Chamber and committees

I have a broad question about drugs and alcohol deaths, which continue to devastate far too many families, especially in our poorest and most deprived communities. How will the budget put more money into prevention, early support and tackling the causes of addiction to alcohol and drugs?

I will just follow up on another issue, cabinet secretary.

At the weekend, I worked a care shift with VSA in Aberdeen, to speak to carers in their homes about the issues that they faced. A huge thing that stuck out was that, before people entered the social care world, they did not know what they were entitled to or how to access it. There was a range of information from a range of sources, but none of it was joined up. Will PSR address that, so that a single source of information lets citizens across Scotland understand their rights and what they are entitled to when it comes to social care?

There has been a lot of discussion about funding and an increase in year-on-year investment in health and social care, but it would be remiss of me not to point out that, in recent days, the Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government has been extremely vocal about her belief that there was a £650 million real-terms cut to the Scottish budget in the UK budget that was announced last week. Does that put the Scottish Government’s plans at risk? What will be the impact of that on health and social care? Will it limit your ambitions for investment?

Last week, sportscotland told us that 40 per cent of our sports facilities are now past their expected lifespan, and Scottish Swimming warned us that hundreds of pools could close in the coming decade. Clearly, we cannot talk about prevention through encouraging people to get into sport if the facilities are not up to scratch. Do you hope that the budget can prioritise getting some of the facilities into the state that they need to be in, and would you hope for that to be in future budgets as well?

Cabinet secretary, it is very clear that your preferred option is to have boards for the east and the west. What does that mean for people in the north of Scotland—people north of Aberdeen and in the Highlands? How will it work for them?

How will that physically work for someone in Inverness or someone in Forres, and where in the north of Scotland would the split be?

Last week, Kayleigh Kinross-O’Neill and I hosted a round table, which you kindly helped to open, cabinet secretary. We heard how, under the current social care set-up, young people and their families are losing vital support when they transition from children’s to adult social care services. Obviously, a person’s care needs do not disappear when they are 18. That puts an enormous financial and emotional strain on the families that we heard from. How can public service reform change that, to prevent those families from falling through the gaps? In the meantime, before those changes are introduced, what can the Government do?

I totally agree. I highlight the £12 million of funding that the Scottish Government gave for the summer of sport, which followed the participation of Scotland’s men’s team in the FIFA world cup and the Commonwealth games. The Commonwealth games brought more than £200 million of economic benefit to Scotland, I believe. We have other major tournaments coming up, including the Tour de France next year and the Union of European Football Associations European championship in 2028. I have made a plea for free tickets to be made available so that kids from some of our most deprived backgrounds can watch the national team at Hampden when the Euros come to Scotland. Will you back those calls? I have had a very positive response from UEFA. Will the Scottish Government work alongside it to make that a reality?

Yes. I want to bring things back to funding before we move on. You will know, cabinet secretary, that NHS Grampian is one of Scotland’s worst-performing health boards financially and that the Government has had to step in. How is the Scottish Government helping to get NHS Grampian’s finances back on track? What strain does that put on this coming budget and what strain has it put on previous budgets?

Mr Lunn, you have told us that 122 of Scotland’s 295 public swimming pools are beyond their average expected lifespan and that we could face a

“a net loss of 150 pools by 2040”.

How urgent is the need for a dedicated and specific investment to refurbish and replace Scotland’s swimming pools?

John Lunn: It is critical. If we do not have that investment, those pools will close. Our estimates are that we will lose 150 pools by 2040, which is why we are proposing capital investment to support two strands—first, a swimming pool sustainability fund for maintenance, refurbishment, energy efficiency and transition support; and secondly, a pool development fund to look at replacements when there is appropriate evidence that a pool needs replaced. We think that that would be a responsible way to proceed and that it would support operators in maintaining and retaining the estate that they have while planning for the future.