Chamber and committees

The health secretary is in Japan, at the Osaka expo, in partnership between the Scottish Government and the United Kingdom Government. On three occasions this year, Scotland will have the opportunity to highlight some of the strengths in the Scottish economy. One of those strengths, which the health secretary is promoting, is the life sciences sector, which is a huge asset for Scotland. The health secretary is in Japan at my request and with my approval to ensure that Scotland’s life sciences sector is able to be promoted to an international audience, given its significance to our university and research community.

I make it clear to Mr Findlay that the Government has put in place the investment provided for in the budget, which Mr Findlay did not support, to ensure that we are able to support the delivery of healthcare services in Scotland with record funding available. Mr Findlay asked me what steps could be taken to reassure patients. I say to patients that the learning that has been developed in NHS Lanarkshire about the improvements in the delivery of cancer services is being shared around the country. Rapid cancer diagnostic services, which are also in place in a variety of other health boards in the country, have led to significant reductions in waiting times. All those measures will be deployed to ensure that cancer care is delivered where people need it.

I will look with care at the points that Mr Cole-Hamilton has put to me. In Scotland, we have a track record of having screening programmes that are formidable and significant in their effects. The bowel screening programme is one example of the provision that we have in place.

As I set out in my speech on health service issues in January and again in my speech on public service reform just last week, the Government is shifting the focus ever more to early detection and prevention to ensure that we identify conditions at an earlier stage in order to deliver better outcomes. That will be the focus of the Government’s policy approach on this issue.

I certainly give that commitment to engage in relation to the recommendations in the report.

As I indicated in my answer to Mr Cole-Hamilton, early diagnosis is a critical factor in the matter. The detect cancer earlier programme has led to the delivery of rapid cancer diagnostic services, which are a key tool in taking forward that work. Our sixth diagnostic service opened in NHS Forth Valley in May this year, and we have invested more than £40 million over the past five years to support cancer services and improve waiting times. The budget that Mr FitzPatrick supported earlier this year will assist us in that endeavour.

I reassure members of the public that this issue has the focus and attention of the Government, the First Minister and the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. [Interruption.] I have set out already—

The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 gives councils the discretionary power to apply a local visitor levy if they think that it is right for their area. If, after it has consulted local businesses, communities and tourism organisations, a local authority does not consider that timing or circumstances are right to introduce a levy, it is entirely appropriate for it to make that decision.

That is what the councils in the Highlands and Islands and the Western Isles have done. They have assessed the appropriateness of introducing such a measure and have decided not to proceed currently, while the City of Edinburgh and Glasgow City councils are proceeding with their proposals. That is local democracy in action.

I have heard from the Conservative Party over many years the need to ensure that there is local decision-making capability in different parts of the country. That is exactly what the Government and Parliament have legislated for—to enable local authorities to take a decision, after consultation, on whether they judge the introduction of a levy to be right. The Conservatives have to decide what they believe in. Do they believe in local democracy or not? They spend most of their time accusing us of centralisation. When we give local authorities the decision-making power, they complain about that as well. The Conservatives do not have a clue about what they are arguing for in this Parliament.

The latest official figures show that annual inflation according to the consumer prices index was 3.4 per cent in May. That is above the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target, but official forecasters expect inflation to fall later this year and return close to target in 2026.

We are acutely aware of pressure on household budgets across Scotland. That is why, in 2025-26, we have continued to allocate more than £3 billion a year to policies that tackle poverty and the cost of living, including mitigation of the impact of the harshest Westminster policies, such as the bedroom tax and the benefit cap.

I agree with Mr McMillan that it has taken far too long to resolve the issue. I echo his calls for individuals who are affected to make the appropriate contact with their supplier urgently and to alert advice services and Ofgem if they have any remaining issues to address. I am glad that we have some respite, but it has taken far too long to get here.

I am happy to associate myself with Claire Baker’s comments. In the figures for recorded crime, total recorded crime shows very little change. It is down by less than 1 per cent compared with the previous year, but the level of recorded crime in Scotland is now down 40 per cent since 2006-07.

However, within those figures, there is a significant rise in the reporting of sexual offences. That is indicative of a greater willingness of victims to come forward, and I welcome and encourage that. There is more historical reporting of individual cases, and I also welcome that those issues can be pursued. However, as Claire Baker rightly points out, there is also a culture that is more prevalent that normalises sexual violence against women. I deprecate that, I condemn it and I commit the Government and my leadership to ensuring that the behaviour of men is properly and fully confronted to address the legitimate concerns that Claire Baker puts to Parliament today.

I value The Usual Place enormously. It is a venue that I know well, and I have engaged with it on several occasions over my ministerial life. I visited The Usual Place a few weeks ago to see the good work that is in place. The funding round that Mr Hoy referred to is a competitive funding round. The decisions that were made are taken at arm’s length from Governments and involve assessment of individual applications. Mr Hoy is correct that The Usual Place was unsuccessful. However, interim funding is in place through other Government funding channels, which have been put in place by South of Scotland Enterprise and, if my memory serves me correctly, by one of the health-based funds, which is supporting the work of The Usual Place. I am committed to trying to find a solution in that respect.

I do not really think that it is fair of Mr Hoy to say that Government funding has not been put into that or that there has been no effort to find funding, because what I have just put on the record refutes what Mr Hoy says. I am completely committed to doing all that we can to support The Usual Place, which does outstanding work in transforming the lives of young people in our country.