Your assessment is fair. There is a sense that there were challenges in relation to getting things up and running initially—for example, on proof of vaccination, which took a while to come on stream in a digital format.

You make an interesting point about that younger cohort. However, my sense from my inbox is that it goes across age ranges—people have a real desire to have things in one place, such as in one app, particularly when it comes to their vaccination status. There have certainly been issues around where people can book vaccinations and so on. Covid has brought all that to fore.

There is ambition to bring those seams together and to have that one-digital-door approach. More broadly, it is also about how we access services. The question is how we bring all the parts of that together. Is there an ambition to have a one-door app that would allow us to access our medical records if we require them and also to use services? That might be Jim Miller’s bailiwick.

Thank you for that comprehensive answer. Following on from that, I have two questions. How will we use the data that we hope to bring on stream to chart somebody’s journey through health and social care? A person might present to their GP but then go elsewhere, or might feel that it is appropriate to present at an accident and emergency department. There is a discussion at the moment about where presentations happen. How will we link the data to look at people’s journeys?

Secondly, how will we chart unmet needs? Some people are not having their needs met in the most appropriate place. I ask in particular in relation to digital formats, which people are using more and more.

Last week, I asked the cabinet secretary about cancellation of surgery, in particularly cancer surgery, as NHS boards struggle under immense pressure. He pointed to the challenges of the pandemic, but we know that waiting lists have been growing for years. Elective surgery is also a concern and people are struggling in pain for long periods. What is he doing to support NHS boards to enable surgery to recommence? We want practical measures to be taken, such as increasing bed capacity. We also want the recommendations of the royal colleges to be listened to.

The heartbroken family of Andrew Slorance is not the only family seeking answers about what happened to loved ones at Queen Elizabeth university hospital. Theresa Smith, as reported on front page of the Greenock Telegraph today, has spoken of the deep pain that her family has endured since the death of her daughter, Sophia, in April 2017 at just 12 days old. Sophia died of an infection that she contracted at the Queen Elizabeth, despite initially responding well to treatment for breathing problems. The family was not informed and had to fight for a post mortem to know the truth. Theresa and her family have described the tortuous journey to try and get answers about what happened, with phone calls, emails and letters stonewalled. She, too, has pointed to a cover-up.

I heard what the First Minister said in response to Anas Sarwar about the public inquiry. Does she recognise that the inquiry did not save Andrew Slorance and will not save patients right now? What is the Government doing immediately to prevent such terrible and tragic deaths from happening again?

As we have heard, there are thousands of front-line staff, social care users and bereaved families for whom the inquiry will be crucial if they are to get answers on why Scotland was not better prepared. It is important that those who were responsible for that are properly held to account. Will the cabinet secretary confirm the inquiry’s relationship with the wider judicial system? Will it be set out in the terms of reference that he mentioned, and will that information include how the inquiry will handle evidence of potential criminality?

I am verbose if nothing else, minister.

The point has been made about accountability. We have had structural change already in social care with the introduction of integration joint boards and seven years, I think, of work on the integration of health and social care that has not yet been well analysed.

Local authorities are concerned about the changes that are proposed to accountability, because it will move to ministers rather than being with them. It would be helpful for the committee to understand what discussion is going on with local authorities about their role. COSLA has been critical of the proposal, so it would be useful if the minister could explain what discussions he is having before we get to the publication of a bill.

I appreciate that the minister touched on suicide prevention in his earlier answers, which were very informative. Currently, Scotland has an increasing suicide rate. When we take that as a comparator across the UK, we see that our rate is higher than those in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Are we engaging with other parts of the United Kingdom to understand their experience and what has been done in them? How can we share best practice? Notwithstanding the work that is already being done, I think that we can learn from other people.

All of us on the committee would want to associate ourselves with your comment that one suicide is one too many and to welcome any decrease in the figures.

On “Scotland’s Suicide Prevention Action Plan: Every Life Matters”, the outcome of the review in March was that progress was perhaps slower than expected in some areas. Indeed, I think that you alluded to the need for us to go further and do more. Notwithstanding the challenges that we have all experienced through the pandemic and lockdown and the fact that they have exacerbated the situation with services and people’s lived experience, I am keen to understand how we will drive towards the plan’s very ambitious target of reducing the rate of suicide by 20 per cent by 2022. How achievable is that target? What further actions need to be taken to reach it?

I will be brief, convener. I just want to welcome the minister’s comments about grass-roots organisations in communities, which I think all of us will have experience of. Does the minister feel that there is space to fund some of those organisations at a more localised level and move that sort of thing forward where required?