Chamber and committees

I accept that, as I have said throughout all my answers about the health service since I became First Minister, there are challenges. Jackie Baillie ignores the impact on population health of a global pandemic that has had a colossal impact not just on the health service in Scotland but across the United Kingdom and in every affected country in the world. I recognise the challenges in the NHS.

On GPs, we have seen an increase in numbers—the total headcount—by 307 since 2017. In Scotland, we already have 82 GPs per 100,000 of population, compared to 64 in England, 67 in Wales and 75 in Northern Ireland.

We have invested in general practice to ensure that it is strong to meet the needs of the current period. We have also invested in broadening the staff base in general practice and in recruitment through health boards to ensure that allied health professionals are able to contribute to meeting the demand that, as a result of the Covid pandemic, now presents itself in the national health service.

Let me assure Jackie Baillie that the Government is absolutely focused on delivering improvements in the national health service. We are beginning to see the fruits of that plan, which is resulting in more procedures, more activity and more engagement in the national health service. There will be more of that to come in the period ahead, because the Government has put a record sum of money in to support the service.

In a sense, that question sums up the problem that we have here. [Interruption.]

I assure Mr Marra that there is no absence of leadership on that question, which is commanding a huge amount of the Government’s time, attention and focus and was discussed extensively at the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. The Deputy First Minister, who is leading cross-Government work, is working closely with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills, who has portfolio responsibility for universities, with the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, because of the extraordinary significance of life sciences in the University of Dundee, and with the Cabinet Secretary for Justice and Home Affairs in relation to the role of the Leverhulme research centre, which is fundamental to the university.

I have made it absolutely clear that the original financial recovery plan is completely unacceptable and that there has to be an alternative. That work is under way. There were discussions this morning that have narrowed down some of the options that are being taken forward, and the Government will consider further proposals.

I assure Mr Marra that there is a real focus on ensuring that we chart a pathway forward, but it is also important that I make it clear that there is a secure future for the University of Dundee. I want students to accept their offers from the university confident in its future, and I want researchers to be confident that they can continue their involvement in the university, because this Government is determined to secure that future for the university.

That will take us time. We have put in place the financial liquidity support, as requested by the University of Dundee, to make sure that it is secure in what it does in the period ahead, but the design of an alternative recovery plan is an absolute prerequisite for the next steps that we must take, and the Government is determined to take them.

That is absolutely what the Scottish Government and our enterprise agencies are doing. On all occasions, we work with the business community to strengthen the economic prospects of and opportunities for Scotland.

The imposition of tariffs is not good news. It will be damaging for economic activity not only in Scotland and the United Kingdom but across the world. What was applied yesterday will also have negative implications for the population of the United States.

We will, of course, engage with the United Kingdom Government, which carries the responsibility for international trade as part of the constitutional settlement. We have been engaging for some time, and we will continue to do so as part of our efforts to promote and protect Scottish business.

No—I do not agree with that. I accept that there are challenges in the national health service, and I am very candid about that.

I set out in my speech at the National Robotarium in January exactly how the Scottish Government is going about addressing that. Let me give Jackie Baillie some reassurance about the progress that we are making.

In April 2024, the Scottish Government provided additional funding to NHS boards to deliver 64,000 additional procedures by March 2025. By the end of January, 75,500 additional procedures had been delivered. We promised 64,000 over a whole year, and within 10 months we delivered 75,500. In addition to that, all four key radiology diagnostic tests have shown a 4 per cent decrease in the total waiting list size for diagnostic tests.

I accept that there are challenges, but the Scottish Government is focused on delivering progress for the people of Scotland, and that is what we are delivering now.

The United Kingdom Government will make its financial decisions, and Mr Findlay is well able to make his representations to it. I point out that, when the Conservative Government was in power, it was not shy about putting tax on Scotch whisky into the bargain. It is nice to know that Mr Findlay has had a conversion on the road to Damascus on that particular question.

Significant issues affect the Scotch whisky industry. That is why the Government has had extensive dialogue with the Scotch Whisky Association, and it is why I will be engaging with it when I am in the United States over the next few days to mark tartan week.

I assure Mr Findlay that the Government will leave no stone unturned in ensuring that we take forward the concerns of the industry and will work with the United Kingdom Government and the industry to protect its prospects, given that it contributes very significantly to the economic wellbeing of Scotland.

Well, that is just what we hear from Jackie Baillie every single week, and it ignores—[Interruption.] It ignores the facts of what is going on.

Jackie Baillie raised some really important issues about cancer care. I want to reassure members of the public—[Interruption.]

The budget that the Scottish Government has successfully put to Parliament, and which is now going to be implemented, involves more than £700 million of business rate reductions for companies in Scotland, and that is just one of the pro-business measures in the Scottish Government’s budget. There is also the investment that we make in the enterprise agencies and in our representation overseas, which, of course, the Conservatives are opposed to.

Mr Findlay makes his call for business tax reductions, but he also made a call in the budget for income tax reductions, which would reduce public expenditure by £1 billion and would undermine the investment that we are making in the economy.

I can reassure Mr Findlay that the Scottish Government has taken forward an economic agenda that has seen gross domestic product per person in Scotland grow by 10.3 per cent, compared with 6 per cent in the United Kingdom. That is the record of a Government that is investing in the economy to boost economic performance and to create jobs and wealth in this country. That is what my Government is all about, and that is what we are delivering for people in Scotland.

The Government is working carefully to ensure that we have a sustainable prison estate. That involves ensuring that we have adequate capacity in the prison estate but that we also take measures to shift the balance of criminal justice, where it is safe to do so, to enable individuals to have different approaches to remedy as a result of criminal justice cases, rather than simply the option of incarceration.

The Scottish Government has no hostility to the oil and gas sector—[Interruption.] I will say it again to reassure the Conservatives that they heard it the first time—[Interruption.]