Chamber and committees

We have now been waiting more than two years for an updated energy strategy. The chamber of commerce’s survey has revealed that 90 per cent of firms believe that the absence of a Scottish Government energy strategy is damaging investor confidence. Will the minister wake up and listen to businesses in the north-east?

On a point of order, Deputy Presiding Officer. In the portfolio question time that we have just had, the fact that two Scottish National Party members had withdrawn questions meant that other members did not have a chance to question the Government. One question was about the £80 million that the Scottish Government has committed to the Acorn project and when that would be forthcoming. Will you advise on whether anything can be done to ensure that members who put themselves forward to ask a question actually ask it?

I congratulate Karen Adam on securing the motion for debate and thank her for educating us more about Thomas Blake Glover.

Today’s debate gives us an opportunity to celebrate someone from the north-east who is probably more famous outside the area than in it, as Jackie Dunbar noted. It also gives us an opportunity to celebrate Scotland’s strong links with Japan, which I witnessed at first hand when I was leader of Aberdeen City Council. Aberdeen signed a memorandum of understanding with Kobe in Japan in 2019, strengthening the links between the cities. Today, I am wearing my Kobe tartan tie, which is a gift that I received when a delegation visited Aberdeen to sign the agreement. It is not just tartan that we have in common; I also learned about our shared love of whisky.

When I was a councillor, I became aware of Thomas Blake Glover, his impact and the important role that he played in the industrialisation of Japan. I also learned that the council owned Glover house, which, as we have heard, was the Glover family’s home in Bridge of Don. I remember my conversations with Richard Sweetnam, a council officer who was sadly taken from us too young, about how big a deal Glover was and how, as a city, we should make more of a deal of him and celebrate him, which would be an opportunity for tourism. That view was shared by all parties in Aberdeen City Council. We did not often agree, but we did agree on Glover.

The then Lord Provost, Barney Crockett, was heavily involved with Mitsubishi to see whether we could take a partnership approach to utilising Glover house in Bridge of Don. I seem to remember that Martin Gilbert and Aberdeen Asset Management were also involved in that process.

Regrettably, in my time as a councillor, we could not come up with a sustainable plan on what to do with Glover house. We worked with the University of Aberdeen and Mitsubishi on a plan to use part of Glover house as a museum celebrating Glover, and part of it for Japanese students attending the University of Aberdeen to live in. However, that plan fell through when Covid struck, and I do not believe that any plan has come forward since then, which is a real shame.

I visited Glover house with a delegation from Kobe in 2019. It would be sad to see the house fall into further disrepair. It is part of the history of the north-east, and it should be protected. I hope that a sustainable future can be found for the house. My lasting memory of that visit was the friendliness of our Japanese guests. Their warmth and kindness, and their interest in Glover, will stay with me and made me determined to visit Japan in the near future. When I am there, I hope that I will visit the Thomas Blake Glover statue in Nagasaki to pay my respects to the man from the north-east who made such a huge impact in Japan.

I wish the organisers of the Thomas Blake Glover festival every success for the upcoming event.

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide further detail regarding the reasons why it is not planning a broader review of the statutory grounds for fatal accident inquiries, in light of the previous review of statutory grounds being undertaken nearly a decade ago and reports of growing public concern over preventable deaths outside of custody settings. (S6O-04748)

The question concerned deaths outside of custody settings. In 2019, Aberdeen father and good Samaritan Alan Geddes was murdered by a man who had been released from prison just hours earlier. In 2023, the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland released its damning report, which highlighted a list of failures in the run-up to the release of Stuart Quinn. If Government agencies had acted differently, the outcome could have been different. Alan’s sister, Sandra, continues to fight for answers, and the case is crying out for a fatal accident inquiry.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that, when someone commits murder just hours after release from prison, there have obviously been failures and that the criteria for a statutory FAI must be widened to cover such situations?

I thank the minister for advance sight of the statement. It is clear that he has his head in the sand, because the north-east faces an emergency. The Just Transition Commission report needs to be a wake-up call for this devolved Government, because it sets out something that we already know and have been warning about. It says:

“There is still no transition plan for oil and gas workers.”

We know that because the just transition plan and energy strategy were meant to be delivered years ago. I have repeatedly asked when they will be published, but it is clear that the minister and the cabinet secretary simply do not have a clue.

While that uncertainty continues, thousands of jobs in the north-east are being lost. The Scottish National Party cannot keep passing the buck, because we need an affordable, commonsense transition. The front page of today’s Press and Journal lays bare that 400 jobs are to go every fortnight over the next five years. That is like a Grangemouth facility closing every two weeks. The SNP is doing nothing to stop that, and it is continuing with its presumption against new oil and gas.

Does the minister accept that there can be no transition if oil and gas jobs are lost because the SNP is demonising the industry? Will he apologise to the people of the north-east for his Government’s failure to plan properly and publish its energy strategy and just transition plan?

In his statement today, the minister has called for insurers and mortgage lenders “to treat home owners fairly”. Will he also instruct the SNP administration and Aberdeen City Council to treat homeowners fairly by improving the derisory offers that have been made to homeowners in Torry?

It is clear that NHS Grampian is suffering from a serious leadership crisis. I welcome the fact that there is at last progress on recruiting a new chief executive. The board has for far too long not had a permanent chief executive in place, with waiting lists spiralling and financial difficulties deepening.

Leadership comes from the top. I genuinely appreciate that the cabinet secretary met me and my colleagues to discuss the issues that we have raised. However, does he agree that it is time for the chair of NHS Grampian, who has presided over the mess, to be moved on immediately so that a leader who better understands the scale of the challenge can be appointed?

It is good to hear that the Government is still committed to community audiology. Can the minister give a timescale for when that change will start to happen?

Getting access to the service initially is only one issue; the follow-up is also missing. I speak to many people who have NHS hearing aids, but they never go back to get them checked. That is something else that we are missing out on.

I congratulate my colleague Sharon Dowey on securing the debate, although I feel that it is a debate that we should not be having. We should not be in the situation that we are in now.

The system that we have in place is cruel. Audiology is in crisis. Imagine saying to an elderly person, “I’m sorry, but we’re not going to be able to see you for two years.” We in the chamber can all recognise how inhumane that would be, but the waiting times in NHS Grampian, for example, show that people are having to wait for two years before they get an assessment and then wait longer to get a hearing aid.

As Christine Grahame points out, all that leads to social isolation and links to dementia. There is also an impact on family and community settings. I imagine that people can only say “Pardon?” once or twice before they withdraw from engaging in conversation altogether. The issue should be looked at as soon as possible.

The answer is clear and has been accepted by all: we need to get people out of a hospital setting. Ninety-four per cent of people with hearing loss have uncomplicated adult-onset hearing loss that is suitable for community treatment. At present, those patients compete for the limited capacity that is available to treat children and adults with sudden onset hearing loss and specified comorbidities, who have to be treated in hospital.

There is absolutely a need for intensive audiology in major hospital settings, but the specialists involved should be reserved for the 6 per cent of cases that involve traumatic hearing loss or child hearing loss from birth. However, just now, so much of that resource is being spent on people who should be not in a hospital setting but in community settings instead.

As Sharon Dowey pointed out, we already have a solution in our communities. Companies such as Specsavers, which I visited on Friday—I even had a hearing test done—already provide that service. As we have said, we already do community eye care so, surely, we should just replicate that for hearing.

A couple of months back, I met Neil Gray and Jenni Minto, and the issue was one thing that I spoke to them about, because I had raised questions on it. I thank them for that time.

NHS Grampian would be an ideal place for a pilot on community audiology. There are huge waiting times and a real need for something to be done. I urge the Government to take on the seriousness and urgency of the issue and move with pace, because we are talking about mainly elderly people who might be reaching the end of their lives. We need to look after them and make sure that they can communicate with everyone else as much as possible.