publish details of and perhaps a timetable for such additional funding to be made available to carers?

Thank you, convener.

I am detecting an openness to consider the matter, as social care and the role of the PSC develop, and that there can be a conversation on that.

This theme is about the intersectionality of the issues that impact on women and girls in sport. Your report covers various areas, but I am interested in LGBTQ+ young women in particular and their access. How do we support those women to feel secure, supported and safe in sport? You have touched on that already, but I wonder whether you want to add anything to that.

I want to pick up on the previous theme of the discriminatory language that we hear, and the fact that clubs and governing bodies do not always tackle homophobia appropriately. We have seen a lot of focus on that recently. Obviously, that has been more in the male space, and it has been to do with male players in football in particular. However, it is clear that there are issues around homophobic language in women’s football in particular, and there is often stereotyping of women who play football. Did that abuse and that language being a real barrier and clubs and governing bodies maybe not dealing with that appropriately come through in any meaningful way?