Chamber and committees

Thanks for bringing me back in, convener. I am interested in picking up David Torrance’s initial point on preventative spend. I know that there is cross-portfolio budgeting and that a lot of the health and social care budget goes direct to local authorities. Some of it also goes to the third sector, and I will give an example of that. I have done work with the charity Beat, which received £400,000 from the Scottish Government to support its work to help people with eating disorders. Given that some of the health and social care budget goes to other bodies, including to local authorities—£35,000 goes to each local authority to look at developing an autism strategy, for example—is it difficult to track and evaluate the effectiveness of that funding?

I have a final wee question about the cross-portfolio issue. Just before the Christmas recess, Richard Lochhead, the Minister for Just Transition, Employment and Fair Work, took a question in the chamber about the autism spectrum employment gap. He spoke about the support that is being provided to people. That reflects cross-portfolio requirements to support budgets.

However, sometimes, it is difficult to trace where a specific budget comes from. In that case, does the budget come from your portfolio or from the education and skills portfolio, for example? I am interested in peeling apart the complexities of the budget, and that is the cross-portfolio issue that I wanted to raise.

Okay—thanks.

Good morning, cabinet secretary, and good morning, Richard.

Our briefing paper—the convener has mentioned this already—states that specific funding for Covid-19 no longer exists. We do not get any more money from the UK Government, so any funding for Covid-19 recovery has to come from the Scottish Government’s budget. I am interested to know, cabinet secretary, what level of funding in the proposed 2023-24 budget relates specifically to Covid-19 recovery.

The committee briefing paper refers to new models of primary care to address specific issues such as mental health. Will that be beneficial? We are looking to embed mental health support workers in GP practices for example. That approach should be a successful way to tackle mental health issues.

I welcome the fact that the Scottish Government’s resilience room has been reconvened, given the level of pressure that our NHS and care services are facing. I am pleased that I played a wee part in suggesting that.

The First Minister’s briefing yesterday, just like the briefings during Covid, was incredibly useful and helpful. Will the Scottish Government continue to keep Parliament and the public regularly updated on the work that is being undertaken to help to address the pressures on our health and care services?

Concerns have been raised that a cold winter, coupled with the Tory-created energy crisis, will mean that large numbers of people will experience hypothermia or other serious issues linked to low body temperature. [Interruption.]

Does the cabinet secretary have concerns that unless the Tory Government takes real action to put money back in people’s pockets, such as by matching the Scottish child payment and properly supporting people on low. incomes every winter, we will only see the number of people who experience hypothermia grow as more of them face the choice between heating and eating?

Last month, the Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee heard from the chief veterinary officer, who said:

“Flu viruses generally like cold and damp conditions, so they survive much better in the winter”.

On biosecurity, which the cabinet secretary mentioned, the CVO pointed to a study that indicated that

“biosecurity improved things by a factor of 44, while housing improved things by a factor of 2.”—[Official Report, Rural Affairs, Islands and Natural Environment Committee, 30 November 2022; c 26, 33.]

That underlines the crucial role of biosecurity.

What can MSPs from all parties do to get out the message that biosecurity is really important and that we must focus on the crucial role that it can play?

Earlier this month, the BMA’s GP committee noted that Labour was guilty of demonising GPs who are trying their best to deliver care. What steps is the Scottish Government taking to engage constructively with our health trade unions to ensure that being a GP remains an attractive career choice with a manageable workload?

We have had some interesting evidence sessions with people who assume that the national care service will do things such as taking away local authorities’ assets. Electric vehicles, for example, were mentioned way back at the beginning of the evidence taking. It might help us if you tell us what the national care service is and is not. The issue of transfer of staff and assets that belong to local authorities, for instance, has been brought up. The point about electric cars was interesting to me because I had asked a question about it. How can we dispel some of the myths that have already been created about the national care service?