Chamber and committees

Many people are waiting for longer than the six-week standard. I am happy to provide that figure later, but it is important to address the substance of the issue.

The latest diagnostic statistics, which were released at the end of May, showed that 155,000 people were waiting for one of eight key diagnostic tests. Of course, not all those people had been waiting for longer than the target time, but we are investing significantly in endoscopy and radiology services to bring those waiting times down. For example, to specifically support scope-based diagnostics, we have published the £70 million “Endoscopy and Urology Diagnostic Recovery and Renewal Plan”. We are also investing £9 million in this financial year to support diagnostic imaging capacity.

The overall situation with the 62-day pathway is that more patients are being seen within that pathway, which means that more patients are being treated as being eligible for that pathway. The 31-day target has been met, and, although the 62-day target has not been met, more patients are being seen on that pathway and the median wait is 47 days.

We recognise the pressure that NHS staff are under with regard to resourcing, but, under this Government, there has been a 95 per cent increase in consultant oncologists and a 63 per cent increase in consultant radiologists. That is testament to this Government’s commitment.

Finally, we absolutely accept the importance of early diagnosis, which is why we continue to invest in the £44 million detect cancer early programme, and it is why we are investing in early detection centres around the country.

In terms of the cancer waiting times, as Anas Sarwar knows, there are two key waiting time standards. I will come to the 62-day one in a moment. The first is, of course, the target of 31 days from a decision to treat to the first treatment starting. That target—again, as is shown in the statistics this week—is being met. Indeed, the median time for treatment starting after a decision to treat has been made is four days.

On the 62-day pathway, that target is not being met. However, in the most recent quarter, as is shown in the statistics this week, the national health service increased the number of patients who are being treated on the 62-day pathway by more than 4 per cent compared with the same quarter in 2019. We continue to see an increasing number of eligible cancer referrals, and the priority is to ensure that those patients receive the care that they need quickly. As I said a moment ago, once the decision to treat is made, patients wait, on average, just four days to start cancer treatment.

Of course, we recognise that improvements require to be made, particularly on the 62-day pathway, which is why we are investing £40 million over five years to support cancer services, to improve cancer waiting times and to ensure earlier detection of cancer.

—that the action can be effectively managed in the short term via Police Scotland’s operational capacity and resilience sub-group.

Secondly, I would have thought that any reasonable person would have welcomed that constructive pay negotiations are on-going. I appreciate that that is not the way that Tories go about things with public sector workers. They just offer them zero and tell them to go away. We sit down and have constructive pay negotiations.

Lastly, on crime levels, the crime levels in this country are at their lowest since, I think, 1974—[Interruption.]

—and that is partly because—[Interruption.]

The Conservatives do not want people to hear the answers, Presiding Officer, because the answers do not suit the narrative of the Scottish Conservatives. That is the reality.

Crime levels are among the lowest since 1974. That is partly because of the value that we attach to policing but, more than that, it is due to the great work that our police officers and their support staff do, which is why we will continue to support them, in stark contrast to the part of the UK where the Conservatives are in government.

I will run through the key points. First, on the impact of the SPF action, that is, of course, an operational matter for the chief constable. I would have thought that Douglas Ross might know that the chief constable has advised—[Interruption.]

I, too, take the opportunity to pay tribute to the TIE campaign. I am proud to be wearing its badge today and I see that many members are wearing its lanyards. TIE has done a great job and made Scotland the first country in the world to have LGBT-inclusive education.

On consistency, we want all pupils to benefit from LGBT-inclusive education, so resources and services have been developed to support consistent delivery and are freely provided to schools on the lgbteducation.scot website. It is, of course, for local authorities and individual schools to decide what resources they use to deliver the curriculum. However, a national framework of communication is under development, which will set out national expectations in this area, as part of the on-going efforts to ensure consistency of uptake and principles for effective teaching and learning.

This week, Parliament agreed our proposals for strengthened protections for private tenants against eviction. Rising rents cause tenants hardship, which is why we have already committed to introducing rent controls during this session. We are currently working to ensure that the model that is delivered is evidence-based and robust, thereby giving long-lasting benefit to tenants. We are carefully considering around 930 responses and more than 8,000 campaign responses to the “A New Deal for Tenants” consultation. We are also meeting key stakeholders, which is an essential step in delivering a system that actually works, and we will undertake further consultation on the detail.

We continue to support tenants now, including through committing £83 million in discretionary housing payments this year.

The Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Housing and Local Government spoke to the UK Government immigration minister in April, when he set out a change in policy to assume one of full asylum dispersal across the UK. In May, the Home Office began an informal consultation on implementation, to which we will respond.

The Scottish Government supports widened asylum dispersal in principle—of course we do—but participation must be voluntary for local authorities, and the Home Office must work in partnership with them, as well as support third sector support organisations that provide vital assistance to people who seek asylum.

Although the funding for local authorities that has been announced is a positive step, it must be sustainable over the long term and be at a level that provides support for asylum seekers and local communities.

Policing is very clearly a priority for the Government, and it has been every day, month and year in which the Government has been in office. That is demonstrated by the fact that, in Scotland, we have 32 officers per 10,000 population, compared with the situation in England—where, of course, the Conservatives are currently in government—where there are just 23 police officers per 10,000 population. That speaks for itself. In this financial year, we are increasing the policing budget by £40.5 million. That brings the total budget to almost £1.4 billion. That budget maintains our commitment to protecting the police resource budget in real terms.

I will make two points about the resource spending review. First, it does not represent budgets; it projects ahead, based on the financial information that we have right now. It is the Government’s responsibility each and every year to put forward a budget, and it is the Parliament’s responsibility to scrutinise and pass that budget.

The second point that I will make is one that I have made before in the chamber. The resource spending review, with the projections that have been made based on the information that we had, is, of course, constrained by the fact that our budget is largely set by Westminster Governments and, right now, those budgets are not keeping pace with inflation. If Douglas Ross wants more money for the Scottish Government to allocate—I hope very much that we will be in that position—perhaps as well as, not instead of, asking me questions, he might want to make one or two representations to his boss at Westminster.