Chamber and committees

Deaf awareness week 2022 is an important time to reflect on the barriers that deaf people face every day, and it is an opportunity to highlight the very valuable work that many people across Scotland do to raise awareness of the experiences of deaf people.

We want to make Scotland a really good place for British Sign Language users. I was proud that this Parliament was the first to legislate specifically for BSL, back in 2015; since then, we have published the BSL national plan, which is the first of its kind in the United Kingdom.

In addition, we have provided funding of more than £1 million from the equality and human rights fund to the British Deaf Association Scotland, Deafblind Scotland and the Scottish Ethnic Minority Deaf Club, and a further £5 million to organisations that work to promote disability equality.

I have just said to Douglas Ross that this year the Scottish Government’s budget was cut by more than 5 per cent and that the council total funding package is up by 6 per cent. Those figures are in real terms.

During the period since 2013-14, the local authority revenue fund has gone up to £2.2 billion. That means it is 22.9 per cent higher, in cash terms, this year than it was in 2013-14. That compares well with Wales, where Labour is in Government and where the equivalent increase is 7.3 per cent. Councils are doing rather better under the SNP in Scotland than they are doing under Labour in Wales.

I am prepared to bet that the facts that are in my little book will not suit Anas Sarwar. I am pretty confident about that. He does not like me talking about Wales, but he stands up here and tries to say that, if Labour was in Government here, things would be much better. I think, therefore, that it is perfectly reasonable to look at where Labour is in government in the UK and put that under some scrutiny.

A moment ago, I gave Anas Sarwar the cash figures showing the comparison between Scotland and Wales for the period of time that he picked. Let me give him the local authority real-terms revenue figures. Since that period, local government revenue funding is 2.3 per cent higher in real terms in Scotland and, in Wales, it is 10.7 per cent lower. Where Labour is in government, local authorities do much worse.

His figure of £6 billion is also selective and highly misleading because it completely ignores £3.6 billion of cumulative revenue funding since 2013. Let me show what Anas Sarwar is deliberately ignoring to get to his figure: £2 billion of additional funding for expanding early learning and childcare; and £720 million that goes directly to head teachers to support the most vulnerable children in Scotland. That is why Labour does not like the facts.

Finally, we will take no lectures from Labour when it comes to funding in Glasgow. The SNP administration has had to pick up the pieces of the equal pay scandal that Labour presided over. Labour robbed women from across Glasgow of money that was rightfully theirs. I am proud of the fact that an SNP administration paid that money back.

Yes, I think that all Governments, including my Government, should do as much as we can—and indeed should do more, all the time—to help ASN pupils.

That is partly about ASN teachers; it is also about ensuring that all teachers and people who work in schools are able to support young people who have additional needs. We will continue to take a range of actions to do that, so that we have a situation in Scotland—and I hope that we can all agree that we want this—in which everyone has the chance to succeed and to fulfil their potential in life, regardless of their circumstances.

A review of audiology is under way, which is really important. I concede that, as is the case in many countries, waiting times for access to NHS services in all areas are too long right now, partly down to the Covid impact. It is important that we work not just to invest in services but to redesign them, where that is appropriate. That is as important for audiology as it is for a range of conditions.

Work to embed the MAT standards by local services and alcohol and drug partnerships is on-going. It is a crucial and significant undertaking. The Minister for Drugs Policy committed to providing updates to Parliament on the progress of the MAT standards every six months and will provide a full update and report to Parliament next month. That will follow the evaluation of local progress from each health and social care partnership area.

Later on, in the summer, a subsequent report will provide further detail of the work that is being undertaken in each area. That work is being supported with annual funding of £10 million over the next four years.

I recognise the importance of the MAT standards and the Government is doing what it committed to do. It is important that the standards are embedded in every local area and that they are then properly implemented. That is the work that is under way and the minister has committed to report to Parliament regularly on that.

The standards apply to all services and organisations that are responsible for the delivery of care. Access to treatment is a key part of supporting those who use drugs and, of course, it is a key part of our overall strategy to reduce deaths from drugs. The minister will report next month, but this work continues to be of the highest priority for the Government as a whole.

Those are important issues and it is important for me to be clear about aspects of them. In doing so, I will try to address all three of the questions. In respect of the individual case, I understand the concern and anxiety of the individual concerned.

Breast screening is recommended for patients who are between 50 and 70. The clinical recommendation is that routine breast screening should be done every three years. As we have sought to recover those services from the impact of the pandemic, and after the brief cessation of all screening services at an earlier stage of the pandemic, our advice has been that we focus first on those for whom breast screening is specifically recommended, in order that we can ensure that we can catch up on appointments that have been missed for that group.

To address the first question, I say that other UK Governments will take their own decisions. I have heard a concern that reintroducing optional screening for women who are over 70 has, in other parts of the UK, had an impact on ensuring that services can be caught up for women for whom screening is recommended. I do not know whether that is the case, but I have heard that concern being communicated.

We have sought to prioritise women for whom breast screening is recommended. However, we are currently working towards reintroduction of self-referrals for women who are over the age of 71 later this year. We intend that that service will be resumed in the autumn. We consider that we will be able to allow that to happen, while ensuring that any impact on the eligible screening population is minimised, which is really important.

We are doing, and will continue to do, everything that we can within our powers and resources to help people who are facing the impacts of higher energy bills, increased food costs, the United Kingdom Government’s national insurance hike and interest rate rises. However, it is a fact that most of the resources and levers to tackle the crisis lie with the UK Government, and it needs to do much more.

Through our own cost of living support and our spend on Scottish social security payments, many of which are not available elsewhere in the UK, we are set to invest almost £770 million to tackle the cost of living crisis this year. Of course, we will also lift an estimated 50,000 children out of relative poverty through the Scottish child payment.

Yes; I agree with that, and Gillian Mackay is absolutely right to point out that in many ways the cost of living crisis is a Tory-created crisis. The actions that have been highlighted are very good examples of constructive partnership working in the Parliament between the Scottish National Party and the Scottish Greens to tackle inequality and poverty. We have worked together to ensure that we support households through the Scottish child payment, mitigating the UK Government benefit cap, which disproportionately impacts on families, and introducing free bus travel for under-22s.

All those actions support households, and we are doing them all within our fixed budget. That is in stark contrast to the UK Government’s failure to act, which is exacerbating the crisis. Removing the £20 universal credit top-up, failing to match our action on uprating benefits and the hike to national insurance are all placing much more pressure on households. The time is now to provide immediate financial help to tackle the cost of living crisis, and people across Scotland will tomorrow have the opportunity to say that very loudly and clearly.