Chamber and committees

With regard to gynaecological waits, that investment may be there on paper, but it comes down to the reality on the ground: women in Scotland are currently waiting on average eight years for an endometriosis diagnosis. Following diagnosis, things do not get any better. Here in NHS Lothian, one of my constituents, Jenny Macfarlane, has been waiting for urgent surgery since July 2023. She told me that she has been informed that, after already waiting for 81 weeks, her surgery will now not take place until the end of 2025. Due to that time lapse, she will also likely need another expensive MRI scan. That news has a detrimental impact on her mental health and, as she put it, on her will to live.

Will the minister take an intervention?

Minister, for how much longer must women in Lothian endure unnecessary suffering while waiting for life-changing medical treatment?

Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?

Will the cabinet secretary take an intervention?

Will the minister give way?

Will the minister take an intervention on that point?

That does not feel fair at all.

I am pleased to have the chance to speak in this afternoon’s debate. I was lucky enough to attend one of the people’s panel sessions last year.

Let us remember that, as Annie Wells outlined in her opening remarks, under the SNP, Scotland has had the worst drug deaths rate in Europe for the sixth year in a row. Our country’s drug death rate is 2.7 times higher than the rate in England and Northern Ireland, and it is 2.1 times higher than the rate in Wales. The number of drug deaths has increased by 158 per cent since the SNP came to power—there were 455 drug deaths in 2007, compared with 1,172 in 2023. Every life lost is a tragedy, and those figures are truly unacceptable.

Despite that, the SNP Government has cut the alcohol and drugs policy budget for 2025-26 by almost £1 million in real terms. It is little wonder that alcohol and drugs partnerships, which tackle drug misuse at the local level, say that they are underfunded and have no confidence in the SNP Government’s leadership. Seventy-two per cent of ADPs say that the amount of funding that they receive is not enough to deliver the national mission.

The SNP must listen to the people’s panel. It must take responsibility and finally act with urgency to stop Scotland’s national shame. The panel was clear that the Government has not acted, despite being aware of the evidence. It said that the same conversations keep happening without any change in results.

Having attended one of the panel’s sessions, I agree with two things in particular that it said in its report. The panel was

“shocked to learn about the lack of urgency and implementation, given the scale of the crisis”,

and it said that

“the same conversations keep happening, with the same actions being agreed but not ... implemented”.

The panel was concerned that

“the evidence they have heard has been previously presented by experts yet has not been acted upon by the Government. There is no stability for service providers and users and no consistency of approach.”

Carol Mochan also made those points in her opening speech.

As I listened during the panel’s session, one of my main concerns was that the people who stood up and presented were the same voices as usual, but no action was being taken on those issues. We need to hear new voices—those who are involved directly and who have lived experience of the recovery community.

That was clearly reflected in the people’s panel’s findings. There was very little talk of doing something more, different or innovative, despite a culture change and the requirement for “brave and bold” action to tackle the “public health emergency” that has been created by drug use in Scotland.

As a Conservative MSP, I say that that action should include passing the Right to Addiction Recovery (Scotland) Bill, which has been backed by front-line experts and would enshrine in law the right to receive life-saving drug addiction treatment.

We do not support the decriminalisation of drugs, and none of the report’s recommendations advocates that. Decriminalising class A drugs will not help to tackle Scotland’s drug deaths and could make it more difficult for the police to stop the supply of drugs getting to our streets. Instead of investing in recovery, the SNP continues to advocate decriminalisation, which will only flood our communities with more drugs.

The SNP Government’s priority continues to be harm reduction, but let us remember that harm reduction alone does not reduce addiction. Relapse rates remain high, and interventions such as supervised consumption rooms aim to prevent immediate harm but do not provide a pathway to recovery.

Last week, 70 passengers were evacuated from a ScotRail intercity train, and trains between Edinburgh and Aberdeen were suspended, after a power car caught fire near the Tay rail bridge, which caused disruption for hours. In the light of that, what actions are being undertaken to foster resilience in the ScotRail fleet, particularly at a time when key routes often rely on older trains? Will the cabinet secretary provide a timeline for when the new inter7city fleet will be procured?

I am afraid that I cannot take the intervention—I am in my dying seconds.

If the Scottish Government is serious about improving the statistics and the lives of those who are affected by drugs, it needs to be bold and innovative and to act on every one of the people’s panel’s recommendations.