Chamber and committees

As we have just been discussing, accident and emergency departments are working under significant pressure, which has been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Pressures are also driven by delays in discharge elsewhere in hospitals, which is why the £600 million winter plan includes a focus on social care and actions to encourage integration authorities to help to alleviate delays.

Our £50 million unscheduled care programme is working to reduce A and E waits, including by ensuring that people are directed to the most appropriate urgent care settings and by scheduling urgent appointments.

The Royal College of Emergency Medicine is a vital partner in that work, and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care will meet the RCEM in the coming weeks to discuss how further improvements can be made.

I am aware that some of the Fornethy survivors are visiting Parliament today. I welcome them here and do not underestimate how difficult it is for them to be here to press the case that they are here to press.

I will, of course, consider any requests for a meeting, but it is important to tell the Parliament that the Deputy First Minister met Fornethy survivors in June of this year and that he continues to engage with the group and to listen to the concerns that it is raising about eligibility for the redress scheme and wider matters relating to justice and support. The Deputy First Minister has responded to a request from the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, which is considering a petition from the Fornethy survivors, outlining the rationale for the eligibility criteria.

The circumstances in which individuals came to be at Fornethy will vary, so it is not necessarily possible to determine eligibility for the group as a whole, but we will continue to listen and to respond, and to do everything that we can to address those concerns.

We will continue to work with, and support, NHS dentistry.

The facts of the matter are as follows. A record number of people—more than 95 per cent of the population—are registered with an NHS dentist. We see continued recovery in the numbers of people accessing NHS dentistry and getting dental examinations—the statistics show an 80 per cent increase in examination appointments per month on average, compared with this year’s January to March period, which reflects the impact of the reduction of infection controls—and we are seeing the reintroduction of payments that are linked to seeing and treating patients.

We will continue to invest in NHS dentistry. In total, we have provided more than £150 million in additional support to maintain the capacity and capability of the sector. Lastly, we remain in a position of relative strength in relation to workforce numbers—a longer-term trend shows an increase of 32 per cent in dentists who provide NHS dental services.

As with all parts of the health service, real challenges exist, but we continue to support dentistry as we continue to support the NHS as a whole.

The chaotic series of UK Government announcements and U-turns on fiscal measures over recent weeks has led to economic turmoil, the withdrawal of mortgage products from the market, the pound crashing and the Bank of England having to take emergency action to stabilise financial markets.

We now have another change in Prime Minister and another potential change in direction, along with the latest in a long string of U-turns when, just yesterday, the UK Government delayed its fiscal statement and independent forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility from 31 October to 17 November. In light of that unprecedented uncertainty and instability, it is prudent to review the timing for the Scottish Government’s emergency budget review, which we will do.

I agree with the first part of the member’s question. The second part of his question is a mischaracterisation of the position, perhaps evidenced by the fact that his colleagues on the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities supported the change that we made to educational attainment funding distribution, which ensured that the fund supported more young people living in deprivation. The budget to tackle the attainment gap is rising over this session of Parliament, and rightly so.

The national care service is about improving social care, about better rewarding those who work in social care, and about removing any postcode lottery in the provision of social care. A national care service is the right way to go.

Obviously, the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill is in its early stages of parliamentary scrutiny. A number of different committees in the Parliament are scrutinising that legislation and, as we always do, we will listen very carefully to points made and views expressed in the course of that scrutiny. That is the right and proper way to proceed with any legislation.

In the meantime, while the Parliament is scrutinising the bill, and as we take that forward, we will continue with the steps that we are taking in the here and now to improve social care: employing more people in that sector, investing more money in it, and increasing the wages of the people who work in it.

Of course, one of the biggest constraints that we have right now—one of the biggest barriers to getting people into the social care workforce—is Brexit and the ending of freedom of movement, which I think, from memory, Tess White supports. While I will continue to listen to all the points that are made, perhaps she would listen to the people who say that we should reverse Brexit and restore freedom of movement to help our public services as well as our economy.

Tuesday.

Before I come directly to the issue that Douglas Ross raises, I will say that the party that told us in 2014 that independence would take away our European Union membership and then went on to take us out of the European Union will not have any credibility whatsoever on matters European from here on in.

I read with interest the article in The Times this morning—as always, it was good journalism, as would be expected—but it was based on, I think, four unnamed sources. I am not saying that they have no legitimacy, but I will give some named sources and, in the words of Douglas Ross, some direct quotes.

“Not all countries in the European Union will join the euro.”

That was said by former Prime Minister David Cameron.

“They’re not going to force us to join the euro”.

That was said by highly respected former Labour MEP David Martin.

“No country has ever been obliged to join the euro”,

said Graham Avery, former senior adviser at the European Policy Centre. Just yesterday, the deputy director at the Centre for European Reform said, “I’m not a Scottish nationalist, but euro membership doesn’t get forced on member states.”

Lastly—[Interruption.]

Douglas Ross shouts from a sedentary position, “Well, what about the euro?” It is the euro’s position that I am talking about. Sweden is not in the euro, and the former president of the European Commission, said—let me quote this again—that there is

“no intention of forcing countries to join the euro if they are not willing ... to do so”.

That was in 2017, not 27 years ago. Unfortunately, the “direct quotes” of the named people whom I have quoted today, and the hard evidence from other EU member states, disprove the point that Douglas Ross is seeking to make. It is utterly pathetic and desperate.

If he wants to put it to the test, let us allow the Scottish people to look at all of these things and make a decision in a referendum. That, after all, is the democratic thing to do. Let us not forget that the future that the vast majority of people in Scotland want—one that is inside the European Union—is now only available to Scotland if we become independent.

Of course, £45 million for the Scottish Ambulance Service was part of the winter plan that was announced—which is about Scotland’s national health service. I say, Presiding Officer, that I have enormous sympathy for the personal experience of Douglas Ross, as I do for the personal experience of anyone in the national health service. However, I am sorry, but I think that it is reasonable to question the commitment to the national health service of anybody who argues for millions of pounds of taxpayers’ money going on cutting taxes for the richest people in our society, rather than being invested in the national health service.

It is because of the Government’s commitment to the national health service that we do not shy away from the difficulties that it faces, largely because of the Covid pandemic that has placed such burdens on health services across the world. That is why we are investing in our national health service instead of giving tax cuts to the richest people in our society. It is why we are supporting greater recruitment to our national health service, with staffing numbers at an all-time high, and it is why we are seeking a fair pay deal for the people who work in our national health service. They deserve it. We will continue to do the hard work to support our national health service in tough times as well as in good times.

Finally, we will take no lessons from the UK Government, which is doing real damage to the national health service. Although our NHS faces challenges, Scotland’s national health service is the best performing in the UK on A and E waiting times and on many other measurements, and that is down to the dedication of the people who work in it.