I am pleased to have the opportunity to open this debate for Scottish Labour on equalities in the programme for government, and I will begin with areas of consensus.

As Anas Sarwar outlined in yesterday’s debate, there are areas in the programme that Scottish Labour supports. We have long called for improvements in the pay of social care workers, so finally seeing some progress in that area is to be welcomed, despite our being told repeatedly by the Government—including the First Minister when he was health secretary—that that could not be done.

We have also long supported efforts to improve access to childcare across Scotland, because we know that access to good, high-quality and truly flexible childcare can reduce poverty and support people—especially women—into the workplace.

No.

I mentioned care workers because we know how vital health and social care are to ensuring that everyone in Scotland has the best life that they can, but it seems that health and social care are, at best, an afterthought in the programme for government and, at worst, something that the Government does not actively want to talk about. It took the First Minister 22 minutes to mention the NHS in his speech yesterday, and there is a similar absence in today’s Government motion, in which there is just one sentence about health and social care.

More than 820,000 people are languishing on waiting lists, while more than 7,000 NHS vacancies remain unfilled. There is a crisis in our health service, which is being felt every day by people up and down Scotland. That is the reality under the SNP.

Hard-working staff are crying out for action, so where are the big, bold solutions to help to alleviate the pressure? Where is a renewed recovery and catch-up plan? Where is a meaningful workforce plan? Where is the action to properly fix social care to ensure that people can get out of hospital and live good and well-supported lives in their communities?

Of course, we recognise the reopening of the independent living fund, which we have called on the Government to do in successive programmes for government and budgets. As convener of the cross-party group on learning disability, I know that that will be welcomed, but we want the Government to move faster and further than it is doing with the phased approach that it is taking, so that the fund becomes more sustainable.

However, where is the further action on social care? In its 2021 manifesto, the SNP pledged to abolish non-residential care charges. Time and again, we have called on the Government to honour that commitment to disabled people and their families.

As I have just said, the Government is on track to miss the legally binding poverty reduction targets that have been set. Clarion calls have been made in relation to the fact that the Government is going to miss those targets. [Interruption.] No—I need to make progress.

No organisation has been clearer in making that point than the Fraser of Allander Institute, which has said:

“Missing a statutory target should be a big deal, shouldn’t it? Instead we have had the equivalent of a shrug and a suggestion that the constitutional settlement means we lack the necessary levers.”

We have already heard plenty about the constitutional settlement in today’s debate. We are talking about poverty, on which we can and must do more.

Scottish Labour has offered interventions to tackle the cost of living crisis and to prevent people from experiencing poverty, but they have been ignored by the Government. We have suggested capping the cost of public transport, providing rebates on water bills, implementing mortgage rescue schemes and taking quicker action to pay care workers not £12 but £15 an hour. If the First Minister, the Cabinet and the Deputy First Minister are serious about their offer to listen and work across this chamber, they must engage on our proposals.

I will expand on the point about the telephone system and people who call for advice. I have seen data showing that one in five calls was left on hold for over half an hour, and that 28,000 calls waited over an hour. The longest call waiting time that was recorded was, I think, three hours, seven minutes and 25 seconds. Obviously, there is a particular issue: I do not know whether it is about the volume of calls or about not having a robust enough system in place. Can you say something about the action that is being taken to rectify those issues?

This is similar to Katy Clark’s request: it would be useful if the committee could be updated on progress with that, if there is willingness to do so.

I want to expand on the conversation about rural locations and ask about childcare more broadly. A lot of the conversations in the committee have been about the expansion of funded childcare to 1,140 hours a year. Discussions are on-going about how that might be widened to include one and two-year-olds. Does the panel have a view on whether further state-funded childcare would be beneficial? How can we ensure that flexibility?

I am not sure who wants to come in on that. Rachel Hunter was on a roll.

No, convener. In the interests of time, I am happy to hand back to you.

If I may, convener, I will ask another question. David, you mentioned that you expect to see call waiting times coming down. Do you have a timescale to work to for bringing them down? Do you have targets for that so that we will be able to analyse what improvement looks like?

How are processing times impacting on clients? What is the view of the impact that they are having, and how does Social Security Scotland keep people informed and updated throughout the process, while they are waiting? Is there regular communication? Are there set points in the process at which communication is proactive?

I am grateful to rise on behalf of Scottish Labour to wind up on the bill.

There is a huge degree of consensus on the bill. As I said in my opening speech, the bill can go forward. However, it is vitally important to say that we could go further.

I will not rehash those points, because the cabinet secretary heard them quite clearly.

I do not know whether there is some slight heckling from members at the back, telling me to get on with it. No, there is not.

I want to add to what we have heard already. It really is a privilege, for me as a parliamentarian, and for us all, to interact with charities in our work. We all get to experience, in our constituencies and our regions, the huge breadth and depth of wonderful charities that are doing amazing work.

In this place, we host charities probably more often than many places in Scotland do—on a daily basis. Every lunch time or evening in the Parliament, the place is brimming with different organisations coming to talk to their parliamentarians. Those are very often charitable organisations, which do a range of important work. There are charities that provide food parcels for older people; health charities that raise money for our children’s hospices and hospitals; and charities that support our armed forces and veterans community. As I said, it is a great honour to be able to engage with as many of them as we can.

Indeed, this evening, I will host a number of HIV charities from across Scotland to talk about how we progress the route towards the elimination of HIV in Scotland. Yes, Presiding Officer—that was a plug for my event this evening, so I hope that colleagues in the chamber will join me.

I am very happy, on behalf of Scottish Labour, to reiterate our support for the bill, and to reiterate the points that I have made previously about ensuring that we go further in the future. I also reiterate the point about how we deal with religious charities more broadly. I am keen to have further dialogue and discussion on that with the cabinet secretary—I know that she has made that offer previously, and I am sure that she will do so again in summing up.

I do not intend to detain the chamber for much longer than I need to, other than to say that I think that the bill commands support from members on all sides of the chamber, and it certainly commands the support of the regulator. The crucial test, however, will be whether it commands support for its provisions among charities across Scotland—those charities that we all know from our communities. That will be the next test, which is why it is vitally important that we get the monitoring and the post-legislative scrutiny right before we move on to the next phase of the review.

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in the debate, and Scottish Labour will support the bill.