Chamber and committees

In relation to the bonuses, Audit Scotland issued a section 22 report, which was published on Tuesday. In that report, the Auditor General makes it clear that the governance involved in the process that led to those payments was deficient. In other words, it is not possible to be clear about the basis of the performance payments. That is why—[Interruption.]

NHS dentistry is, of course, under pressure. All parts of the NHS are under pressure. I will not repeat the statistics that I gave in my first answer, but we have worked to incentivise NHS dentistry. We are in the course of abolishing dental charges, starting with young people. I will come back to the youngest people and dental health in a moment.

If members look at some other statistics and comparisons, they will see that, in Scotland, 57 dentists per 100,000 of our population provide NHS dental services compared with just 43 per 100,000 south of the border and some 50.4 per cent of adult patients in Scotland have been seen by an NHS dentist in the past 24 months compared with just 38.2 per cent in England. The latest figures show that over 95 per cent of the Scottish population are registered with an NHS dentist, whereas just over a third of adults and fewer than half of children in England have access to an NHS dentist. Yes, dentistry is under pressure, but there is a solid foundation there.

In recent years, we have seen significant improvements in child oral health in Scotland. In the first year of the national dental inspection programme, in 2002—Anas Sarwar should be aware of this—45 per cent of primary 1 children had no obvious decay experience. In 2021-22, that figure had increased from 45 per cent to 73 per cent. That is the improvement that we are seeing in child oral health.

Yes, there are challenges, but we continue to support the dental profession to meet those challenges head on.

—and reflecting on the reasons for his party’s and his personal unpopularity, and a bit less time thinking about the SNP, he might not be in the dire straits that he is in now.

The NHS does face significant challenges. However, the number of people who are self-funding private care in Scotland is significantly lower than the number in Tory-run England or Labour-run Wales. We are seeing considerable reductions in the longest waiting times for out-patients and in-patients because we are focusing on NHS recovery. It is because we are doing that that no NHS workers have been forced to strike in Scotland. In fact, in terms of our agenda for change, they are the highest-paid NHS workers anywhere in the UK. That is the focus that the SNP has on the NHS, and we will continue to have that focus as long as we are in government.

—and wants to pretend that Covid did not happen. There were pressures on our NHS before that, but everyone understands the significant exacerbation of those pressures on the NHS that was caused by Covid. That is the case in Scotland, Wales, England and in most other countries across Europe and around the world.

This is really important: I have said this many times and it does the NHS a disservice for Anas Sarwar to suggest otherwise. No NHS staff are gagged. We have whistleblowing arrangements in our national health service, and all staff who have concerns should feel able to come forward and raise those.

I have been in this post for more than eight years, as I may have said once or twice already today. I have taken the duty and responsibility of this office seriously, as everyone has the right to expect me to do, every single day, right through the very difficult days of Covid and on every other day beside. I will continue doing that for my remaining days in office and I know that whoever stands here after me will also do that.

Government is difficult at the best of times, and these are not the best of times. However, the people of Scotland are the ultimate arbiters of who is competent, who is doing the job well and who is not, and they have put their trust in this Government consistently since 2007, and eight times in the eight years of my leadership. The task of my successor is to make sure that they retain that trust. It is precious and it is essential to achieving anything.

This is a very fair offer for teachers in very challenging circumstances. It represents the best pay offer to teachers in more than 20 years. Delivering it will require the Scottish Government to make very hard financial choices, and it will therefore have an impact on other parts of the Scottish Government budget. However, that is necessary and I believe that it is right, given the importance of resolving the dispute, which the education secretary has worked very hard to do, and in the interests of ensuring that young people’s education is not further disrupted and in the interests of valuing teachers, who do such a good job in schools right across the country.

The Scottish Government has allocated £336 million to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures. This year, £119 million of that is targeted specifically at fuel-poor households. We have also doubled the fuel insecurity fund and have provided an additional £1.2 million to help advice services to meet increasing demand.

We are doing, and will continue to do, everything that we can within our limited devolved powers, but, of course, the key levers lie with the United Kingdom Government. We will continue to call on the United Kingdom Government to protect those who are struggling with their energy bills. I urge anybody who is struggling to contact Home Energy Scotland, which can provide advice and support on how to manage energy costs.

When Brian Whittle rightly references the cost of living crisis, let us remember that the cost of living crisis was largely created by an incompetent UK Tory Government.

We will continue to take our responsibilities seriously, not just in helping people through what we all hope are short-term cost of living pressures, but in insulating and improving energy efficiency in our homes for the sake of the environment in the longer term as well.

As I said, we have already allocated more than £300 million to heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty measures in this year alone. That is being delivered through a package of support via some long-standing programmes that have already supported over 150,000 households that are in, or at risk of, fuel poverty. We will continue those short and long-term plans to deliver for people across Scotland.

I can confirm that we remain very committed to addressing the barriers to young disabled people taking up apprenticeships. Figures show that significant progress has been made in this area since the study by the Equality and Human Rights Commission seven years ago, to which Graeme Dey refers.

Skills Development Scotland provides enhanced funding contributions for disabled apprentices in training until the age of 29. The most recent statistics, published by SDS on 14 February, report that the disability rate for modern apprenticeship starts by the end of quarter 3 was 14.8 per cent—two percentage points higher than in quarter 3 of the previous year. Just under 3,000 individuals had a known disability status or a self-identified impairment, health condition or learning difficulty, which was a 23.5 per cent increase compared with the same point last year. There has been good progress, but much more work is still to be done.

I associate myself whole-heartedly with those comments. I think that all of us still remember the sense of shock last year when we heard of David’s sad passing. I had some communication with David’s parents, Rodger and Sharon, at the time, and my thoughts remain with them at what I am sure is an incredibly difficult time for them.

This weekend’s fixture will be a fitting tribute to David. I wish both teams well and, of course, I pay tribute to the charities that money is being raised to support. Let us end this session of First Minister’s question time, in which—rightly and properly—we have had some robust exchanges, by remembering somebody who gave a lot to our democracy in this Parliament. He is sadly missed by all of us across the chamber, and particularly by his Conservative colleagues.

David was an example of what we should aspire to in public life and in politics, so if Douglas Lumsden’s question turns out to be the closing question in today’s First Minister’s question time, it is a good one to remind us of our common humanity and to enable us to remember somebody whom we all miss greatly. [Applause.]

I commit to doing everything possible to try to preserve Morton’s Rolls and the jobs of the people who depend on the company. Like everybody else, I was deeply concerned to hear of the company’s decision last week to cease trading. In my pre-politics life, I worked in Drumchapel, and I know how important such a company is to the people and sense of community there. Morton’s is an iconic Scottish brand.

Working with Glasgow City Council, the Scottish Government will do everything that we possibly can to see whether there is a rescue package that will allow the company to continue trading and making the contribution that it has made for some time to the community of Drumchapel.