Chamber and committees

Thank you.

There were multiple investigations, but what we are talking about in the debate is the betrayal of promises and the ombudsman’s recommendations.

The PHSO’s final report—Labour colleagues might need to look at it, because that is what we are talking about—was published in March 2024. Keir Starmer and his team knew about the ombudsman’s findings and the recommendation for compensation long before Liz Kendall’s dispassionate announcement in December.

At its heart, the issue is about honesty, transparency and trust. It is about the pledges that politicians make and the promises that they must fulfil. That is not always easy for policy makers. It is right that we are careful with the public purse, but the cack-handed way that Keir Starmer’s Government has approached the question of compensation for WASPI women is not just a disappointment, Mr O’Kane—it is an absolute outrage.

To give false hope and to lead women up the garden path is just not right. The party claiming to stand for fairness and justice has not only turned its back on millions of women but has started pointing the finger at them. Let us not forget that Labour supported the SNP’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill, with little regard for the rights of women and girls. Let us not forget Labour’s cut to the winter fuel payment, impacting millions of pensioners across the UK and putting lives at risk during the winter months.

My Scottish Labour colleagues can shake their heads and try to spin their way out of this, but Labour does not have pensioners’ or women’s best interests at heart.

I am closing.

From farmers to pensioners, businesses and WASPI women, Labour’s mask has well and truly slipped. It has played politics with serious policy decisions and has left good and decent people to pick up the pieces.

Presiding Officer, will I get the time back?

Yes—he is here now. Monica Lennon stepped in and said that she was furious and frustrated. That is very important.

Megan Gallacher described the stress and anxiety that have been created. The WASPI women had hope and promises from Labour. They are not just disappointed; they feel betrayed. Beatrice Wishart called it as it is: Labour’s “betrayal”.

Leading the debate for Labour today, Paul O’Kane could not answer the key question on the U-turn of his Labour colleague Liz Kendall, given her promises when in opposition. As my colleague Douglas Ross has pointed out, no one is going to pat Labour on the back today.

I asked Katy Clark whether she has raised the broken promises with her colleagues Rachel Reeves, Keir Starmer, Liz Kendall and Angela Rayner. She said that she had, which I am sure gives some comfort, but, sadly, she has not been able to persuade them to honour the promises that they made.

Jeremy Balfour talked about many people being “disillusioned” with politicians. He said that either Keir Starmer was “dishonest” and that it was a betrayal, or he just got it wrong and did not do his homework.

It is not often that I agree with Christine Grahame, but I agreed with her today when she said, “Labour has nowhere to hide—not even in that amendment.”

Michael Marra, in trying to answer the questions from Shirley-Anne Somerville and Douglas Ross, highlighted that his Scottish Labour MP colleagues have betrayed the WASPI women.

Those women have done their best to make their way in the world of unequal pay and the persistent gender pension gap. Over the past few weeks, there has been a shocking betrayal of trust from Labour that has, understandably, left WASPI women reeling. It is not just “disappointment”, Mr O’Kane; it is a massive frustration.

Monica Lennon rose—

In the past five years, seven sexual assaults and two rapes have taken place at Carseview psychiatric unit in Dundee. Given the level of underreporting, those may be just the tip of the iceberg. I have heard horrendous accounts about how frightening it is to be a female patient at Carseview. The facilities there are often terrifying for patients, who are at their most vulnerable, especially as they include mixed-sex wards. That is not just me saying so; the Strang report agrees. Will the First Minister instruct his Government to stop the use of such wards in NHS hospitals and secure psychiatric settings, starting with those at Carseview?

I congratulate my colleague Tim Eagle on securing this important debate.

Rural GP practices are struggling, and too many are on the verge of collapse. Friockheim health centre in Angus, which was Tayside’s highest-ranked practice, was forced to close in 2022. In NHS Grampian, six practices have handed their contracts back to the health board. In large part, that is because of the SNP’s complete lack of workforce planning.

As we have heard today, patient safety is at stake, as is the sustainability of primary care in rural communities. Alarm bells should be ringing in Bute house, but we keep hearing the same recycled platitudes from successive SNP health secretaries, and there is nothing to show for it.

There are enduring problems in several areas. First, the 2018 GP contract still has not been fully implemented, and it has been a disaster for rural GP practices.

Secondly, having a one-size-fits-all approach has become a serious human rights issue in rural communities.

Thirdly, the NHS Scotland resource allocation committee formula is supposed to ensure that resources for the NHS are distributed fairly across the country, but figures show that NHS Grampian has been short-changed by a quarter of a billion pounds since the SNP got into power. Astonishingly, NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde received £743 million more than it was due.

The SNP must properly invest in healthcare in rural and remote areas, which includes rural proofing in budgeting. I sit on the Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee and I say to the cabinet secretary that rural proofing in budgeting is not happening. Rural communities are losing out in a postcode lottery for healthcare, and that must not be allowed to continue.

So, safe homes, decent food and health and social care are still in your top priorities.

My final question is for Jan Savage. The SHRC’s annual report highlights evidence that, after experiencing violence,

“women’s experiences of accessing support are falling short of the national strategy and undermine Scotland’s compliance with international human rights obligations.”

Will you expand on that observation? How will the SHRC work to ensure that survivors of violence are not being failed by the Scottish Government and the system that is supposed to support them in their time of need?

Is it too late to do that now? We are late in the process. You met Shona Robison. Will we see a human rights overlay on the budgeting process?

I am nodding my head because, for three decades before I became an MSP, my role was to look at spend and whether it was delivering the intended outcomes.

It seems as though we go into this budgeting round with an intersectional disconnect. Again, I will quote Dr Hosie. She said in her evidence session to us that the Scottish Government’s approach to massive in-year spending cuts

“was not a very satisfactory process, and it was not transparent.”—[Official Report, Equalities, Human Rights and Civil Justice Committee, 29 October 2024; c 40.]

Our committee has been looking at a number of issues. We know that a huge percentage of women with learning needs—90 per cent—have been sexually assaulted. We know that inoculation centres are centralised in rural areas, so we are not surprised that our hospitals are facing a huge issue with flu because people cannot get their jabs. We have mentioned the GP contract for maternity services, and Professor O’Hagan mentioned women giving birth by the side of the road. I have two more examples. We are aware that an increasing number of over-50s with hypothermia are presenting themselves in hospitals. Finally, there has not been a single conviction for female genital mutilation.

I appreciate that you are new to the role—thank you for this helpful session today—but what can we, as a committee, and the Scottish Government do more of to ensure that a human rights perspective is applied to, and overlayed on to, the budgeting process, given that that does not happen right now?