Chamber and committees

Ending child poverty is my Government’s top priority. We constantly look for measures that we can take to advance that agenda. The delivery of our five family payments is making a real difference to families. The payments in Scotland are worth around £25,000 by the time a child turns 16, compared with less than £2,000 in England and Wales. That is another example of why the Joseph Rowntree Foundation projects that Scotland will be the only part of the United Kingdom where child poverty levels fall next year.

We are also taking forward other measures, such as the lifting of the two-child limit. If that action was taken by the United Kingdom Government—and it should be—up to £150 million would be freed up in Scotland, which could be spent on additional measures to address child poverty in our country.

NHS Scotland vacancies follow a seasonal pattern. Mr Whittle compared June data with December data, but vacancies typically go up in the spring as people retire and decrease again over the summer and autumn as new graduates join the workforce.

Nursing and midwifery vacancies are 4 per cent higher than they were at the same time last year. However, that must be seen in the context of new investment by the Government in our national health service, which has meant that the workforce grew over the past year.

Overall, nursing and midwifery staffing is up under the Scottish National Party Government by 18.6 per cent since 2006, and we saw a 100 per cent increase in funded places for training between 2012 and 2022. Scotland has the best package of support in the UK for nursing and midwifery students.

On the substance of Mr Whittle’s question, I note that there are more nurses and midwives working in our NHS now—more than 67,000 nurses and midwives—than when this Government took office. Mr Whittle asks when the action will come; I say to him that the action has come, and it is being delivered. He asks about performance in other aspects of the health service; I have to tell him that the number of operations performed in July was the highest in five years—there was an 8.9 per cent increase. More people are being treated at our national treatment centres this year than ever before. Our rapid cancer diagnostic services mean that people are getting faster diagnosis after referral. [Interruption.]

The number of hip and knee operations reached an all-time high in 2024. Mr Whittle asks me when I will take action, and I say to him that I am taking action. The health secretary and I are working day in, day out to make sure that the health service is delivering for the people of Scotland. That progress is taking place the length and breadth of the country.

The Government is putting in place additional financial support to areas where access is particularly challenging, especially rural and island areas. That funding has recently supported the opening of five new surgeries, which has created space for thousands more new NHS registrations.

I will tell Mr Sweeney what is not helping, and this goes back to the point that I have just made to Carol Mochan. We cannot escape the practical reality of the damage caused by the UK Government’s approach to migration. We have to work with other countries to bring dental practitioners into this country to supplement the other training work that we are undertaking. In July, the Labour Government in Westminster removed dental hygienists, dental technicians and dental nurses from the skilled worker sponsorship scheme. The Westminster Government is making it more difficult for us to deliver public services in Scotland.

I encourage Mr Sweeney to work with the Scottish Government to ensure that we have a rational debate on and approach to migration, rather than the chase to compete with the Reform party that has consumed the Starmer Government in London.

As Mr Marra knows, I have constituents who are involved in the issue. I am anxious to make sure that not just their interests—although they are my constituents, so I care deeply about them—but the interests of all those who are affected in the Eljamel inquiry are properly supported.

I am going to explore the issue that Mr Marra raises with me. This is an independent clinical review, so it has to be independent of the Government in order to command the confidence of those who are affected, and pressure for the Government to get involved might undermine that independence. I need to take the issue away and see what we can do to try to make sure that nobody loses confidence in the method of engagement.

Obviously, if an inquiry chair such as Lord Weir makes comments of that type, I have to take that deadly seriously, which I will, but I suspect that there is something, possibly in the governance of all of this, that needs to be looked at. I will take that away, explore it and write to Mr Marra.

That action is coming through the work of the midwifery task force. That is under way—I reassure Carol Mochan on that point.

Carol Mochan offered to make clear the Scottish Labour position. Let me make clear what Scottish Labour’s position is on all those issues. Scottish Labour members’ position is that none of them—not a single one—was prepared to put their support towards the Government’s budget, which pays for NHS staff the length and breadth of the country. That is a pathetic contribution from the Scottish Labour Party.

I will tell Parliament what the other Scottish Labour position is. The Scottish Labour Party is umbilically linked to the Labour Party in London, and what is the Prime Minister doing? He is making it more difficult for healthcare workers to come from other countries to work in this country. Twenty-six per cent of our social care staff come from other countries, and the Prime Minister is shutting the door on all of that. The Scottish Labour Party has got nothing to offer the Parliament on the health service. Scottish Labour is delivering a lack of support to the NHS, and this Government is delivering for the NHS in Scotland.

I understand the importance that Liz Smith attaches to the issue that she raises about her current bill. I am mindful of that support and of Parliament’s position. However, as I have rehearsed on a number of occasions in exchanges during this question time, the Government is obliged to be mindful of how we can put in place resources to enable us to fund the commitments for which Parliament legislates. That is an absolute obligation for the Government when it introduces legislation, and we must be satisfied that such an approach applies to all legislation.

I understand the importance of services such as the one affected by the issue that Mr Bibby raises with me. The Government has, in its budget provision, put in place increased support for both Renfrewshire Council and Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS Board and those bodies fund the integration joint board that will consider the issue.

The Government’s outlook and the policy position that we take encourage the provision of early intervention services because, by supporting services of the type that Mr Bibby raises, we can invariably reduce the demand on far more expensive acute services, while also giving purpose and meaning to the lives of the individuals who are affected by those services. I encourage the Renfrewshire IJB to consider all those questions, because it is important that services and support of that type are available to individuals at local level.

Yes, I do, because of the very careful engagement of the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs in taking the bill through Parliament.

Mr Findlay and I spent some time when I was on the back benches—as he was—scrutinising the bill when it came to Parliament. Much of the evidence that we heard during that process persuaded me, when I became First Minister, that there had to be changes to the bill.

The Government listened to the evidence that was put in front of us. We will continue to do that, and many of the proposals and reforms that have been suggested in the bill are designed to achieve the objective that Mr Findlay has put to me, which is to make sure that the interests of victims are better protected by our justice system. I am confident that, after the scrutiny that Parliament gives it next week, the bill will be in a position to do that.