Chamber and committees

I am aware of the reports that Mr MacGregor raises with me. At the outset of my answer, I express my sympathies to the family of Moira Anderson and congratulate those who are involved in the Moira Anderson Foundation, which is a wonderful organisation, and especially Sandra Brown, who gives such exemplary leadership to its activity. Sandra Brown and her colleagues have never lost their determination to solve the case of Moira Anderson’s disappearance.

I cannot comment on operational policing matters, but I am aware that Police Scotland has stated that any new information that it receives relating to the case will be fully assessed and investigated. It is an absolute priority for us to ensure that unresolved homicides are addressed. Those cases are never closed. As we have seen in recent years, the success of Police Scotland in investigating and resolving some of those cases has brought peace to many individuals who have had to live with the torment of losing a loved one. I hope dearly that that can be the case in relation to Moira Anderson.

I welcome the investments that the Government has made in this policy area. On Monday, I had the pleasure of opening the energy transition skills hub in the city of Aberdeen, which is the result of £4.5 million of investment from our just transition fund and an excellent collaboration involving North East Scotland College, ETZ Ltd and Shell UK, which have been significant partners in bringing about that development. That is one example of the steps that have been taken, and it was a pleasure to see Audrey Nicoll at the event on Monday in Aberdeen.

On the energy profits levy, I have made it crystal clear to the Parliament that I think that the levy has gone on for far too long and is set at too high a level. That is an issue that the United Kingdom Government must address, and I hope that it does so.

The change to official statistics is about ensuring that a patient’s wait is reflected accurately. Public Health Scotland made that decision to align with the latest waiting times guidance, which was published in 2023. The Welsh Government announced a not dissimilar move in April of this year.

Previously, some long waits might have been recorded as such due to patient unavailability, multiple missed or cancelled appointments, or the refusal of two reasonable offers of appointments. Under the guidance, in such a scenario, the patient’s waiting times clock may be reset or adjusted where clinically appropriate. That change will result in a small drop in waiting times statistics for those waiting for more than 52 weeks, but no change to the overall waiting list numbers.

Public Health Scotland has been clear that the change will support transparency and allow patients to identify a more accurate waiting time for their procedure.

We expect the funding to deliver 213,000 more appointments and procedures than in 2024-25, which will exceed our programme for government target of delivering 150,000 extra appointments and procedures. That greater capacity will help to address the issues affecting waiting times that Emma Harper has put to me.

Various investments will be made to deploy that expenditure to ensure that we can make developments in certain specialties, including investments in Gartnavel hospital in Glasgow, Inverclyde royal infirmary, Perth royal infirmary, Queen Margaret hospital in Dunfermline and Stracathro hospital in Tayside. Those sites will deliver more than 2,500 additional orthopaedic and 9,500 cataract procedures, which will help us to erode the waiting list that we are experiencing.

As I indicated, in the data for July 2025 we have seen the lowest level of 12-hour waits since 2023, in the aftermath of the pandemic. That is just one illustration of the Government’s focus on addressing those issues.

Jackie Baillie has railed against me for the technical changes that Public Health Scotland has decided to make, independently of the Government, to ensure that the statistics are accurate. What she did not rail against was the Welsh Labour Government’s doing exactly the same thing when it looked at the issue. That just tells us what we have long known—that when Jackie Baillie comes to the Parliament to posture on the health service, she is full of hypocrisy in the stance that she takes.

Support is available for carers in Scotland that is not available in other parts of the United Kingdom. That is because of the investment that the Government makes in our social security system.

I welcome Annie Wells’s support for the social security measures that the Government is taking, and I look forward to her supporting the Government’s budget as we protect those measures in the forthcoming period. Perhaps she can also persuade the front bench of her party to stop arguing for cutting social security, because doing that would undermine the availability of the support that she wants me to ensure. The Conservatives cannot have their cake and eat it. If we want to have support for carers, we have to be prepared to vote for it in the budget.

I assure Mr Bibby that we will, but we will also make representations on a range of other issues.

Mr Lumsden and Mr Bibby have both made an important point about the need to reflect the different issues that affect different parts of the country. Those matters must be considered by Ofcom, and they will feature in the representations that Mr Robertson makes.

The Scottish Government has taken a number of steps, in our policy programme and in our decisions on public sector pay, in an effort to address the legitimate issues that Mr Stewart has put to me. In our public sector pay policy, we have put forward settlements that I believe are appropriate and which take into account the inflation pressures that Mr Stewart has set out.

As part of our policy programme, a range of provisions are available in Scotland, such as free prescriptions and free eye examinations, free bus travel, free tuition for university students, and early learning and childcare support that is estimated to have a value of up to £6,000 for every eligible child. In recent weeks, the Government has abolished peak rail fares, which will save a commuter from Glasgow to Edinburgh nearly 50 per cent of their costs on a daily basis. That is concrete action that the SNP Government is delivering to support people in the cost of living crisis.

I am very familiar with Christies, which is a long-standing business in Fochabers. Richard Lochhead, who is the local MSP, has kept me up to date with the worrying situation that is being faced there.

As Mr Ross will know, the Government has extensive tree-planting commitments as part of its climate change agenda. I was in the Moray area during the summer recess to open a very significant tree nursery that will support that activity. Despite the scale of investment in that tree facility, private sector capacity through Christies and other companies—I should not refer just to Christies—will still be needed to meet our tree-planting targets.

The issue that Mr Ross raises is significant. The Cabinet Secretary for Rural Affairs, Land Reform and Islands, Mairi Gougeon, will happily engage with him on that question. The support of the Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise in engaging with Christies, in recognition of its contribution towards the climate change activity, is merited, and I will make sure that it happens.

The Government takes forward a range of measures to encourage innovation in our economy, because economic growth is central to the Government’s policy agenda, as I have explained to the Parliament on countless occasions.

The Deputy First Minister took part in the innovation summit this morning, and I have had some recent discussions on the matter. Just last week, I met representatives of the games industry, which is a sparkling example of innovation in Scotland through which collaboration between the business sector and our universities is generating substantial economic growth for Scotland. That is just one example of how the Government takes forward its innovation agenda.