Chamber and committees

You spoke about the human rights-based approach. What are the risks of having a partial impact assessment at this stage? What are the human rights concerns about working in that way?

Bob, please move on to your questions on kinship.

There was a lot in your answer, Cameron-Wong. Members will pick up on many of those topics separately in their questions. Impact assessments are a particular example. I ask Stephanie Callaghan to continue with the human rights theme.

Thank you. Michael Marra has a supplementary question on finance, after which we will move on to the issue of research. I ask everyone to please keep their questions and answers short and succinct.

The 10 national treatment centres should deliver at least 40,000 additional elective surgeries and procedures a year by 2026. Luke Farrow, an orthopaedic surgeon and research fellow at the University of Aberdeen, told BBC Scotland that getting the treatment centres online is an absolute priority and that, every week, the backlog gets worse. Mr Farrow also stated that there must be planning to ensure that the 1,500 staff for the national treatment centres are not taken from elsewhere in the NHS, which would merely serve to worsen wider recruitment issues.

The NHS Lothian treatment centre in Livingston will need 400 staff, but NHS Lothian has warned that significant risks and challenges exist around that level of hiring. Can the cabinet secretary confirm that none of the 1,500 staff that are required for the national treatment centres will be taken from the current NHS staff?

A constituent of mine wrote to me yesterday to express their concern about the disgraceful scenes across Edinburgh at the weekend, after violence erupted and police were injured in petrol bomb attacks. A substantial number of youths terrorised residents by throwing fireworks at innocent car drivers and incendiary devices at emergency response vehicles. Police vehicles were attacked and officers suffered facial and eye injuries. That utterly disgraceful behaviour cannot be repeated.

The Scottish National Party rushed through the Fireworks and Pyrotechnic Articles (Scotland) Bill in June but has done nothing to address community safety concerns. Will the minister commit to reversing the SNP budget cuts to the police to ensure that our officers have the resources to tackle that type of disorder and keep our communities safe?

Today, it was reported on the front page of The Scotsman that patients presenting at the acute assessment unit at the QEUH are not included in the A and E statistics, despite the unit’s fulfilling that function. As many as 2,000 patients a month are being missed from our A and E waiting times stats because of how data is collected.

The Scottish National Party often states that Scotland’s emergency departments are outperforming England’s on the targets for patients to be seen within four hours, but that has been challenged by senior medics. Statistics from Public Health Scotland refer to only 30 of the 91 A and E services in Scotland, yet the Scottish Government measures the performance of those units against 170 of England’s type 1 major A and E services, which deal with the most severe situations, including shootings, stabbings and extreme road traffic accidents.

Will the Scottish Government admit that it is using statistics to cover up the true scale of the humanitarian crisis in our NHS?

Yesterday, at the Conveners Group meeting, Chris Stark of the United Kingdom Climate Change Committee stated that having a properly skilled workforce and jobs to facilitate the economic transition to net zero is the top issue.

The eco-house project at West Lothian College is a prime example of the college sector and Government funding working together to upskill Scotland and pursue a transition to a fossil fuel-free future. It will see the development at the Livingston campus of two semi-detached houses, which will form a state-of-the-art training facility in the heart of West Lothian to support the development of skills and knowledge and provide practical experience in sustainable construction methods and efficient and effective renewable energy, all underpinned by current and new technologies. It is a prime example of what the Scottish Government, the college sector and the private sector should be doing to meet the challenges that our country faces in tackling climate change. Will the minister commit to providing funding to replicate that innovative and ground-breaking eco-house project throughout Scotland?

Does the member believe and agree with her party’s former leader Johann Lamont, who said that MSPs must

“consider any unintended consequences of gender reform”

on women and girls?

Does the member agree with the Scottish Government’s equality impact assessment on the bill, which says that we need

“More up-to-date research on”

how the bill will affect

“the mental health and wellbeing of”

our young people?