Chamber and committees

As I set out in January and reinforced in our programme for government, a long-term shift to prevention is central to sustaining and renewing our national health service. Scotland has led the way in public health action over many years, with bold measures such as the indoor smoking ban and minimum unit pricing for alcohol. We will build on that action by publishing our new population health framework in the coming weeks.

I generally agree with the points that Mr Whittle has made about the importance of preventative interventions, and that approach is exactly what the Government is pursuing.

As he knows, in 2010, I commissioned the Christie commission report, which gave us valuable insight into the approach to prevention. The Government has applied that approach to programmes such as: the promotion of healthy eating; the work to tackle obesity and reduce harms from smoking and vaping; the investment in sport and active living; the work to increase vaccination uptake; and our work on the benefits of social prescribing. I assure Mr Whittle that that focus on prevention will remain central to the Government’s programme.

I think that it says something about the depths that the Conservative Party has now reached that it is not prepared to take in good faith anything that is said across the chamber. It never ceases to amaze me how low the Conservative Party will stoop. It is a disgusting organisation.

First, the number of GPs has increased. In 2017, there were 4,904. According to the latest statistics, there are now 5,211. Secondly, the Government is putting in place arrangements for the 100,000 extra appointments as a consequence of negotiating that agreement with the self-same organisations to which Mr Findlay referred.

The people of Scotland know that my Government is absolutely focused on delivering on the issues that are of concern to them. That is partly about improving access to the national health service. As I set out to Parliament on Tuesday, the Scottish Government is absolutely focused on delivering on the people’s priorities.

I do not think that it is a particular revelation for Parliament to hear that the Conservatives condemned something. They condemn absolutely everything. They have absolutely nothing—[Interruption.]

That is only one part of the plan that we are taking forward, which I will come on to in a second.

Before I get to that, let us look at the issue of temporary accommodation. Because of the financial support that the Scottish Government has put in place, 20 local authority areas have reduced the number of children in temporary accommodation. In 2023-24, 12 local authorities reduced the number of households in temporary accommodation. Why is that happening? It is happening because the Government has put financial support in place to ensure that void accommodation can be brought back into use so that families can be accommodated. That is a change in Government policy that has been made under my leadership. Now—yes, right now; it is all happening as we speak—local authority temporary accommodation levels are coming down because of investment from the Government. That is investment in a budget that the Labour Party refused to support. Labour members should not come here and complain about housing when they were not prepared to press a button to vote in favour of £768 million. No wonder I complain about the Labour Party whinging about things.

On GP appointments, the Government is taking a number of measures. We are delivering 100,000 additional appointments for GPs. We are also expanding pharmacy first services to reduce pressure and demand on GP services, and we are expanding the availability of allied health practitioners in front-line health services. Those measures will deal with the issues that have been raised about the 8 am rush by reducing pressure on GP services. That is the plan that the Government is taking forward, and that is what the Government will implement.

On performance in our hospitals, significant challenges remain in the national health service, which I have acknowledged in all my answers to First Minister’s questions.

On the four-hour A and E targets, the latest data shows that there has been an improvement in performance and that it has strengthened over recent weeks. When we look at the delivery of pledges on waiting times in our national health service, as I indicated in my earlier answer to Mr Findlay, we pledged to conduct 64,000 additional appointments by the end of March 2025. We did not do that; we delivered 105,500. In addition, we have put in place investment, but the Labour Party could not bring itself to support that in the budget.

The point that I am making to the Parliament is that the Labour Party comes here to complain about issues, but it will not do the heavy lifting to support the budget that makes the investment possible. I point out to the Labour Party that it voted against record investment of £21 billion in the national health service, yet it comes to chamber to complain to me about different issues. That is the hypocrisy that I am highlighting from the Labour Party. We have set out that our investment in the NHS will be focused on addressing the priorities of the people, which is to reduce waiting times and improve access to GP services. The Government will deliver on those commitments.

As I said, the bill is going through stage 2 consideration. If amendments are lodged, ministers will consider the issues that arise out of that process and, ultimately, the bill will come back to Parliament for stage 3 consideration.

I acknowledge the issue that Mr Harvie raises with me. The purpose of the rent control legislation is to ensure that tenants have more say and more control, and that landlords fulfil their obligations. Those considerations will lie at the heart of the legislation.

I acknowledge the contents of the letter from the UK Statistics Authority.

I have used one particular measure of the attainment gap—I could use others. The poverty-related attainment gap between young people from the most and least-deprived areas meeting standards in literacy is at a record low in primary schools, and the attainment gap has reached record lows between secondary pupils achieving third level in literacy and numeracy. Those are some of the points.

I accept that there remains an attainment gap in Scottish education. This morning, I visited Brunstane primary school in east Edinburgh and saw at first hand the effect of the Scottish attainment challenge programme, which has supported the development of leadership in the school, enhanced the curriculum and led to greater engagement with families and a rise in the attendance of young people at our school. That is a consequence of the investment that we, as a Government, are able to make available.

Nothing will detract me from focusing on improving the life chances of children, whether or not they are living in poverty, and ensuring that we tackle the issues around household income and engagement with schools. That will lie at the heart of the steps that we are taking in relation to our attainment agenda.