Chamber and committees

Mr Sarwar’s comments are not borne out by the evidence that I have marshalled in my answers today.

As I set out in my original answer, the Government is significantly funding air services in the Highlands and Islands, to the tune of £77 million. It is a bit rich for Mr Simpson to argue for more money to be spent on those services, since seven weeks ago the Conservatives were asking me to reduce taxes, which would have come at the expense of public expenditure—[Interruption.] No amount of agitated explaining from Rachael Hamilton will deter me from pointing out that the Conservatives come to the chamber with absolutely hypocritical propositions about lowering taxes and increasing spending at the same time.

On public expenditure on ferries, the Government was spending £139 million on ferry services about 10 years ago; we are now spending £315 million on those services and expanding the routes and services that people can rely on.

The Scottish Government is taking a number of measures to ensure safe staffing across the NHS, which include providing funding to health boards to support the recruitment of additional staff, measures to make it easier to retain and rehire experienced staff, and measures to improve health system flow, timely discharge from hospital and patient safety.

I regret any loss of life. Questions about the investigation of individual deaths are not a matter for me; they are a matter for the Crown to decide on, should it choose to do so.

Mr O’Kane does a disservice to the topic by brushing aside the implications of Brexit and Covid. We must live in the real world and consider the pressures that have arisen from the implications of the pandemic and from the significant loss of access to staff that has come about as a consequence of Brexit.

The Government is investing significantly to create a position in which we have record numbers of staff in the NHS, and we are working to reduce delayed discharge, because that is one of the identifiable ways of improving performance in the health service and ensuring patient safety. Those efforts will continue to be the focus of intervention by Scottish ministers.

As Mr Doris will know, when the legislation was put through the Parliament to establish Social Security Scotland and handle the benefits that are now the responsibility of the Scottish Government, we legislated for dignity, compassion and respect to underpin the approach that we would take to the exercise of our responsibilities in relation to social security. I assure Mr Doris and the Parliament that those values will underpin all the actions of Social Security Scotland, and we will communicate them widely, because they are the foundation for any decent and respectful social security system.

Before I address the question from Mr Ross, I should explain that the First Minister is meeting the Prime Minister today in advance of the British-Irish Council summit and she has asked me to answer questions on her behalf.

I associate myself entirely with Mr Ross’s remarks in relation to the moment of remembrance over the weekend. We will all fall silent on Sunday. Tomorrow, in my constituency in the city of Perth, I will attend a remembrance event at 11 o’clock to mark the sacrifice of individuals throughout all conflict. As we speak, my Cabinet colleague Keith Brown, who is himself a distinguished veteran, is in the Falklands on the 40th anniversary of his active service in the Falkland Islands conflict. We remember the suffering of individuals and the sacrifices of their families and their loved ones and we pay tribute to those who continue to endure that suffering today because of the injuries that they have suffered and the experiences that they have had.

There are many challenges in our health service and I recognise the concerns expressed by members of staff through the ballots that have taken place. There have been extensive negotiations, which the health secretary and I have also been involved in, to try to resolve the pay issues. We have put forward a record pay deal which, on average, will offer members of staff a 7 per cent increase and, for those on the lowest of incomes, an 11 per cent increase, recognising the enormous contribution that health service staff make to our society and the enormous cost of living pressures that they are wrestling with.

In addition to that contribution to resolving the issues, the health secretary has been actively involved in discussions to address some of the challenges in our health service, principally around the issue of delayed discharge, which we recognise to be one of the most significant factors impeding the flow of patients through accident and emergency to other aspects of the health service, which, ideally, then ensure that those individuals are supported appropriately within the community.

There are of course challenges around the availability of members of staff to do that; we have record employment in the health service just now, but we also have vacancies, and we have vacancies in social care—a situation that has of course not been helped by the fact that we have lost free movement of citizens, which was helping us to deal with the issues that Mr Ross raises.

I assure Mr Ross that the Government is entirely focused on all the issues, with very clear direction from the health secretary and the active support of the First Minister and myself, to make sure that we address the challenges that we face.

I accept that there are significant challenges in the national health service right across the United Kingdom. Mr Ross’s point about accident and emergency is important, but it has to be considered in its proper context: although there are challenges in A and E departments in Scotland, we have the best performing A and E system in the United Kingdom.

On his question whether Governments listen, yes, this Government listens, which is why we have offered NHS staff in Scotland the best pay deal of any system in the United Kingdom. On his question of the future of the national health service, resources are absolutely fundamental. That is why it is laughable for Douglas Ross to come here and raise those issues with me when, only seven weeks ago, he wanted me to cut tax during the folly that was taken forward by Liz Truss, which would have damaged public investment in our health service.

Yes, there are challenges in the national health service, but there is a record pay deal on offer from the Scottish Government—[Interruption.]

I am addressing the question from Mr Sarwar, who has raised the issue of workforce planning. Today, we find ourselves with record levels of staffing in our national health service. That is a product of workforce planning, which has been designed to boost recruitment levels.

Over the past 10 years, we have seen an increase in nursing and midwifery admissions as a consequence of the investment that the Government has made. There has also been an increase in the number of consultants who are operating in the NHS, and we have 8.3 qualified nurses and midwives per 1,000 of population in Scotland compared with 6 per 1,000 of population in England. All of that comparative data shows Scotland to be in a better and stronger position.

What I do not think helps the situation are the comments that were made at the weekend by the leader of the United Kingdom Labour Party, who said:

“I think we are recruiting too many people from overseas in, for example, the health service”.

I listened to those comments with incredulity. What is hampering us in the national health service is the Brexit that was inflicted on us by the Conservatives, which ended the free movement of individuals and resulted in members of staff being lost from our national health service. We need to reverse that; we need an approach that is open to migration so that we can boost recruitment into our national health service. The comments from Keir Starmer are a disastrous signal to send to hard-working members of staff.

First of all, I think that I touched a very raw nerve with my comments about Keir Starmer. Anyone who looks at my track record, throughout all my public service, will find that I have always—always—been on the side of openness and welcoming people from other countries into our society.

The point that I am making to Anas Sarwar is that our ability to recruit staff and provide the necessary means for people to work in our national health service has been totally undermined by Brexit and the Conservative Government. Keir Starmer, through his comments at the weekend and his hostility to addressing any migration issues, is simply taking the same line as the Tories, and that is an absolute disgrace.

Any international recruitment that is undertaken by the Scottish Government is done through an ethical route. We do not actively recruit staff from any of the World Health Organization’s red list countries.

I have acknowledged this afternoon, as my colleagues have done on other occasions, that there are huge pressures on the national health service, because we have had a pandemic. We are recovering from that pandemic and are experiencing enormous strain in the process of so doing. In that sense, I accept the points that Mr Sarwar raises about the seriousness of the situation that we face.

However, let me tell Mr Sarwar that the Scottish Government is absolutely focused on giving the necessary leadership and resources to address those circumstances, and we will continue to do so. The reactions and support that we have received from people in Scotland over successive elections show that they are supportive of the work that we undertake.