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Chamber and committees

Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 16 February 2025
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Displaying 824 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Electricity Infrastructure Consenting

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

Will the member take an intervention?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Robert Burns

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

Will the member take an intervention?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Electricity Infrastructure Consenting

Meeting date: 22 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

The queue for an energy grid connection is vastly oversubscribed. Communities that I and others represent are angry—and they are angry because there are so many applications. The reforms will not address that. There are hundreds of planning applications in the process. Surely we should be halting those and reviewing the situation.

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care (Rural Scotland)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

I am very grateful to Neil Gray for that response and will certainly write to him. I have also written to him in the past couple of days to invite him to come to the Borders to thank the hard-working front-line staff and to see what more can be done to improve the terrible outcomes that we are seeing in the Borders, an issue that was covered last night on the “Representing Border” programme on ITV Borders.

Only 58 per cent of patients are seen within the four-hour target. Those figures are the worst on record since 2007 and the third worst in Scotland, and Neil Gray knows that. I put on the record that that is not caused by the influx of flu patients, because those figures are from November and so are not about that.

In the brief time that I have, I will cover the financial situation of health boards across Scotland. We received an email earlier saying that NHS Grampian is going into stage 3 of the intervention framework. In my constituency, the financial situation of NHS Borders is critical, and the cabinet secretary knows that. In just two years, the deficit has doubled to £33.6 million. The board has been at level 3 since 2021, but what support has the SNP Government offered? In my opinion, it has put the board under further strain by asking it not only to balance the books but to make cuts at the same time. Ironically, one of the cuts that has been outlined is a 10 per cent reduction to a workforce that is already struggling to cope with demand.

Wait until you hear these figures. In the past four years, NHS Borders has lost 10,000 working days every year to staff absences related to mental health. I have brought that figure to the chamber before—it is unbelievable. The staff who are carrying the burden

“are running out of goodwill.”

That is a direct quote from the chief executive, Peter Moore. Even when NHS Borders manages to achieve financial balance, it will still have to pay back outstanding brokerage, which may have reached a staggering £100 million by March 2027.

I realise that we are short of time. There is so much more that we need to do, and I would like the cabinet secretary to come to the Borders to meet the hard-working staff.

17:36  

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

I agree completely with what the cabinet secretary said. There is a risk that Scottish Borders Council will be bankrolling that funding for a feasibility study project manager. Would it be helpful for us to work in a cross-party manner so that we can put pressure on the Labour Government to release the £5 million in funding that has already been promised in the budget?

Meeting of the Parliament [Draft]

Health and Social Care (Rural Scotland)

Meeting date: 16 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

I am grateful to my colleague Tim Eagle for bringing forward this debate on rural healthcare.

At 5 past 4 this afternoon, just over an hour ago, I received an email from a constituent, which I will read out word for word. It states:

“Dear Rachael I’m waiting for cataract surgery at Borders General Hospital. I was told in December it would be possibly a year. Now I’ve just had a call from BGH telling me if I don’t accept the Jubilee Hospital as an option I’ll be removed from the waiting list. This I find to be totally unacceptable as I’m 82. I can’t travel to Glasgow; I’m not able. So as from today I am no longer on the waiting list. Just thought I’d let you know this because I believe it’s the SNP government who has made this decision. Listening to First Minister’s questions today I was shocked at what I was hearing about the NHS and replies from John Swinney as if everything is ok. I just can’t believe this.”

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 8 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

To ask the Scottish Government what support it can provide to those who wish to protect and preserve the Bernat Klein studio in Selkirk. (S6O-04160)

Meeting of the Parliament

Portfolio Question Time

Meeting date: 8 January 2025

Rachael Hamilton

The Bernat Klein studio near Selkirk was designed by one of Scotland’s greatest modernist architects—Womersley—and has been described as

“a beacon of progressiveness for the Borders”.

Despite being on the buildings at risk register since 2002, it has now fallen into dereliction and disrepair and looks very sad and unloved. Does the minister recognise the value in preserving culturally significant buildings, and will he be prepared to meet local groups, the Preserving Womersley group, Historic Environment Scotland and others who wish to save the building and want to use it as a hub for the local community?

Meeting of the Parliament

Parliamentary Bureau Motions

Meeting date: 11 December 2024

Rachael Hamilton

I totally agree with Rhoda Grant’s comments, not just about crofters but about small producers in the Borders, for example, who have been in touch with me. The suckler herd is contracting and we need to protect that herd so that we have food security for the future. More importantly, do you not think that this is too much about net zero and not enough about welfare and the welfare of farmers?

Meeting of the Parliament

Budget 2025-26

Meeting date: 11 December 2024

Rachael Hamilton

Will the member give way?