Chamber and committees

Recent data indicates that Scotland has the highest rate of start-ups in the United Kingdom apart from one part of England, which indicates the culture that we are creating in Scotland to encourage business growth and expansion. The collaboration between our universities and the gaming industry, to take the example that I cited in my first answer, is a clear example of how our university community collaborates with the business community to generate economic growth.

The Government is always attentive to supporting, encouraging and nurturing innovation in Scotland, because that is the route to prosperity for our country. The Government is delivering on that agenda.

Our assessment of high-growth companies has found that that activity is at its highest level since 2019. That indicates that we are making progress beyond pre-pandemic levels in Scotland.

Mr Findlay gave me a range of examples of other European countries. I simply make the point to him that those other European countries are all independent countries, with the full range of economic powers at their disposal. I am delighted that Mr Findlay has come to the Parliament today to make the economic argument for Scottish independence.

Mr Greer knows the absolute focus that I have on eradicating child poverty. When I became First Minister, I was asked what the clear mission of my Government was, and I said that it was the eradication of child poverty.

I lead a Government that is taking measures such as the abolition of the two-child limit, which we will abolish in March next year. The Labour Government has failed to abolish that policy in the United Kingdom, but we will do so here next March. The Scottish child payment is already in place. We are adopting a range of measures, in addition to what we are doing on housing, childcare, transport and a variety of other issues.

I have a lot of sympathy with Mr Greer’s point about long-standing council tax debt. I know that related provisions are being considered in the context of the Housing (Scotland) Bill; those proposals have not been subject to the amount of consultation that would normally apply for legislation. The Parliament rightly pressurises the Government to ensure that there is proper consultation—as do stakeholders, including our local authority partners.

Having said all that, I am sympathetic to Mr Greer’s point, and I am open to further dialogue on how we might pursue his ideas in that respect.

The assurance that I can provide to Elena Whitham and older people in our society is that the provisions that the Government has put in place are part of the package of support that we believe is necessary for vulnerable pensioners.

I point out that, sometimes, Parliament faces a call for us to clamp down on social security expenditure—I think that I have heard that language before—but nobody ever follows it up with specific suggestions about how that expenditure should be cut. So, of course, the benefits that I refer to could be under threat from the challenges that other parties put to us. However, let me be absolutely crystal clear to Elena Whitham that this Government stands in support of those payments and the support that we put in place, and that will remain the case in the Government’s provisions.

No yard in the United Kingdom submitted returns on the northern isles freight contracts. Ferguson Marine did not enter the competition, as the vessels are too large to be accommodated at the shipyard, so there is a reason why that was the case.

I am very sympathetic to the rest of the point that Mr Greene makes. The Government is engaging on the question of enabling every consideration to be given to ensure that the Ferguson Marine yard is able to receive work in due course; I have confirmed that to Parliament before.

We are seeing developments in the delivery of new ferries that have been commissioned. The MV Isle of Islay is currently on its final acceptance trials before coming from the yard in Turkey, and we look forward with anticipation to the vessel joining the fleet in due course. That is the first of four vessels that are coming to replenish the larger vessels in the Caledonian MacBrayne fleet, along with the Glen Rosa, which is close to completion at Ferguson Marine.

Mr Greene can be assured that the Government is investing substantially in the ferry network. I was delighted also to see the MV Caledonian Isles return to Ardrossan, from where I hope that, very shortly, it can recommence sailings to Arran. I am sure that that will bring much joy to Mr Greene and to his constituents.

The data that Clare Haughey puts to Parliament is very significant indeed. The average across Great Britain for rail cancellations is 4.1 per cent, and the lowest cancellation level of any part of the United Kingdom is in the ScotRail network, at 2.2 per cent.

Performance has remained consistently strong, with punctuality at around 90 per cent across all three years of public ownership. I therefore say a very warm thank you to the staff of ScotRail, who work incredibly hard to ensure that we have a first-class rail service in Scotland. That service is outperforming those in the rest of the United Kingdom, with cancellation rates that are half those in the rest of the UK. That just shows what public ownership and SNP leadership can deliver.

As I have indicated since I became First Minister, I recognise that there are challenges and weaknesses in the provision of healthcare in the aftermath of the pandemic. Along with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, I am absolutely focused on addressing those issues.

As I indicated in my previous answer, 97 per cent of discharges from Scottish hospitals happen without delay. It is expected that there will be 213,000 extra appointments and procedures, which exceeds our commitment, as promised in our programme for government, by more than 60,000; the number of operations that were performed in July was the highest in five years, with an increase of 8.9 per cent compared with July last year; and the number of hip and knee operations reached an all-time high in 2024.

Mr Sarwar raised issues in maternity care. Some of those will be assessed following clinical advice about the sustainability of services in some rural areas in Scotland. That is a difficult issue, but the Government listens carefully to clinical advice, as the Parliament would expect it to do.

There is another issue that is difficult. Our national health service depends on the flow of staff coming from other countries to support us, and our challenge in that respect is being made extraordinarily more difficult because of the immigration policies that are being pursued by the United Kingdom Government. Those policies are absurd and are making it more difficult to deliver public services. In Scotland, 26 per cent of social care staff are people who have come from other countries to this country, and the UK Labour Government is making such movement much more difficult. I suggest that Mr Sarwar should try to get his Labour Government in London to take a different stance on immigration; we would all be better off as a consequence.

I very much agree with the concern expressed by Rona Mackay, who brings her formidable experience as a journalist before she became a member of Parliament. Local journalism is absolutely important for the scrutiny of public policy at all levels in Scottish society. I was concerned to hear this morning’s reports about STV and the recent news about the Daily Record.

This morning, the Cabinet Secretary for Constitution, External Affairs and Culture, Angus Robertson, has indicated to the Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee that he will engage with STV, Ofcom and the trade unions to highlight our concerns. We will give whatever assistance we can in that respect. It is absolutely vital to our democracy that we have sustained media engagement, and the Government will do all that it can to support those who are affected. This will be a very worrying time for all the affected employees. They have my understanding and my support.

No, I will not accept that doom-laden analysis of Scotland’s position, because the facts do not support Mr Findlay. Since 2007, when the SNP Government came to power, gross domestic product per person in Scotland has grown by 10.3 per cent, compared with growth of 6.1 per cent in the rest of the United Kingdom, while productivity has grown at an average rate of 1.1 per cent, compared with the UK average of 0.4 per cent, so growth in Scotland has been stronger compared with growth in the rest of the United Kingdom.

Mr Findlay was surprised that I picked up on his open support for Scottish independence in his question to me, but let me give him a practical example. One of the issues that businesses are wrestling with today is the increase in employer national insurance contributions, which is stifling growth in our country. That was not a decision of my Government; it was a decision of the hopeless United Kingdom Labour Government, which is damaging our economy.

I rest my case—if we had the powers in Scotland to take our own economic decisions, we would be better off through independence.

The first thing that I want to say is that, in any circumstance in which an individual loses their life while in the care of the national health service, especially if they have experienced a long wait in an accident and emergency department, I express my regret and my apology to the families of the affected individuals, because I accept that people are waiting too long in accident and emergency—whether that is for four hours, eight hours or 12 hours.

I say to Mr Sarwar that the Royal College of Emergency Medicine’s contribution contains challenging information, but the Government welcomes the royal college’s challenge, and we are addressing the issues that it has put to us.

It is encouraging that the latest monthly A and E figures, for July 2025, showed the lowest number of 12-hour waits for any month since September 2023. Of course, that whole period was affected by the recovery that we are having to make from the effect of the pandemic on the operation of the health service.