To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the announcement that NHS Grampian has been escalated to stage 4 of NHS Scotland’s national performance framework for finance, leadership and governance. (S6T-02523)

This is not about taking pops. The deepening crisis in NHS Grampian is not just about board meetings and balance sheets; it is about people. A mother in her mid-70s, herself a nurse by profession, had a bad fall. Her husband spoke to NHS 24 and called 999, and an ambulance was eventually dispatched. He was advised that the wait would be four to eight hours. As she was drifting in and out of consciousness, her family took the difficult decision to lift her and drive to Aberdeen royal infirmary. Tragically, after they arrived, they were told that she would soon pass. Her family are shocked and are massively traumatised by what happened. Above all, they are haunted by how it happened.

We have had enough of the cabinet secretary’s excuses. He needs to know just how bad the situation is on the ground, so that families are not asking the same difficult questions. My ask, cabinet secretary, is for you not just to do visits that are pre-arranged. Will you please do a shift with an ambulance crew in Grampian—a shift that interfaces with accident and emergency—-and see it for yourself?

You have already written to the organisations that might be involved, then they will—

Yes—organisations that will give input through the consultation.

That is welcome, particularly bearing in mind that we had a whole session on the public sector equality duty and all nine protected characteristics.

You have talked about the protected characteristic of sex. Following the Supreme Court judgment on the definition of “woman”, how will the Scottish Government actively prioritise the sex-based rights of women in upcoming policy reviews?

It is almost as though a line has been drawn. You talk about Elect Her and Engender, and they are very good organisations, but they focus on gender, not biological sex. I suppose that matters, because my next question is about funding.

On rights-based budgeting, I wrote to you about how the Scottish Government funds and supports third sector and activist organisations in the regard that I have just mentioned, but I am still waiting for a response. Maybe I can resend that letter to you in light of the judgment, and you can now write to me. I would appreciate that.

In that correspondence, I talk about millions of pounds. There are all these figures. A recent one was £500 million. Huge amounts of money have been spent by the SNP Government on a gender self-identification echo chamber. I have used that term: it is an echo chamber with the likes of the Equality Network, Stonewall and LGBT Youth Scotland. There is, however, evidence that women’s groups advocating for sex-based rights feel that they have been marginalised and they feel maligned. Moving forward, I think it is important to recognise that, particularly when you are looking at funding. If you are only funding those organisations that agree with your view, there is a huge issue with that.

My colleague Pam Gosal talked about costly litigation, and we cannot talk about specific cases, but if the Scottish Government does not move at pace, there will be litigation for the NHS, hospitals, schools and leisure centres across the board.

I think that, right now, the public sector feels that it is having to scramble to unravel something. Will the SNP Government and the minister finally accept that rights-based budgeting does not just mean funding the groups that agree with you?

My earlier set of questions explored you listening and hearing when incorporating policies. My next question is about rights-based budgeting but, before I ask that, I want to go back to something that you said in relation to a question from my colleague Pam Gosal.

You talked about gender quotas and you mentioned Elect Her and Engender. You are conflating sex and gender. The public sector equality duty has nine protected characteristics, one of which is sex and one of which is gender reassignment. When you review policies, it is important to differentiate between sex and gender. From this session and you saying that you are hearing what people are saying, I hope that you are mindful that when you say gender, do you mean gender or do you mean sex?

Minister, I accept that funding help desks and suicide prevention is very important. However, if you find out that the groups that you are funding are giving misinformation through guidance, will you commit to stopping their funding if you have the evidence in front of you?

I just want to check my understanding. We are talking about hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money. You are saying that if people have evidence that guidance is incorrect and against the law, they need to go to the EHRC to complain, not to the Scottish Government. You will then wait for guidance or direction from the EHRC, rather than taking a view on the funding yourself. The filter is with the EHRC and it is not with you.

They can write to you and you will review—