Chamber and committees

The arrangements for IJBs were put in place by statute that was considered by Parliament. It is the responsibility of the IJBs to take those decisions, and there will be members of any relevant local authorities on those boards. However, there should also be appropriate and adequate consultation with people who are affected by service changes. That is an implicit part of all the approaches that are taken to any service changes that take place, and I encourage that to be the case in this circumstance.

What my Government is focused on is improving the lives of people in Scotland. That is why we are keeping prescriptions free in Scotland while they are nearly £10 under Labour in England; it is why we are protecting free tuition in Scotland while fees are rising south of the border; it is why we have expanded free early learning and childcare, extended free school meals, introduced the Scottish child payment and abolished—for good—peak rail fares on our railways. We are interested in providing practical support to improve the lives of people in Scotland, and we will continue to do that.

I notice that, in the survey that Mr Findlay is talking about, there is also a question on independence. It indicates that support for independence is at 47 per cent—up from 27 per cent in 1999. [Interruption.]

The issue that Mr Findlay must address is that the arguments that he puts forward for preserving the status quo are now completely and utterly threadbare. Labour and Tory politicians said that staying in the United Kingdom would lower our bills, but the opposite has been the case. They promised financial security but gave us the Liz Truss mini-budget. They assured us that voting no was the surest way for Scotland to remain in the European Union, but Scotland has been taken out of the EU against our will. The arguments against Scottish independence have collapsed since 2014, and Scotland is on a pathway to independence.

—the weaker his arguments become. What I have marshalled and put in front of Parliament today is the evidence. Living standards in Scotland are stagnating, and they have stagnated for 15 years. [Interruption.]

I recognise both the importance of drugs support for individuals and the need to deliver on the commitments that we made as part of the programme for government.

On the specific issue that Mr Sarwar raises, we made a commitment to establish 1,000 publicly funded residential rehabilitation placements per year by 2025-26. The most recent Public Health Scotland publication shows that there were 984 confirmed records of individuals having started such placements in 2022-23. We have made £38 million available to eight projects across Scotland to provide additional residential rehabilitation beds. The latest published figures report a rise in capacity of 88 beds, giving a total of 513 in September 2024, and there has been further expansion since then.

I assure Mr Sarwar, first, of the importance of that endeavour and, secondly, of the practical steps that have been taken to implement the commitments that we have given, and that we will continue to implement.

The Government has taken a focused approach, over a number of years, to addressing the issue of drugs in our society, and a number of significant steps have been taken.

I have put on the record the issues concerning the expansion of rehabilitation placements, and the fact that the progress that we committed to is being achieved.

We have supported the delivery of the first safer consumption room. Based on the evidence that is available to us, we know that the Thistle has saved lives as a consequence of that intervention. We have expanded the roll-out of naloxone, which is resulting in a significant reduction of death and injury to individuals who use drugs. I recognise that the level of drug deaths is far, far too high. In the past year, we have seen a 13 per cent decrease in the number of such deaths in Scotland, but we must maintain absolute vigilance and focus to ensure that we continue to make progress.

Finally, on the issue of criminal justice, our prison system is absolutely full of individuals, many of whom have been imprisoned because of their drug-related activity, so it is quite simply wrong for Mr Sarwar to suggest that people are not being brought to justice for their criminal activity. [Interruption.]

First, I thank Mr Cole-Hamilton for his words, as I thanked Mr Sarwar for his, on the situation in Gaza. I also associate myself with his remarks about Menzies Campbell, Lord Campbell of Pittenweem. I was warmly and fondly welcomed into the House of Commons by Ming Campbell in 1997 and I enjoyed far too many uproariously funny conversations with Ming and his late wife, Elspeth, who were always wonderful company. I convey to the Liberal Democrats, as I have conveyed privately, my appreciation and sympathy as they wrestle with the loss of a giant of the Liberal Democrat movement.

On the substantive question on renewable energy, I have a lot of sympathy with Mr Cole-Hamilton’s point. The issue of community benefits arising out of wind farm developments is regulated by the United Kingdom Government, and we have been pressing for some time to mandate community benefits from mature onshore renewables technologies and to create greater benefit for communities, particularly in relation to the reduction of fuel bills. I am sympathetic to his point, but it is an issue that the Government has pressed the UK Government on, and we will continue to do so.

I have seen the press speculation to which Ms Adamson refers. It is important that the UK Government lets us know as soon as possible about any plans that it might have because, as Ms Adamson will know, the Scottish Government is pressing ahead with our measures to abolish the two-child limit, which should have been undertaken as one of the first acts of the Labour Government. The Scottish Fiscal Commission estimates that 43,000 children in Scotland will benefit from the Scottish Government’s two-child limit payment, and Scottish Government modelling shows that 20,000 children will be kept out of relative poverty as a result.

Mr Findlay knows full well that the Government will set out its tax plans in the budget in an orderly and rational fashion. As a consequence of that, the Parliament will be able to scrutinise the Government’s financial provisions.

I reiterate the point that I have just made: more than half of taxpayers in Scotland continue to pay less than they would if they lived elsewhere in the United Kingdom. I am very proud of that fact.

Mr Findlay knows full well that the Government will set out its tax plans in the budget in an orderly and rational fashion. As a consequence of that, the Parliament will be able to scrutinise the Government’s financial provisions.

I reiterate the point that I have just made: more than half of taxpayers in Scotland continue to pay less than they would if they lived elsewhere in the United Kingdom. I am very proud of that fact.