Chamber and committees

It is really important that, as I said in my statement earlier this week, we continue to accelerate the pace of the vaccination programme. We have had concerns raised about the roll-out in Lothian, and officials have been engaging with NHS Lothian, which is making improvements in that regard. More appointments—not simply in Lothian, but countrywide—are being made available through the online booking system every day. I encourage people, if they are about to pass the 24-week point since their second dose, to go online to book their booster and their flu vaccine. I did it myself yesterday and, in doing so, I saw the number of appointments that were flowing through the system.

It is the case that the vaccination programme is going well. We are the most vaccinated part of the UK, and I think that we are running as fast as the delta variant in that respect right now, but we cannot be complacent. We need to get as many people as we can vaccinated with first, second, third and booster doses, and flu vaccines, as fast as possible, and we are making that an absolute focus every day.

Those are important issues. I do not believe that it is a fair representation of the justice system to say that it is stacked against victims. However, I do believe that the justice system, like all parts of society, must change to respond better to the needs of women who are subject to violence. I readily accept that responsibility.

The Government is taking forward a range of changes and reforms because some of what Douglas Ross has cited is not good enough. Victim notification is one of those areas. I do not say that they are in the majority, but it is important to say that some victims of crime do not want that information, for reasons that are important to them. It is important that, in all of those things, the needs and wants of victims are to the fore and that the justice system is responsive and not defensive. We must always look at how we reform and change the justice system to address those legitimate concerns.

My final point in no way downplays the issues that we are discussing. The justice system responds to crimes after they have been committed, and it must do so appropriately and effectively. This applies not only to Scotland but globally: we all have a duty to do much more to prevent violence happening to women in the first place. That means profoundly changing the culture that exists in many countries.

I am glad that the issue has been raised, given what today represents. I accept my responsibility in Scotland to ensure that all those issues are addressed and that we take forward the changes and reforms, because we all have a duty to do everything that we can to keep women as safe from violence as possible.

We welcome the publication of the report by the survivor reference group and commend the courage of those who have come forward to share their experience. We will consider the findings in the report, although some of its recommendations are an operational matter for Police Scotland. We are determined to ensure that the justice system responds better to the needs of survivors in Scotland, and we will continue to prioritise support for victims of sexual crime, as well as work to identify ways to prevent offending in the first place. We recognise the key role that advocacy services such as Rape Crisis Scotland play in helping victims to come forward and engage with the justice process, which is why we fully fund Rape Crisis Scotland’s national advocacy project.

First, we have to recognise what Maggie Chapman has outlined. All women suffer sexism and misogyny in some way, shape or form at some point in their lives. Unfortunately, too many women suffer very serious violence, abuse and harassment. Within that, though, women of colour and other minority groups not only suffer disproportionately but, in some cases, find access to justice even more difficult. That is something that all aspects of the justice system have to take very seriously. I know that Police Scotland does take that seriously and will take very seriously the recommendations for it in the report.

This is something that, at all levels, all of us must do more to address, in order that the next generations of girls growing up in Scotland and around the world do not suffer the same as those who have gone before them.

Yes, I absolutely agree with that. We must ensure that women have the confidence to come forward, that they feel that they will be appropriately treated when they come forward, that their concerns and reports will be taken seriously, that all due process will be applied and that their needs will be treated sensitively and sympathetically.

As politicians, we all have a duty, when we are talking about these things, to ensure that how we talk about them does not inadvertently put women off coming forward. All parts of the justice system need to consider the processes and systems that they have in place, ensuring that that is not just rhetoric but is reality. I know that the Crown Office and the police take that seriously, and I know absolutely that it is something that the Government takes very seriously.

We are funding a number of the organisations that work directly with women to support them through the criminal justice process. In the first 100 days after the re-election of this Government, we directed new funding to rape crisis centres and domestic abuse services to help cut the waiting lists in specialist support services.

Across all parts of our justice system and all parts of society, there are many things that all of us need to do to ensure that the experience of women is improved when they suffer violence and abuse. Of course, we must do more to prevent that in the first place.

Notwithstanding the political divides and debates between us, which are all perfectly normal in a democracy, I really hope that none of us would suggest that the Government’s motivation is to stop children having fun. All of us want children to have fun, but we want them, like adults, to have fun safely.

The school guidance is being kept under review. We do not want any restrictions in schools or early years settings to be in place for any longer than is necessary, and we take advice from our education advisory sub-group so that we base those decisions on the best available information.

I hope that children, like the rest of us, will have a much more normal Christmas than was the case last year. In fact, I hope that children, more than any of the rest of us, will have a more normal Christmas this year than they did last year.

A range of actions have been taken, and it is really important that we do not let up on that. I know that the Royal College of Midwives has been active in that space, as has the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists. The Government, through our clinical advisers, is trying to get the message across directly to pregnant women as often and as loudly as we can.

Again, I appeal to every member in the chamber to amplify that message in their constituency. It is vital that pregnant women come forward for the vaccination, which protects them and their unborn child. There has been some concern about vaccination in that group, and it is really important that we continue to use all methods to allay those fears and encourage the highest uptake possible.

We try to get all our adverts and campaigns circulated and seen as widely as possible. I cannot stand here and say exactly what channels the adverts will be shown on, but we will make sure that their circulation is as extensive as possible. We cannot always have Scottish Government adverts shown south of the border, but we try to ensure that people who travel into Scotland are absolutely clear on what the advice and guidance in Scotland is, and we will continue to do that to the best of our ability.

The member says that it did not work, but vaccination rates went up and we are now the most vaccinated part of the UK. Self-evidently, we have increased vaccination rates. Had we included testing as an alternative at an earlier stage, we would have undermined the central, primary objective of the scheme. As we have got vaccination rates up and as we move into a different phase, we are including testing.

Anas Sarwar oversimplifies things to such a point that, in my view, it would have been dangerous if we had followed the advice that he would have been giving us over the past number of weeks.

On his points about testing, we are testing extensively. We will continue to do that through PCR tests and, increasingly, I hope, through LFT testing.

Transmission has been falling from the latter of the two peaks that we experienced over the winter, which is a good thing. We now again have the lowest infection rates in the UK, although we are not complacent about that.

We must use all the tools and all the levers in as smart and nuanced a way as possible to bear down on transmission overall. Right now, the combination of things that we are doing is effective, but we must ask ourselves whether it will continue to be effective as the other risks accumulate over the winter. We must be vigilant about that.

As far as ventilation is concerned, if it was the case that all that we were doing was simply telling schools to open windows, Anas Sarwar might have a point, but we have invested with local authorities in carbon dioxide monitors and in assessments of ventilation in schools, so that local authorities can take steps to improve ventilation. We are doing similar work with businesses. Last week, I confirmed the opening of a £25 million scheme to help businesses to improve ventilation.

We are doing and will continue to do all those things. I suspect that the one thing that will stay consistent is that the Opposition will continue to oppose all the things that we are doing to stem transmission.

I suspect that Alex Cole-Hamilton lost the thread of his logic—if he ever had it—in that question. I am afraid that I certainly lost the thread of it.

There might be some force to the argument that the Scottish Government dreamed up a Covid vaccination certification scheme against all the evidence were it not for the fact that increasing numbers of countries across the UK—Northern Ireland and Wales—and across Europe and the world are doing likewise. Faced with a virus, it is very difficult to provide the hard evidence that intervention X leads to effect Y. Cause and effect is very difficult to prove absolutely.

However, we know that vaccines reduce transmission. They do not eradicate transmission—nothing completely eradicates it—but they reduce it, so if we ensure that everyone in a setting such as a nightclub is vaccinated, we reduce transmission. Over the past couple of months, by insisting on it being vaccination, we have helped, among other things, to increase rates of vaccination, which is a good thing. Now that we are going into a winter period, when we want to keep transmission suppressed overall, and we are encouraging people—as I have done today—to use LFD tests more generally and more regularly, it makes sense to include testing.

Such decisions are not easy or straightforward, and they are never black and white, but if we had listened to and based our decisions on the oversimplified, oppositionalist “We say black, they say white” approach of the Opposition, the country would be in an even more difficult situation with the virus than we already are.