Chamber and committees

I am happy to look into Catrina’s experience. Nobody should wait that length of time for an ambulance, and I will not say otherwise.

As we do with accident and emergency and the NHS overall, this Government continues to focus on supporting our NHS through these difficult times so that it can recover from the impact of the pandemic and get back to delivering the level of service that all patients have a right to expect.

Looking specifically at the Ambulance Service, it, like A and E, is dealing with significant pressures, but its staffing under this Government is up by 67.3 per cent. The number of paramedics is up by almost 40 per cent and ambulance technicians are up by more than 60 per cent. This year, we have allocated additional funding of £45 million over the Ambulance Service’s baseline funding to support workforce growth and service improvement. Our ambulances are saving more critically unwell patients than ever before, and they are diverting cases away from accident and emergency.

Although, of course, an experience like that is not acceptable, and other patients will be having experiences like that right now, the fact is that the vast majority of people who rely on our Ambulance Service, or on any part of the NHS, get an extraordinarily good service from those who work in our national health service. The duty of me and my Government is to ensure, through investment and other interventions, that we are supporting those workers every step of the way. It is not easy. It is not easy for any Government right now, particularly in light of the economic circumstances, but each and every single day we will not shy away from that duty.

I am concerned to hear about experiences such as that of John Mason’s constituents. Those echo wider reports this week that a significant proportion of support in the form of prepayment vouchers has so far gone unclaimed. It may be the case that some people are choosing to hold on to the vouchers until the weather turns colder, but it would be deeply worrying for people to be going without because of delays in the system, or for other reasons beyond their control.

I have chaired two meetings with energy suppliers and advice services over the past few weeks. Those have highlighted the need to ensure that the people who are most vulnerable are receiving the support to which they are entitled. I will continue those discussions with energy suppliers and others, but I would encourage energy companies to do everything that they can to ensure that the people who are most vulnerable are getting the maximum possible support and getting it as quickly as possible.

At COP26, in Glasgow last year, we had good engagement with those involved in the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance, including its founder country, Denmark, and we will continue that. Last year, we set out the programme of work that we are undertaking, which will influence and ultimately decide our involvement in the alliance. We are undertaking in-depth analysis to better understand our energy requirements as we transition to net zero, ensuring an approach that supports and protects our energy security and our workforce while meeting our climate obligations. We will publish an energy strategy and our first just transition plan, which will provide a road map for the energy sector’s role in meeting our emissions reduction targets and securing a net zero energy system for Scotland.

Taking all of that into account, we will continue to engage constructively with the Beyond Oil & Gas Alliance as part of the wider programme of analysis and engagement with a range of organisations and stakeholders.

First, I will not stop what this Government is doing to support our national health service. Government, at the best of times—and these are not the best of times—is hard. It is more complicated than simple soundbites or setting targets; we have to do the work in order to achieve them.

That means supporting our national health service and those who work in it with the investment and the wider support that they need. We will continue to take all of those steps. I have narrated the increase in the number of people who are working in our Ambulance Service and the additional investment that we are putting into the Ambulance Service to ensure that we can see that improvement.

Anas Sarwar is right that these issues are all interconnected, so we need to invest in the wider health service in order to improve performance of the Ambulance Service. No, I will not stop saying that we are doing these things, because they are the necessary steps that any Government would need to take to support our NHS in these tough times.

Of course, management of the NHS is our responsibility and nobody else’s. However, our NHS is not immune from wider economic and budgetary decisions that, unfortunately, are outwith the hands of this Government. I wish that we could invest much, much more in our national health service. I agree very much with the Welsh First Minister, Mark Drakeford, who recognises that, although it is his responsibility to manage the health service in Wales, that has been impacted by the decisions of the Tories at Westminster. He can recognise that, so I am left wondering why Anas Sarwar, instead of making sure that people understand the impact of Tory decisions, wants to pretend that it does not exist.

First, as I often say in the chamber, I will look into any case that members of Parliament draw to my attention, so if Oliver Mundell wants to send the details of that case, I will of course ensure that it is looked into as quickly as possible.

Secondly, I expect all health boards to deal with complaints appropriately and as quickly as possible, and to communicate with patients as they do so. As I have talked about in earlier exchanges, I absolutely understand the pressures that every part of our national health service is dealing with. As I have already said many times today, I treat with the utmost seriousness the big responsibility on my shoulders and those of the Government to support, and to ensure the good management of, our NHS.

Oliver Mundell mentioned budgets. We are dealing with significant budgetary pressures, which are caused by inflation and the fact—which I do not begrudge at all—that we are trying to pay our NHS staff more. As I have said to Douglas Ross, the reality is that, had we taken the advice of the Scottish Conservatives, there would be even less money to support our NHS, because we would have given tax cuts to the richest. It is to everybody’s relief that we did not follow that call and the example of the United Kingdom Government in that regard.

Yes, I absolutely agree with that. Countries in the global north have a moral obligation and owe that to those in the global south, including action on the issue of loss and damage. Good progress was made in Glasgow last year to put the issue of loss and damage firmly on the agenda. I think that we all wish that we could have gone further, but it is vital that this year’s COP delivers implementation of the Glasgow pact. That includes delivering, in particular, the finance that is needed to enable global south nations to adapt to the impacts of climate change.

However, that is not enough. We need further action on loss and damage. I think that we can be very proud of the commitment and leadership that Scotland showed on the issue last year, which was followed by commitments from Denmark, Wallonia and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation. We hope that, this year, other Governments will follow suit and help us to mobilise funding to address the losses and damages that people and communities in the global south are suffering right now as a result of climate change, which is caused largely by the global north. In my view, that is one of the big tests for COP27, and I hope that it meets that test in full.

Scotland is doing more than the basics of tackling climate change. I will write to the member with an update in response to his specific question.

Scotland is rightly seen by countries around the world as a leader on these issues. We should continue to challenge ourselves at home and ensure that we are delivering against the targets that we have set, and we will always do that. However, we should also take some pride in the fact that other countries look to Scotland for the leadership that we show—[Interruption.]

I am very pleased to move the motion in my name, that Elena Whitham be appointed as a Scottish junior minister.

Before I do so, I thank Ash Regan for her contributions to the Scottish Government. During her time as Minister for Community Safety, Ash worked across a wide range of important issues, such as tackling inequality in the justice system and introducing and seeing being passed new legislation to restrict the sale and use of fireworks. In thanking her, I also wish her all the best for the future.

I turn to today’s appointment. It gives me great pleasure to seek Parliament’s agreement to the appointment of Elena Whitham. Although she is relatively new to Parliament, I have no doubt that she brings significant experience to the wide-ranging role of community safety minister.

Elena has spoken of how her political convictions have been shaped by her own life experiences growing up in a loving family that was often blighted by poverty and real hardship, which eventually forced them to emigrate to Canada when she was just six years old. Elena returned to Scotland after graduating from university. She worked in community youth and homelessness roles, and ran three businesses as a sole trader.

She also spent over a decade as a Scottish Women’s Aid worker in Ayrshire, supporting women and children who experienced domestic abuse. More recently, Elena has served as the depute leader of East Ayrshire Council and was community wellbeing spokesperson for the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities.

Since becoming a member of the Scottish Parliament last year, Elena has greatly impressed both her colleagues and, I hope, her political opponents with her robust and fair convenership of the Social Justice and Social Security Committee.

Finally, Elena is, I think, the only person in the chamber who has campaigned in independence referendums on both sides of the Atlantic, having been involved as a student in the 1995 Quebec independence vote. The yes side, of course, lost that referendum by the narrowest of margins. Without swaying too much into constitutional politics, let me just say that I am confident that for Elena it will, on the referendum front, be third time lucky.

It is often said that people rightly place huge priority on politicians’ having real-life experience. If that is the case, Elena’s political, professional and, indeed, personal experiences make her overwhelmingly qualified for ministerial office. She has proved herself to be a hard-working and capable public servant, and I am sure that everyone in the chamber will give her their best wishes.

I ask Parliament to agree that I seek the King’s approval for the appointment of Elena Whitham as a junior Scottish minister.

I move,

That the Parliament agrees that Elena Whitham be appointed as a junior Scottish Minister.

That may be another illustration of the point that I made in my previous answer. I am deeply concerned—as, I know, Monica Lennon and other members will be—about the hardship that people are facing as a result of the cost of living crisis. This Government has allocated almost £3 billion in this financial year to helping households to face that, including £1 billion that is not available anywhere else in the United Kingdom. That includes the Scottish child payment, which will shortly increase to £25 per week, and the Deputy First Minister confirmed yesterday that we will double the December bridging payment for families to £260 and increase the fuel insecurity fund to £20 million.

We must see the UK Government use all the levers at its disposal to tackle the emergency rather than make it worse. That must include increasing benefits in line with inflation and increasing universal credit by £25, and that should also be extended to means-tested legacy benefits. I hope that we will see the UK Government take those steps. However, if those powers lay in the hands of this Parliament, we would not have to look to a UK Government to do those things—we could do those things by our own hand.

Monica Lennon says that we all know that we can do more here. We will always seek to do more and to do as much as we can, but there is a limit to what we can do within a fixed budget. I do not know whether Monica Lennon listened to John Swinney’s statement yesterday. We are at the limit—probably beyond the limit—of what we can do financially without additional resources from Westminster. I wish it was not like that, because I wish that we were in control of our own finances, but we are not.

I turn to the specific issues that Monica Lennon raised. The date set for an initial meeting of the malnutrition working group was not suitable for some of the key participants, but we intend that the group will meet by the end of this month.

We have an ambitious plan for the roll-out of free school meals, but right now we are already way ahead of any other part of the UK on that. In Scotland, during term time, free school meals are already universally available to more than 280,000 children in primaries 1 to 5 and in special schools, as well as to eligible pupils in P6 through to secondary 6. In England, universal provision is available only in the first three years. In Wales, where Monica Lennon’s colleagues are in government, free school meal provision is based entirely on eligibility. I think that they have just started work on universal provision for the first year.

We have some way to go, but we are absolutely serious about getting to the end of this journey. However, we have already come much further than anyone else, and we are doing all of it within a budget that is being eroded by inflation and that is essentially fixed. If Monica Lennon wants us to do much more and to do it faster, it is not enough for Scottish Labour to will the end; it must also will the means. That will involve giving the Scottish Parliament and the Scottish Government full control over our own finances instead of leaving us at the mercy of Tory Governments at Westminster.