Chamber and committees

I recognise the sensitivity of the point that Mr Simpson puts to me, and I understand the concern about the different approach that is taken in different scenarios. I am happy for the relevant ministers—the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care and the Minister for Public Health and Women’s Health—to engage directly with Mr Simpson on the question. We will explore what is possible. There might be clinical issues with which I am not familiar, but we will explore the matter to see whether there is a way to address Mr Simpson’s points.

I understand Mr Greer’s points. Any decisions arrived at by the Supreme Court in New York are a matter for that court. There is a process that must be undertaken in Scotland for any unexplained wealth order. That process is taken forward by the civil recovery unit, which is responsible to Scottish ministers under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002, and the matter would be for that unit to consider.

In the light of Mr Greer’s question, I will explore whether anything more can be said about that, and I will write to him if anything can be added to what I have placed on the record today.

All those four commitments cost more money, and then there is the fifth one: “Cutting your Tax”. Douglas Ross stands here and demands that we do more and spend less. It is the politics of absurdity, and Douglas Ross is welcome to all of it.

This Government has taken hard decisions to increase the resources that are available for investment in public services. We have asked people with higher earnings to contribute more in taxation to enable us to invest more in the health service and in social care. That is what we have done. Jackie Baillie opposed that—she opposed every single bit of it.

There is now an opportunity, on 4 July, to elect a Government that could end austerity, but the Labour Party is not seizing the opportunity to end austerity—the Labour Party is going to prolong austerity. I gently suggest to Jackie Baillie that it would help the situation if the Labour Party committed itself to ending austerity and supported this Government’s agenda so that we could address the issues that she raises with me.

I am not sure that Douglas Ross is on his strongest ground—

The specific remark that I made was that a commitment by the Prime Minister to undertake 100 new oil and gas licences without any scrutiny was climate change denial of the first order, and utterly and totally reckless. Those were my words, and I will not have them misrepresented by Douglas Ross.

We have a rational and considered process, which we have argued for, which is that every individual application should be subject to a climate compatibility assessment, because there is a journey that we as a country have to make to reach net zero. That is inescapable.

What is clear from the position that has been taken by the Prime Minister, which has been supported by Douglas Ross and the Conservatives, is that they do not care about the journey on climate; they are not interested in the crisis that we face with the climate emergency. The Scottish Government will take the responsible approach to managing the transition and the challenges of the climate emergency.

I very much welcome the findings from the report, which signals a strengthening of private sector activity in Scotland. It confirms that that activity has expanded for the fifth month running and at the strongest pace in two years.

As Parliament will know, one of the four priorities of the Government is to strengthen the economy, and the Deputy First Minister is leading work, with my support, to advance that within Government. We are taking measures to build on the good work that has been done to encourage the start-up community and further investment is being provided in the scale-up community. We are seeing some of the fruits of that in the success of business, which underpins the very positive information in the purchasing managers index report.

I assure Mr MacDonald of the Government’s continued focus on ensuring that we strengthen economic growth and economic activity, because that is the foundation of good and strong public services in our country.

Mr Sarwar obviously does not understand what he was saying at his press conference on Tuesday. The consequences of his stance will be to reduce public expenditure in Scotland. It is, quite simply, beyond credibility to come here and ask me to invest more money in the national health service, in order to tackle the issues that Mr Sarwar is concerned about, when he wants to cut public expenditure and any prospective incoming United Kingdom Government will also cut public expenditure.

The Scottish Government does not support the building of new nuclear power stations in Scotland. We have abundant natural resources and a highly skilled workforce that enables us to take advantage of the many renewable energy opportunities.

Evidence shows that new nuclear is more expensive than renewable alternatives. Nuclear energy also creates radioactive waste, which must be safely managed over many decades to protect the environment, and that requires complex and expensive handling. The Scottish Government is supporting continued growth in renewables, storage, hydrogen and carbon capture technologies to drive economic growth, support green jobs and provide secure, affordable and clean energy for Scotland.

I am not personally aware of any such correspondence. However, it is important that we have a very clear strategy for the generation of electricity in our country. The Government is giving that policy certainty and I want to ensure that it is widely understood in Scotland.