Chamber and committees

I take seriously the point that Mr Harvie puts to me. I do not think that the analogy that he strikes about the construction of a weapons factory is a particularly fair analogy for the support that we put in place, but I will go away and look at that carefully.

The point that I was making in my earlier answer is that there will be a legal basis for us to apply safeguards in relation to the issuing of grants, but we have to have a legal basis for saying, for matters that are not related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, that we are not providing a grant. That is not me being pedantic—that is simply the legal basis on which the Government has to act. We must always act within the law, and I must take the views of the law officers deadly seriously in the actions that we take. If Mr Harvie would care to correspond with me in more detail, I will happily explore the issues that he raises, which I recognise are important and sensitive to people in our country.

Workers from overseas are filling vital roles supporting people who rely on them for the care that they provide. This Government values people who have chosen to come to Scotland to make a positive contribution to our public services. Stopping people from bringing dependants to the United Kingdom is short-sighted and risks exacerbating shortages in the care sector. It is wrong that those changes have been driven by arbitrary decisions to reduce numbers rather than the needs of our public services and communities. It is therefore very concerning that the number of health and care worker visa applications has fallen, as Clare Haughey has recounted.

I give Clare Haughey that assurance. The question that Clare Haughey puts to me highlights some significant issues. Mr Sarwar completely legitimately raised an issue about national health service waiting times with me today. One of the challenges that we face in the health service is the congestion in our hospitals that is created by delayed discharge. One of the issues with delayed discharge is that we do not have enough people able to deliver care packages in our communities and, as Clare Haughey indicates in her question, some of the supply of those workers is being eroded by the decisions that have been taken on immigration by the United Kingdom Government. There is a very direct effect on our ability to deliver sustainable health services because we simply do not have an available workforce to enable us to do that. As members will know, we have a very low level of unemployment in Scotland today.

The issue that Clare Haughey raises may be about immigration, but it has a direct effect on the delivery of public services in Scotland. I assure Clare Haughey and Parliament that the Government will do all that we can to address the issue in order to ensure that we have adequate supplies of people to deliver social care and other healthcare activities in our country.

The Scottish Government is working closely with Public Health Scotland, as we are very concerned about the growing threat posed by synthetic opioids and, in particular, the increased appearance of nitazines in the drug supply. Public Health Scotland has been issuing alerts via RADAR—rapid action drug alerts and response—to healthcare staff and the public to highlight the increased dangers associated with nitazines. That alert was last updated in March 2024.

The Scottish Drugs Forum launched a public campaign in December 2023 to spread awareness and to reduce risk. We are working with third sector delivery partners and with directors of public health to ensure that health boards are prepared at the local level. We are meeting regularly with the United Kingdom Government and other devolved Governments to ensure that we are aligned in our activities.

I have quite a bit of sympathy with the depth of concern that Mr Findlay raises and expresses to Parliament, because the potency and devastating impact of synthetic opioids is difficult to fathom—it is on such a different scale. Mr Findlay is absolutely correct to sound the warnings that he is sounding. That is why Public Health Scotland, in association with RADAR, is communicating that message.

Mr Findlay will appreciate that a combination of activity is necessary to tackle the threat. It is a combination of three elements: first, there is awareness raising, which Mr Findlay has contributed to in raising the issue with me at First Minister’s questions; secondly, an effective policing response is needed to counter the supply of synthetic opioids; thirdly, there is the whole process of harm reduction that the Government is engaged with. I assure Mr Findlay that the Government is deeply engaged in activity on those three grounds to address what I recognise is a significant threat.

We remain fully committed to protecting teacher numbers and are offering local authorities £145.5 million in this year’s budget for that purpose. That funding will allow councils to protect teacher numbers in order to support children’s education. I hope that our local government partners share that goal. The Government remains determined to close the poverty-related attainment gap and to reduce teacher workload, and I do not believe that those aims will be achieved by councils employing fewer teachers in our schools. We are currently in discussion with the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities and wish to work with our local authority partners to deliver our shared commitments on education.

You know, when they were giving out brass necks, they gave them out in abundance to that part of the chamber—[Interruption.]

I have to say to Liam Kerr that it is preposterous for the Conservatives to come here and demand that I do more and spend more money when the consequence of their management of the United Kingdom economy has been so damaging to Scotland’s interests.

I am very happy to agree to that. I was born and brought up in Edinburgh, not far from Baberton, so I know the area very well. I saw those scenes with absolute horror and I can observe from afar the horror that people there have suffered. I am happy to meet Sue Webber and her constituents on the matter.

There is a question that may be lurking about where statutory investigations are regarding the incident, which may be contributing to delays—but I am probably saying more at this stage than I should, without delving into the detail. I will look closely at the matter, and I would be very happy to meet to discuss it.

In addition to that, the issues that I raised and went through at length last week in answering Mr Ross have now been endorsed by Parliament.