Chamber and committees

Bob Doris’s questions continue on that theme.

Thank you for those answers. Looking at the clock, I am very aware that Graeme Dey has a couple of questions as well.

Thank you. Ruth Maguire, as you are attending remotely, you might not be able to catch my eye. If you have a supplementary question or there is anything that you want to chip in with, please put an R in the chat box. The clerks will monitor that, and I will bring you in when I can.

The first question is from Michael Marra.

Time and again at the Health, Social Care and Sport Committee, we have heard about the essential role that third-party organisations have played in supporting people—young and old—with mental health issues and people with mental illness, while statutory services were letting them down.

The Covid-19 pandemic has had a negative impact on the mental health of people across Scotland. For that reason, funding for charities and community initiatives will be more important than ever in the coming years. Access to services is crucial to supporting mental health.

Can the Deputy First Minister outline why more than 10,000 of our children and young people were refused access to mental health treatment during 2021? What assurances can he give me that urgent work is being undertaken to make services much more accessible, this year and beyond?

I thank the minister for advance sight of her statement, and I acknowledge the challenging comments that she has made today about progress on the standards.

The statement has laid bare the damning truth that a critical target has been missed. Drug-related deaths are Scotland’s national shame, yet this Government’s actions have once again fallen short and families continue to be let down. Although a target was set last year to ensure that the MAT standards would be fully embedded across the country by April 2022, the report shows that that target was nothing more than a pipe dream. Only 17 per cent of the standards have been fully implemented and, shamefully, MAT standard 1 has been implemented in only one ADP area—the Borders. That is a 97 per cent failure rate.

The new recommendation from Public Health Scotland is to push the target back by a year and water it down; it is that only half the standards are to be implemented by April 2023, with only partial implementation for the others.

Across Scotland, there has been unwarranted variation in implementation of the standards. There can be no clearer illustration of that than the statistics on drug-related deaths that were released last week, which show welcome declines in Glasgow but mask increases in deaths in Edinburgh, Fife, and Dumfries and Galloway. What urgent steps is the Government taking to end that postcode lottery? What support will the minister offer to the ADPs that have fallen so far behind?

My constituent Samantha received a letter from the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care on 20 June, stating his reassurance that

“Both the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland remain committed to ensuring women who have experienced complications as a result of transvaginal mesh have access to the best possible care.”

That letter left Samantha upset and lost for words. She told me:

“I was heartbroken when I tried to access this care, only for my hospital gynaecology department to tell me the NHS would not honour most of the measures. They were unwilling to refer me to the Glasgow unit, and scared me half to death by saying people like me will never be 100 per cent mesh-free. It’s as if they are trying to put us off mesh removal surgery.”

The First Minister has stated:

“we will do everything possible to get these women the treatment and the care that they need.”

Where is the evidence that that is happening?

To ask the Scottish Government whether it will provide an update on how much it is allocating in its budget for infrastructure plans. (S6O-01263)

The Scottish National Party Government has admitted that it will not be able to fulfil all its infrastructure plans, despite the promises to dual roads such as the A9 and A96, which are essential upgrades for local residents and businesses.

The SNP has mismanaged the economy and it has wasted obscene amounts of Scottish taxpayers’ money. We are all familiar with the £250 million spent on ferries that will not sail. In Edinburgh, £12.2 million has been spent so far on the Hardie tram inquiry, with no date yet for its publication. It is a wonder that the Government has any money left for essential infrastructure upgrades. How can the SNP justify cuts to infrastructure projects that are critical to economic recovery when it continues to preside over such waste and overspending that has yet to deliver anything for Scotland?

On a point of order, Presiding Officer. I have no idea what is going on with my app. I would have voted no.

I know that Kirsten Koss wanted to respond to the previous question—I missed her, even though she is right there. Ruth, can you repeat your question to see if Kirsten wants to respond?