Chamber and committees

I welcome Gillian Mackay’s remarks. I assure her that the Government will engage with members of the Scottish Parliament to ensure that they are adequately supported and briefed on all the issues that are relevant to accessing the scheme. As I indicated in my response to Mr Sweeney, I feel optimistic about the engagement route with the United Kingdom Government because it is being handled by the Cabinet Office minister John Glen. If there are issues that we need to raise, we will be able to raise them, and I am sure that they will be the subject of satisfactory engagement. I ask all members of Parliament, if issues emerge, to draw them to the attention of ministers and we will do our best to ensure that they are raised with the United Kingdom Government.

Mr Sweeney makes a number of important points.

The compensation scheme is a UK one, so we will engage constructively to ensure that it can be accessed by people in Scotland on exactly the same basis as in the rest of the UK. The point that I made in my earlier response to Douglas Ross is that the amendments that were successfully made to the Victims and Prisoners Bill are helpful in ensuring that we can take forward our involvement in that scheme, in order to benefit individuals in Scotland.

I know from my own ministerial experience that any process that involves John Glen of the Cabinet Office will be one of good engagement. John Glen is a very good interlocutor for the Scottish Government and is a man of great integrity and decency. I look forward to that engagement and I know that ministers will have that opportunity, because that has always been my experience of dealing with John Glen and such things count and help when it comes to intergovernmental relationships.

Lastly, I say to Mr Sweeney that we will remain open to engaging with all the support organisations in Scotland to ensure that there is appropriate assistance in place so that the all the issues that need to be addressed here can be properly addressed, within the support schemes that we have available.

I am very familiar with Christine Grahame’s leadership of the Health Committee in a past parliamentary session. I also note that Mr Carlaw, who is convener of the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee, is in his place in the chamber. I have made the point before that that channel of dialogue and access to parliamentary justice is one of the strengths of this institution and we should be immensely proud of it. I know that Christine Grahame and her colleagues did a huge amount of work on a cross-party basis to advance the arguments for a public inquiry, and we should be proud of that work.

Christine Grahame is a distinguished lawyer and she knows that I cannot determine issues in relation to criminal charges and criminal justice. Those issues are for the proper authorities to consider in Scotland and the rest of the United Kingdom, and it is important that I leave them to exercise their independent functions without further comment in that respect.

Mr Marra raises important issues about the sustainability of health service provision, and the Government must live within the financial resources that are available to it. It is ludicrous for Mr Marra to come here with that question. I have gone through with Mr Sarwar the fact that the health service is the best funded part of our public services. It occupies a larger proportion of our budget than it did when this Government came to office.

In 2007, when this Government came to office, health service expenditure accounted for about 30 per cent of our total budget. That is now much closer to 50 per cent. The Government has substantially increased expenditure on health. To fund that, we have increased tax on higher earners. Mr Marra is opposed to that; he wants to make the situation worse. Mr Marra wants to reduce the amount of revenue that is available, but he wants me to fund more public services. Mr Marra cannot have his cake and eat it.

Mr Briggs needs to be aware of the Government’s record on housing—[Interruption.]

I am trying to be as helpful as I can on the question, but it is a matter of fact that Sir Lewis Ritchie’s recommendations were implemented for a three-year period, although they have not been sustained.

I accept that that is not good enough. That is what the Government is addressing. That is why, in the past 48 hours, the health secretary has met directly with the leadership of NHS Highland. He has also met Kate Forbes, who is the Deputy First Minister and MSP for Skye, Lochaber and Badenoch. All those conversations are taking place to ensure that Sir Lewis Ritchie’s recommendations are implemented, and that they are implemented in short order.

I give Mr Ross the assurance that the health secretary and I, as First Minister, will make sure that the issue is progressed. It should not have taken tragedy to get to this point, but I assure Parliament that the issue has the attention of ministers to ensure that it is addressed promptly.

It is important that we all, where we can, take responsibility to look after ourselves. This morning, at 6 o'clock, I was running through the streets of Edinburgh to support my mental wellbeing, because I tend to find that I have a better time at First Minister’s question time if I have run in the morning than if I have not run in the morning—every week, members will be able to tell whether I have been out running in the morning.

Mr MacGregor raises a very significant issue. Through our communities mental health and wellbeing fund for adults, we have made available £66 million for community projects since 2021. The fund, which supported approximately 300,000 people across Scotland in its first year, is focused on addressing a number of mental health and wellbeing concerns within local communities in Scotland. Since 2020, we have also made available £65 million to local authorities to develop community support projects, and the Government remains committed to doing the work and supporting the work that Mr MacGregor raised to assist in that respect.

The health secretary was in Aberdeen yesterday to launch the changing room programme, which is a welcome contribution to our efforts on mental health and wellbeing.

First, I associate myself with the comments that Mr Cole-Hamilton has made about Heather Aird and Eilidh Beaton.

The Cabinet will next meet on Tuesday.

I share the aspirations that Rhoda Grant has put to Parliament today. NHS Highland has a close working relationship with Lochalsh and Skye Housing Association, which has supported NHS Highland in providing housing for key staff in Broadford. Four flats have been leased for nurses, three of which are supporting the international recruitment project that brings skills into the locality to meet some of the shortages that we are experiencing. The remaining flat is used for on-call staff. The board also leases two family homes for specialist staff located at the new Broadford hospital. All houses and flats in that development are fully occupied.

I hope that that reassures Rhoda Grant that, where these projects come forward, they are fully utilised and deployed. There is an invitation to public bodies to come forward with proposals to access the fund. The fund has not been fully utilised, so, from this podium, I encourage public authorities to come forward with their bids to address some of the issues that Rhoda Grant raises.

The issues that Rhoda Grant raises underpin the issues that Mr Ross and Mr Cole-Hamilton raised with me today about having accommodation available for staff in rural areas. I acknowledge that that is a problem. My long-term leadership of the convention of the Highlands and Islands over many years in government taught me that important lesson about the interconnectedness of housing. I encourage public authorities to come forward on the measures that will address those issues.

As I said in my original answer to Mr Mountain, an update on the procurement route will be given before the summer recess. It will provide the clarity that Katy Clark reasonably asks for and will give certainty to island communities at that time.