Chamber and committees

We are all keen to ensure that parliamentary scrutiny is at heart of this. You might have heard my follow-up question about ensuring that committees of the Parliament have a laser focus on the issues. It is clear that, as minister, you are keen to engage in that scrutiny and not to outsource—I think that that was the word that you used—the national mission. I have spoken in the chamber about ensuring that there are regular opportunities for scrutiny. Will you outline how you would see a committee such as this joint committee operating? Would you welcome that in relation to scrutiny of the task force’s work and the overall work of the national mission?

Good afternoon, minister. I am the deputy convener of the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee and, following on from themes that we perhaps have already heard, I want to focus on the public health approach to this issue. Would the minister view our actions to tackle drug deaths as a public health intervention and accept the requirement for that or does he see it as a criminal justice issue?

Would you accept, though, that we are in the throes of what is essentially a national emergency on this and that it needs a response that is akin to how we would react to other public health crises?

You talked about a silver bullet in a previous answer. I do not think that anyone is saying that there is a silver bullet for this. It is about a basket of measures; it is about communities being well resourced and supported to take the interventions that are right for them.

Would you recognise that poverty is an underlying cause and is an issue that needs to be tackled in order to deal with this crisis?

I hope that Finlay Carson will repay my kindness at some point in the future. However, the point is well made. In her remarks, Jackie Baillie also made the point about rural provision, and I know that colleagues across the chamber recognise the need to have such facilities in place. I am sure that the cabinet secretary will have more to say on that.

In my remaining time, I will highlight the work of blood cancer charities in Scotland. I might repeat some of what Jackie Baillie said in that regard, but as I am the shadow minister in her team, she usually assures me that repeating what she says is absolutely the way to go, so it should be fine.

I met the Blood Cancer Alliance, which clearly articulated that blood cancers are often misunderstood and underdiagnosed. It can often feel like the Cinderella service of cancer care, and awareness of blood cancer symptoms, care, and treatment remains limited relative to solid tumour cancers.

To focus on our theme of closing gaps in care, it is clear that as the NHS continues its recovery from Covid-19, it is important that we see parity in the care and resources that are given to blood cancers, including improvements to diagnosis, pathology services, patient support and the NHS workforce. That is a critical factor in improving all cancer patient outcomes in Scotland, and would have long-lasting benefits across the entire healthcare system.

I hope that the cabinet secretary will address some of that in closing, although he might be too busy to do so, given Finlay Carson’s intervention. I am sure that he will write to me, or we will have the opportunity in the future to go into more detail on the matter.

On this world cancer day, as we continue to enter the new reality of life with Covid, we must put cancer diagnosis, research and treatment at the heart of that. I think that that is what those who are living with cancer, and their families, expect.

I begin by thanking my colleague Jackie Baillie for securing this debate and for her work in Parliament to ensure that cancer and its diagnosis, treatment and holistic support remains firmly on the agenda.

I am pleased to be able to speak in this debate as we mark world cancer day on Friday. Many of us will have been impacted by cancer in our own lives, whether through a personal experience of the illness, or through walking with a family member or friend through it. The speeches that have already been made this evening show how deeply personal the debate is for many colleagues.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in Scotland—approximately 34,000 people are diagnosed with cancer in Scotland every year—so it is important that we take this opportunity to reflect on progress made, and to look at what more needs to be done, particularly in the context of Covid-19, to move forward in our shared aspiration to speed up progress and see three in four people surviving the disease by 2034.

That is Cancer Research UK’s ambition, and I thank it for its briefing in support of tonight’s debate and for its work in highlighting world cancer day, along with countless other charities, some of which I will talk about later in my contribution and some of which have already been referred to by colleagues.

As we have heard already, the theme of world cancer day 2022 is “close the care gap”, and it focuses on understanding and recognising the inequalities in cancer care around the globe. For many of the most marginalised in our society, their chances of getting cancer, and their experience and outcomes of cancer, are worse because of factors and circumstances beyond their control.

As we know, here in Scotland, mortality rates for all cancers combined are 74 per cent higher in the most deprived areas compared with the least deprived, and the past two years have exacerbated the challenges in diagnosis and treatment. Waiting times statistics show that too many people are waiting too long for cancer treatment. Only 83 per cent of patients on an urgent referral for a suspicion of cancer started treatment within 62 days. The target is 95 per cent. Although some of the waits are due to backlogs and additional Covid-19 safety measures, cancer services were struggling pre-pandemic. Shortages in staff and equipment mean that cancer waiting time targets have been missed for years. Just last week in the chamber, I raised with the First Minister the issue of delays to cancer surgery in the region that I represent and the need for a dedicated cancer catch-up plan.

As we have heard tonight, this issue is a deeply personal matter for many people, and the worry that has been described by colleagues is what motivates us. I hope that the cabinet secretary will hear those calls and respond in his closing remarks.

It is an honour to speak in the debate as we mark Holocaust memorial day 2022.

I pay warm tribute to Jackson Carlaw for securing the debate. I have known Jackson for many years as we have both sought to serve the interests of the people of East Renfrewshire—our home. We have often sparred on various policy matters, but, on the vital importance of Holocaust remembrance, we have stood four-square behind our Jewish friends and neighbours in particular, for whom this remembrance is so deeply personal and important.

I am sure that Jackson Carlaw will join me in commending the on-going efforts of East Renfrewshire Council, the Glasgow Jewish Representative Council, interfaith groups and wider civic society in East Renfrewshire for their on-going commitment to remembering the Holocaust and seeking to build bridges of respect and understanding among the many diverse communities that we are proud to serve.

I also take the opportunity to acknowledge the excellent work of the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust, which are among the custodians of remembrance of the Holocaust in the UK. In particular, I mention another East Renfrewshire name—Kirsty Robson. Kirsty first became involved with Holocaust education while at school. She participated in the lessons from Auschwitz programme, which takes groups of young people to the sites of the camps, as we have heard from other members today. Kirsty took the opportunity to share her experiences with fellow pupils at Barrhead high school and beyond. She now works to support both the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust, and her passion and determination really are an inspiration.

Kirsty has also brought together survivors from Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur to share their stories, and she continues to work on modern genocide prevention education, including the investigation into what is currently happening with the Uyghurs in China and other human rights abuses around the world.

Although we say “never again”, we know that, all too often, it does happen again. With each passing generation, and as we lose more and more survivors of the horrors of the Holocaust, it falls to us all to pick up the flame of remembrance and education, call out antisemitism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and disablist views and actions when we see them, and speak truth to power when we see discrimination, hatred and the othering of people.

The theme of this year’s Holocaust memorial day is “one day”. We are asked to reflect on one day, on the magnitude of what happened, and learn from it.

Today, I will reflect on one day that opened my eyes to the real experiences of the Holocaust. When I was a fairly new councillor in East Renfrewshire, I had the great honour of helping to host a civic afternoon tea for Judith Rosenberg, Scotland’s last Auschwitz survivor, of whom Jackson Carlaw spoke so powerfully. I remember that, as Judith told her story, we could have heard a pin drop. She spoke of the day that her life changed in 1944, when, at 22 years old, she was deported by the Nazis from her middle-class life in the town of Gyor in Hungary to Auschwitz, along with her timber-merchant father and her mother and sister. On the platform at Auschwitz, the men were sent to the left and the women to the right; it was the last time that she would see her father.

For those members in the chamber who, like me, have visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, I am sure that the memory of standing at that particular spot is forever etched in their memories. To go back to the theme of “one day”, I remember, on the day that I visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, the overpowering, deafening silence on the long walk from the site of the gas chambers, along the railway tracks to the infamous watchtower. The memorial reads:

“For ever let this place be a cry of despair and a warning to humanity”—

a warning that, all too often, we fail to heed.

For all that Judith Rosenberg endured, I never sensed any bitterness from her. She said:

“after the war I felt that though Hitler was bad to me, not all Germans were bad ... When I was a child, my father taught me, that all people are equal, that it doesn’t matter who or what race they are, they are just people ... I think we should all remember that. If we do, then I am not pessimistic.”

Those words are some of the most powerful that I have ever had the privilege to hear. As we have heard, Judith passed away this time last year, almost to the day.

In remembering the 6 million Jews who were murdered during the Holocaust, alongside the millions of other people who were killed in the Nazi persecution of other groups and in the genocides that followed in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur, let us remember Judith Rosenberg’s words and turn all our efforts towards, one day, truly being able to say “never again”.

We have spoken about universal interventions and the importance of knowing young people and getting the data right. I was struck to read that 15-year-old girls continue to be the group with the lowest wellbeing scores, and I would like to take a bit of time to explore the factors driving that. Do the panellists feel that we should tackle gender inequality across policy areas in order to make a difference? Perhaps Dr Booth wants to say something about that.

I think that we are coming to my questions anyway, which is neatly timed. I will kick off this section, in which we are looking at national developments.

There are 18 national developments in NPF4, which seems like quite a lot. These things can often become quite cumbersome, and I am keen to understand what impacts those 18 developments will have on health and wellbeing.

I have a supplementary question for Mike Corbett on the role that schools play within the community approach. Schools in my patch are always keen to enhance that strong community approach. They are having to do more with less and they work with community organisations that are experiencing the same. Does Mike Corbett have any reflections on the role of the school in the community approach?

I cannot see anyone else wanting to come in on that question at this stage, so I will move along. In national developments, should the impact on health and wellbeing be given equal consideration to, for example, the impact on the climate and the climate emergency? We know that there is a huge focus on that at the moment.