Chamber and committees

Sticking with buses, I note that the committee has received a written submission from the Confederation of Passenger Transport Scotland, which is concerned about the network support grant and the bus recovery funding coming to an end in October. It has set out in a paper the current state of the bus sector, and it does not make good reading. For a start, it talks about the impact of Brexit, for example, on driver shortages. Can you give us any update on the situation since we received this submission, which I am sure has come in your direction, too? Things sound pretty bleak. We have all had concerns about uptake of the concessionary travel scheme; after all, there is not a lot of incentive for people to take it up if their local bus services are diminishing and buses have disappeared. Is there anything that you can say to reassure us with regard to the CPT submission?

Council tax.

This week, Zoe and her mule, Falco, have arrived in Lanarkshire as part of the walk for earth—a journey that is taking them from Oxford to Loch Lomond in support of the Stop Ecocide International campaign. Along the way, Zoe has been having many conversations with well-wishers, who have voiced their strong support for ecocide law. That is particularly poignant during Scotland’s climate week, given the role of the late Polly Higgins—who was a Scottish barrister, author and environmentalist—in spearheading the ecocide law campaign. What will the Scottish Government do to ensure that Scotland plays a key role in the movement for ecocide law?

To ask the Scottish Government what action it is taking to promote participation in Scotland’s climate week 2022, which runs from 26 September to 2 October. (S6T-00876)

The director of Stop Ecocide International, Jojo Mehta, has said that one of the most important steps that national Governments can take is to publicly express their support for an amendment to the Rome statute to add ecocide as a fifth crime against peace. It has already been discussed at parliamentary and governmental levels in 23 countries. Will the cabinet secretary and his colleagues work with me and with Stop Ecocide International to explore further how we can include ecocide law in Scotland’s response to the climate and nature emergencies?

I will start by thanking Brian Whittle. When I bumped into him earlier today, he told me that this debate was happening. I was not due to speak as I have another event tonight. However, for every single member of this Parliament, the issue is at the heart of our inboxes, as Carol Mochan has said. It is what people come to our surgeries about and, frankly, it is something that we are all fearful about, because we and our families all rely on the NHS. I have been grateful to have care from my GP during the pandemic and in recent months, but I know many people have found it very hard to get face-to-face contact or even to get through on the phone.

I want to take the opportunity, like others have done, including Emma Harper, to thank everyone working across health and social care, including everyone in primary care, from the receptionist to the practice nurse and the GP. The NHS is a family and every part of it needs to be nurtured and looked after. We have a duty in Parliament to give people confidence and to show that we value the workforce. We certainly should not scare people or give people a sense that they will not get support from the NHS. However, we all know constituents who have had to endure long waits for ambulances and others who have waited on the phone trying—dozens and sometimes hundreds of times—to get through to out-of-hours services and NHS 24.

That is the reality. It would be good to keep it all positive, but we are living in scary times. We all do local press and use social media. The word “crisis” is perhaps overused, but I fear that what we are seeing right now in our NHS has become the new normal. We have become so desensitised to words such as “crisis” and “catastrophe” that it is hard to come to this place and feel that our words have meaning.

As someone who lives in and represents Lanarkshire, I worry that code black status is becoming the new normal for that area. We cannot allow that to happen. The cabinet secretary knows that I will work with him and his team and colleagues from all parties. Frankly, I do not care what party people belong to—the issue is bigger than any party, logo or soundbite, because the reality is that many of us fear getting ill. Many of my constituents cannot afford to go private and bypass the NHS. We have to fix things.

There are immediate things that we can do and there are longer-term things. We must show our constituents and the wider public in Scotland that we have a plan.

The approach of the UK Government and the Scottish Conservatives is worrying and wrong-headed. What can the Scottish Government do to make sure that our planning system is robust and fit for purpose? If we are going to see new offshore oil and gas developments such as Cambo, Jackdaw and Rosebank, what can we do to make sure that our planning system is robust? There will be a requirement for onshore assets and infrastructure. What can we do to frustrate the process if necessary?

Absolutely. It is important to hear about good practice and what is working well. However, when I listen to my constituents and people in my family who work in the NHS, it is clear that staff do not have time to go for a pee, never mind go to do extra training. There are people who want to advance and stay in our NHS, but they do not feel valued and they feel burned out. Although we have heard about additional recruitment and finding new people, we are losing people. We are not retaining the talent and the good people that we already have. I think that we all share those concerns.

I will finish by reminding the cabinet secretary that I emailed him again recently about the code black status in Lanarkshire in which I made an offer, on behalf of my constituents, to work with him and his team. We need to pull people together. I hope that, when the cabinet secretary makes his closing speech, we will hear that a date is in his diary and that that will be shared with colleagues soon.

I have a question on procurement, which has been mentioned already. I come back to the issue of capacity, which we often hear about in broad terms. Stephen Smellie described a very lean model of local government, where we have shed a lot of staff over the years. Are we doing workforce plans across local government? Do we know exactly how many staff we would, in an ideal world, need to have in certain roles?

We talk a lot about workforce planning for the national health service, for example, but we do not always talk in great detail about what local government needs. I will come to Louise Marix Evans first, and then go round the table to find out whether that work is happening. It may be happening in England; perhaps Louise will have some good examples of that. I want to get a sense of what we actually need, and what kind of jobs we should train people for. For example, I am thinking about what Stephen Smellie said about a just transition, and how those agendas are linked.

That is helpful. Andrew Burns, can we hear your thoughts and reflections?