Chamber and committees

The first thing that I want to do is to apologise to any individual who has had an unsatisfactory experience with the care that they have received and with the congestion in hospitals.

I commend, as I did last week, NHS staff for their unremitting commitment to ensuring that the system is able to deliver as best it can in the face of unprecedented demand. I recounted to the Parliament last week the enormity of the increase in flu cases that have been wrestled with in the NHS over the past few weeks.

The Government is entirely focused on ensuring that we meet the needs of patients and that we support staff in undertaking the essential work that they do, given the enormous increase in demand that we have faced in recent weeks.

A Labour Government did not change the circumstances for the WASPI women—women against state pension inequality—in this country, who have been betrayed by the Labour Party in the United Kingdom. When the Secretary of State for Scotland was in Parliament yesterday, he told us that the people could not cope with the honesty of the Labour Government. I think that, on the basis of the past few months, people in Scotland are waking up to the fundamental dishonesty of the Labour Party, and Mr Sarwar epitomises it.

I thank Edward Mountain for raising this important issue and for the commendable commitment and leadership that he has shown on the issue inside and outside Parliament.

The Scottish Government, along with the rest of the United Kingdom, follows advice about screening programmes from the United Kingdom National Screening Committee, which is an independent expert advisory group. Scotland has fully adopted the National Screening Committee’s recommendation to invite everyone aged between 50 and 74 for bowel screening every two years. The recommendation was based on a thorough assessment of the risks and benefits of screening people at different ages. I assure Parliament that if the National Screening Committee recommended a lower age range, we would explore, as a matter of urgency, how that could be taken forward in Scotland.

I very much welcome the announcement that has been made by XLCC in relation to the facility at Hunterston. That is an example of exactly what we envisaged with the Scottish National Investment Bank—that it would provide the opportunity for investment through that mechanism to support private sector investment and leverage much more significant volumes of private sector investment into the Scottish economy. The funding model is working, which helps us in taking forward our net zero ambitions.

I am delighted that Mr Gibson’s constituency has benefited in the way that he has recounted to Parliament. It is important from the Government’s point of view that the Scottish National Investment Bank is actively engaged in supporting investments as part of our transition to net zero.

It is important that accurate information is given to the public about the measures that are being taken forward on the Government’s policy agenda. On 16 December, the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice wrote to the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, copying in the Secretary of State for Scotland, to specify the data sharing requirements. Those included:

“• Data for all children attached to the Universal Credit claim, including date of birth.

• Data for which children on the Universal Credit claim are included in the UC payment.

• Data for all children who are paid under the Universal Credit exemptions rules including the exemption reason.

• Central Payment System benefit code.

• All data already shared by DWP for the purposes of administering Scottish Child Payment but expanded to include children up to age 19 years old ...

• Data on the UC payment cycles for the claims.”

I was assured by the Prime Minister, face to face, that the DWP would work collaboratively with us to take forward the policy. It is not helpful, and it is not representative, for the Secretary of State for Scotland to make the comments that he made yesterday. If we are going to have an improved climate of relations between the Scottish and the United Kingdom Governments, the UK Government better keep its side of the bargain.

Here we have it. A member of the Conservative Party, front-bench members of which want me to cut public expenditure by £1 billion to enable us to afford a tax cut, wants me to spend more money on winter fuel payments. That is what is being put to us today: demands for a £1 billion spending cut from Conservative front-bench members and for £155 million of expenditure from a back-bench member. There is absolutely not a scrap of cohesion in the nonsense that comes from the Conservative Party each day. [Interruption.]

We are aware that there are CCTV cameras across local authorities that could be designed by Hikvision or include Hikvision components. Any decision on security cameras in local authorities is for councils to make. Although local authorities may choose to follow the Scottish Government’s lead in decommissioning all Hikvision cameras in the Scottish Government estate, they are under no obligation or duty to do so. We encourage all organisations to follow National Cyber Security Centre supply-chain security guidance when selecting a technology supplier. The guidance clearly sets out the security standards that suppliers should meet and the considerations that organisations should make during the procurement process.

I will make a few points to Maggie Chapman. I understand the importance that she and the community attach to the question, but, as it involves a live planning application that rests with Aberdeen City Council, I cannot comment in any specificity on it.

However, further to my first answer, I know that Aberdeen City Council will have to be mindful of the contents of national planning framework 4 in determining its decision on the application. On the point that Maggie Chapman puts to me, NPF4 has an effect on the consideration of the application.

Finally, I know that Ms Chapman wrote to the Minister for Public Finance on the issue and that, earlier this week, he responded by pointing out that the assessment report relating to the notification to ministers on the subject is publicly available on the Government’s website. Those issues can be considered in that context.

I agree with Mr Mountain’s comments in relation to the illegal release of the two lynx. It should not have happened—it was an illegal act, and I join him in condemning it.

I am enormously grateful to everybody who contributed to the safe capture of the lynx. They have been captured by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, which is one of the great and wonderful assets of our country. I am aware that a number of other parties assisted in the process, including Police Scotland officers and local gamekeepers.

I am certain that the Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands will be happy to meet Mr Mountain to discuss his question.

I begin by expressing my apologies to Robert and his family for the experience that he had in Wishaw general hospital. I accept that the pressure on the NHS has made the treatment of individuals very challenging and difficult. People will not have had the experience that they should have had when receiving hospital care. I acknowledge and accept that, and I make no attempt to deny it. However, I have to say two things.

First, the level of demand and the pressure on the NHS must be acknowledged, given the scale of the pressure that we face as a consequence of the flu outbreak that we are dealing with.

Secondly, members of staff have gone out of their way to do everything that they can—by extending shifts and contributing more than could reasonably be asked of them—to do their level best for patients. I accept that, in some circumstances, that will not be enough and will not have been good enough for individuals, but we have to acknowledge those two issues, which I put to Parliament. Demand has been colossal for the NHS and, in addition, staff have given their all to support individuals such as Robert.