Chamber and committees

Okay. Thanks for that. I will halt there.

Thank you.

Since we got our papers last week, I have been doing a bit of reading about the NHS estate and sustainability, and how the NHS can achieve net zero by 2040.

I am interested in what the panel thinks about 20 million miles per annum being saved during the pandemic through the implementation of NHS Near Me. That shows that mileage reduction can be achieved—it is a hefty figure. When calculated as CO₂ emissions saved, it is in the billions of milligrams.

Another issue relates to remote virtual clinics and using telemedicine so that, for example, blood pressure readings can be obtained remotely and then analysed by a GP, who can see the results without seeing the patient.

How do we marry up the technologies? How do we get the biggest bang for our buck in saving emissions in our NHS estate? I will go to Professor Bell first, as he is in front of me.

Yes. Thank you, convener. I am sorry to keep coming in.

Leigh Johnston mentioned that data or other information was missing from general practices. Why is that? Is there a plan to get that data? Is that in process, as Audit Scotland has highlighted that that data is missing?

Okay—thank you.

Journeys will still need to be made in relation to NHS travel. The Scottish Government has a switched-on fleets fund of £20 million. NHS Lothian is using it and Aberdeenshire Council has added 20 new zero-emission vehicles using that funding. We can measure those journeys and we know the mileage for NHS employees’ travel.

However, I am thinking also about dialysis patients. They have very predictable journeys if they use taxis, which many of them do. We know the start point of the journey and the end point. We know that those journeys happen on Monday, Wednesday and Friday or Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. The same patients have the same appointments every week. If Audit Scotland is looking for data to measure emissions reduction by replacing diesel-driven vehicles with electric vehicles, those journeys would be very measurable.

Should we consider doing that? Would we be able to get a big win if we rapidly adopt electric vehicles for patient journeys that we can measure and for which we can demonstrate emissions reduction?

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the fair tax week debate, and I congratulate Rhoda Grant on securing it. Ms Grant has outlined the issues really well.

Fair tax week is an opportunity to celebrate the companies and organisations that are proud to?promote responsible tax conduct. Paying a fair share of tax is one of the principal ways in which businesses contribute to society, helping to fund the public services that we all rely on. Championing a level playing field for businesses, fair tax week provides an opportunity to highlight the importance of fair tax principles in protecting and advancing public services in Scotland, as well as across the UK.

The growth of tax havens and unethical corporate tax conduct has become the subject of much debate in Scotland, across the UK and around the globe. Aggressive tax avoidance negatively distorts national economies and undermines the ability of business to compete fairly, both domestically and internationally.

For example, eight large tech companies made an estimated £9.6 billion in profit from sales to customers in Scotland and the UK in 2019, but, by moving money out of the UK, those companies ended up declaring a fraction of the profits in the accounts of their UK subsidiaries, thereby radically reducing their tax liabilities. Amazon, eBay, Adobe, Google, Cisco, Facebook, Microsoft and Apple faced UK corporation tax liabilities of £297 million in 2019, putting the total amount of tax that those companies avoided in the UK at an estimated £1.5 billion in 2020, the latest year for which figures exist.

As a nurse, I, too, encourage everyone who is eligible to take up the vaccine offer. Many of those who are eligible for vaccines will face accessibility requirements, particularly those who are housebound. Accessibility should never be an obstacle to people receiving healthcare. With that in mind, what arrangements have been considered in the roll-out of the next round of vaccinations for people with accessibility needs?

I am interested in how any company can be transparent on its taxation. Many taxation powers are not part of the devolved settlement, so I look to the UK Government to support any opportunity for the likes of Amazon to declare their tax in a fairer and more appropriate way.

I was talking about the amount of money—£1.5 billion in 2020—that those eight companies avoided paying in tax. That money could have been invested in our country’s infrastructure, culture or civic society or, topically, in helping the people who are most in need with the cost of living crisis. Rhoda Grant mentioned that, too.

However, instead of aggressively working to tackle the issue and make companies pay their fair share, the UK Government has spent three and a half times more on chasing fraud and error in the benefit system than it has on pursuing tax-dodging millionaires. The Department for Work and Pensions is spending the vast sum of £510 million to prevent fraud and error in the benefit system and to collect more debt from people on universal credit. The DWP estimates that it can claw back £3.15 billion from benefit claimants, while Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs estimates that £3 billion could be raised from putting additional resource into chasing tax dodgers. In 2020, the pandemic tax gap of unpaid revenues was £70 billion. It is simply astonishing that that is receiving less additional resource than social security fraud and error.

I ask the minister for a commitment that, when we receive full taxation powers, which are currently reserved, the Scottish Government will focus its efforts on working with businesses to ensure that they pay their fair share in tax, and that we will not spend billions of pounds to penalise the most vulnerable people in society.

Fair taxation—specifically, corporate tax—is so important for investing in public services, which are the thread that binds our communities together. I thank the Fair Tax Foundation for all the hard work that it does to support companies to pay their fair share.

Beatrice Wishart mentioned oil and gas and those who are off-grid. It is really hard for her constituents in Shetland. Does she agree that the same folk who are off-grid in the south of Scotland are affected, too?