Chamber and committees

Just to prolong the absurdity of Douglas Ross’s position, he has, this week, set out a manifesto that commits to

“Repairing the Roads ... Ending Long NHS Waits ... Restoring our Schools”

and

“Making Scotland Safer”.

All—[Interruption.]

Let me go through some of the steps that we have taken to strengthen cancer care in Scotland and demonstrate the increased level of activity that is taking place. In relation to the significant increase in the number of posts that we have in cancer care, I note that we have funded the creation of 15 extra posts in clinical oncology, six in medical oncology, 68 in clinical radiology and 10 in clinical interventional radiology. There has been a 50 per cent increase in the number of consultant oncologists in the past decade, and we have increased the number of consultant radiologists by 34 per cent over the same period.

If we look at the volume of individuals who are being treated, we see that more than 15 per cent more patients were treated on the 62-day urgent suspicion of cancer pathway than in late 2019, before the Covid pandemic, which is 47 per cent more than 10 years ago. Further, 22 per cent more patients were treated on the 31-day pathway compared with 10 years ago.

My answers directly address Mr Sarwar’s point about what we are doing to treat and support more people. We are expanding the number of people delivering specialist care, and we are making sure that more patients are being treated on the 31-day and the 62-day pathways.

Other measures have been taken such as the rapid cancer diagnostic services that are now being delivered in parts of the country. In NHS Fife, for example, the average wait for referral from diagnosis has gone from 77.5 days to 11.4 days. In Dumfries and Galloway, that average wait has gone from 78.7 days to 13.6 days. I put that information on the record to reassure members of the public that the Government is investing, we are treating more people and more people are being treated more quickly.

I accept that there remain challenges in the delivery of healthcare and cancer care, which is why I believe that we have to have an honest conversation about the financial support that is required to support investment in our health service.

The Cabinet will next meet in the week commencing 5 August.

I set out the projects that the Government has delivered and put in place simply to establish confidence in the Government’s ability to deliver capital projects. I have not heard from Rhoda Grant an argument for why we should not have done any of those projects. We were encouraged by the Labour Party to do other projects that we did not want to do, and we had to find the funding for all of that. I simply put those projects on the record.

I cannot give Rhoda Grant a definitive figure for the volume of land that has been acquired, but I will write to her with the details after First Minister’s question time.

It is very clear that the evidence points to the acute difficulties that Elena Whitham puts on the record. If there is a prolonged reduction in public expenditure, it will harm the population. That is what we are wrestling with, and that is why there must be a change of direction in the public finances. We have taken decisions in Scotland to expand public expenditure to enable investment in our public services. We need the fiscal climate of the United Kingdom to catch up with us to enable greater investment in the public services of our country.

As I have explained to Parliament previously, I accept that the delayed discharge numbers that Douglas Ross raises with me are far too high. The Government is in active dialogue with local authorities and health boards to reduce those numbers. On waiting times for cancer treatment, we are treating more patients, and an increased number of personnel in the health service are working to deliver on cancer care. Across the whole health service, we are allocating more resources to ensure that it is able to meet the rising demand that has occurred in the aftermath of the Covid pandemic. The health service now occupies a much larger proportion of our budget than was the case previously.

There is, of course, a link between the condition of the health service and the question of independence, which is the question of financial control. What worries me—and not only me; this has been expressed by the Institute for Fiscal Studies as well—is that, at this moment, there is a conspiracy of silence between the Conservatives and the Labour Party about the funding of our public services and our health service. The issue is this: we are not confronting the consequences of 14 years of austerity. For Scotland, independence is the way to do that.

I think that the Government’s decisions speak volumes about the priority that we attach to the health service—[Interruption.]

I do not really think that Douglas Ross is in a position to go on at me about division when his colleagues behind him have told him to get out of office as leader of the Scottish Conservative Party. [Interruption.] Oh! Do they all want him to stay? What I read in the newspapers was that they were all in revolt. They all wanted rid of him. [Interruption.]

—consequences of 14 years of Conservative austerity. They are suffering because of the Conservative obsession with Brexit, which is damaging our economy. They are suffering because of the cost of living crisis that was escalated by the ludicrous behaviour of Liz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng, which Douglas Ross wanted me to emulate. Independence is the solution to austerity, Brexit and the cost of living—and we are going to see the back of Douglas Ross as well.

Our carer support payment is the 14th benefit to be delivered by Social Security Scotland and has been available for new applicants in Dundee city, Perth and Kinross, and the Western Isles since November 2023. From November it will operate nationally, and on Monday we completed the latest phase of the roll-out, opening the payment to new applications in Angus, North Lanarkshire and South Lanarkshire.

The carer support payment, which was co-designed with carers and support organisations, extends entitlement to many carers in full-time education, thereby removing barriers to education for around 1,500 carers a year.