Chamber and committees

Having read some information on the subject, I want to start with how the data can be improved with intersectionality. For example, how do we know how many families from an ethnic minority background have children who have a disability? How do we drill down and get to the detail of what are complex and different lives?

Thank you for that comprehensive answer, which began to explore some of the other themes that I am keen to get more clarity on. You said, quite rightly, that a one-size-fits-all approach does not work. Is the Government’s intention, then, to target measures specifically to the groups that we have just discussed? Are there examples of initiatives through which that targeting is happening?

I have a technical question about Barnett consequentials—in particular, the Barnett consequentials from the UK council tax rebate and their most effective use in relation to the cost of living. What is the Government’s view on how they will be used? Are there plans in place?

I did not detect in the minister’s answer any recognition that, after 14 years in government, the Scottish National Party should accept that this shameful situation has unfolded under its watch. The gap in respect of premature deaths is at its widest since 2007, when the SNP came to power. The gap of 26 years in life expectancy between the most affluent areas and the least affluent areas is the widest ever.

It is clear that radical solutions are needed, such as those that Professor David Kerr of the University of Oxford has advocated. He has called for implementation of the framework that Professor Sir Michael Marmot devised, which would devolve to local communities powers and funding for education, public health, early years and employment to find solutions that work for our diverse cities, towns and villages.

The Government talks big and does little. Is it not time to take a radical approach to tackling such issues?

To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recent National Records of Scotland report, “Healthy Life Expectancy in Scotland”, showing that healthy life expectancy has decreased in each of the last four years for females, and in each of the last three years for males. (S6T-00500)

The fact that healthy life expectancy is going backwards is nothing short of a scandal. It is a fundamental measure of how our society is progressing. Years of public health failures that predate the pandemic, and mounting pressure on our national health service, are robbing people of their best years.

The two areas that have the lowest number of years spent in good health are both in my West Scotland region—they are Inverclyde for males, where the figure is 54.4 years, and North Ayrshire for females, where the figure is 54 years. Those communities have experienced years of cuts to health services and to council budgets, which provide vital community support, social work and regeneration services. Just a few months ago, the Government cut vital funding to those communities for closing the poverty-related attainment gap. When will the Government act to fund services properly to improve health and wellbeing across Scotland and to tackle the disgraceful health inequalities?

For many years, the problem has been that people have had disabled facilities or a certain level of facility that they would view as a changing places toilet. However, such facilities have to conform to a very clear set of standards, which include space requirements, showering facilities and ensuring that people have enough room to move around in. That information has all been laid out, and I can provide members with it, if that would be helpful.

Essentially, it is quite a robust set of standards, and part of the challenge is that the costs can often be prohibitive, particularly for a community organisation that runs a community facility through, say, asset transfer. Because putting in such facilities can be quite expensive, we are proposing to work collaboratively with Government on a fund that would allow community organisations in particular to do that.

Thank you for that question. It is a vital issue, and the CPG will want to look at the availability of facilities, because we know that families, particularly those with children who have a disability, often struggle to access toilets in city centres or on days out. Indeed, spontaneity is not possible for many families, because they cannot access those facilities. We would certainly want to look, with local authorities and others, at current provision and where there are any gaps that can be filled.

I thank you and your colleagues on the committee.

I thank Mr Doris for that very important question. I certainly think that the CPG would be keen to engage in that sort of thing. I believe that Sainsbury’s is doing work on a network of in-store changing places toilets, and that would certainly be of interest to us. Our other larger supermarkets are often well located with regard to where people might go and use facilities, and we also have to work with in-town and out-of-town shopping centres and other commercial organisations to ensure that they, too, are playing their part. As we know, they have the resources to put in such facilities and ensure that they are serving their customers better. We would want to explore with them and, indeed, with Government whether anything further can be done to persuade, cajole and perhaps compel the corporate world to do that.