Chamber and committees

Did Mr Hoy hear the cabinet secretary earlier when he said that he had direct experience with people who have lived experience of long Covid? The cabinet secretary has already been meeting those people.

To ask the Scottish Government what discussions it has had with TransPennine Express, Network Rail and ScotRail regarding the reported frequent cancellation of rail services on the west coast main line, particularly impacting travellers using rail services at Lockerbie station. (S6O-01098)

Passengers need assurance that services will be available and on time. I know that the Scottish Government does not have control over TransPennine Express, but does the minister agree that the sooner rail is fully devolved, the quicker we can provide certainty to passengers who are travelling to and from Lockerbie station?

Annie Gunner Logan talked about citizen leadership when she gave evidence. That is kind of what you are talking about in relation to identifying people with lived experience—unpaid carers and people who use care services. Is the Scottish Government doing any work to promote or enable citizen leadership?

Good morning, minister and officials. I have a couple of questions about leadership.

The Audit Scotland briefing states:

“The health and social care sector needs stable and collaborative leadership to address the ongoing challenges.”

We previously took evidence about how we support leaders. I know that the Scottish Government can lead on leadership. What is it doing to address the challenges in retaining senior leaders in social care?

During the pandemic, everybody worked really hard and there was a lot of pressure, emotional stress and fatigue. Is that peer support partly about developing resilience among leadership and about looking at how we will expand the pool and be more inclusive in order to encourage more people into leadership positions?

I have a quick question relating to what Sandesh Gulhane said about the questions in the consultation. Is it not the case that we sometimes ask difficult questions in order to elicit out-of-the-box thinking about changes or new ways of working? The process that we follow sometimes involves asking questions that folk might not like.

I have a final question about the—

I welcome the opportunity to speak in the debate and congratulate Beatrice Wishart on securing it.

Increasing development in the marine environment is leading to the discovery of a greater number of undetonated munitions. Clearance of unexploded ordnance is commonly undertaken by high-order detonation, as Beatrice Wishart described, which uses a controlled explosion that leads to loud blasts and disturbs protected marine mammals. I agree with Beatrice Wishart that such blasts cause a huge welfare concern to marine life and to our natural marine environment.

Since 2019, I have been raising my concerns over the levels of unexploded ordnance items that are washing ashore across beaches and coastal areas in Dumfries and Galloway. Although exact figures are not available, the Maritime and Coastguard Agency and the Royal Navy bomb disposal unit have reported that the number of unexploded ordnance items washing ashore is increasing. While the exact reasons for that remain unclear, expert opinion suggests that it may be due to a combination of sea levels rising, increasing offshore projects such as the construction of offshore wind turbines and increased marine traffic.

Beaufort’s Dyke is a national deepwater trench located in the north channel of the Irish Sea between Ireland and Portpatrick in the south-west of Scotland. It is widely understood that, at the end of the second world war, instead of surplus unexploded munitions being dumped directly in Beaufort’s Dyke, which was approved as a dump site, the weapons were often dumped outside or around the site to save money and time. It is therefore little wonder that we are now discovering more unexploded ordnance washing ashore.

According to the Ministry of Defence, over 50,000 tonnes of explosives are disposed of in Beaufort’s Dyke. In July 1945 alone, 14,500 tonnes of 5-inch, 130mm artillery rockets filled with phosgene gas were dumped. In addition, according to documents from the Public Record Office, approximately 2 tonnes of concrete-encased metal drums, filled with radioactive laboratory waste and luminous paint, were dumped in the dyke during the 1950s.

I have previously contacted the UK Government—the Secretary of State for Scotland and the Secretary of State for Defence—to ask whether a risk assessment of the stability of Beaufort’s Dyke and the area around the site has been carried out, so that constituents across the region can be assured of its safety. I have sought assurance that there are no future plans to use the dyke as a dump site in the future.

Unsurprisingly, other than one response from the MOD indicating that it believes Beaufort’s Dyke to be safe and to pose no threat, I have had no response from the Scottish or defence secretaries and, therefore, I repeat my calls for Beaufort’s Dyke to receive a full safety inspection. That would not only reassure constituents but protect our marine environment. The RSPB’s director, Anne McCall, has shared concerns over the impact of undersea explosions on sea life.

Alternatives to high-order detonation are now available on the commercial market. Some alternatives have been developed or are being developed in a military context and are not used commercially, whereas others have been developed purely for industry use. Those alternatives require the use of explosive material to effect clearance, but in much smaller volumes than the donor charges required for high-order detonation. Alternative methods cause lower noise levels, which reduces the impacts on the marine environment. I agree with Beatrice Wishart that their use is welcome and I ask the minister to do all that she can to press the UK Government to make use of those alternatives as standard practice.

I repeat my calls on the UK Government to carry out a full safety inspection of Beaufort’s Dyke and I ask the minister to press the UK Government to use proven alternatives to high-order detonation.

Thanks to Jackie Baillie for securing the debate and for her contribution this evening. I remind the chamber that I am a registered nurse and I was able to practise as a Covid vaccinator over the past two years. I thank the RCN for its two very helpful briefings ahead of the debate, one for the Scottish National Party and one for the Opposition.

The theme today for international nurses day 2022 from the International Council of Nurses is “Nurses: A Voice to Lead—Invest in nursing and respect rights to secure global health”. My contribution will focus on my amendment, and I thank colleagues who have supported it. My amendment intends to celebrate the immense contribution of nurses, to value nursing as a highly skilled, highly varied profession and to note the progress that has been made to support the nursing workforce in Scotland, especially in the past two years, during the global Covid-19 pandemic. The pandemic has definitely had an impact on the mental health of all in our healthcare workforce, including nurses, and I welcome the Scottish Government’s action to address that.

Nurses work in a variety of areas, including adults, children, learning disability, mental health, maternity, perioperative—that was my job when I worked as a nurse—resuscitation, diabetes and cardiac as well as expert cancer care, as the Macmillan briefing that we received noted. Nurses make up the largest single profession in our NHS and are at the heart of the health service. The diversity of jobs in nursing is demonstrated through their work in our hospitals, general practitioner practices, homes and care homes, as well in schools and communities across the country.

Nurses in Scotland have some of the most advanced clinical skills of nurses anywhere in the world and we are leading the way. I cannae go through the whole of the ICN report, but, according to the ICN, there are huge benefits in investing in nurse education. The ICN states that that is needed to meet the

“changing health needs and rising expectations of individuals and communities”.

For example, in Scotland nurse-led education for patients on the management of conditions such as diabetes, medications and the prevention of ill health plays a hugely important role in promoting the positive health and well-being of the nation.

However, nursing skills in Scotland are not replicated across the globe. We should, therefore, be celebrating the competence of our nursing workforce in Scotland and use that competence as evidence to improve healthcare systems internationally. As co-convener of the lung health cross-party group, I joined the recently created International Coalition of Respiratory Nurses, which was initiated by Andreja Šajnic, who is a specialist respiratory nurse from Croatia. The ICRN has political support from Željana Zovko MEP, who is the co-convener of the lung health cross-party group in the European Parliament. We are proposing to work together to look at lung health across Europe and across the globe. ICRN is a global coalition aiming to promote best practice for respiratory education for nurses.

As we celebrate IND, I recognise the workforce challenges. I welcome the steps the Scottish Government is taking to address workforce recruitment and retention challenges. Scotland has a £10,000 per year bursary for nursing students. We are ensuring that nurses receive the best and fairest pay deal, with nurses in Scotland being on average the highest paid in the UK. The Scottish Government’s nursing vision to 2030 is welcome and shares many of the points from the World Health Organization’s global strategic directions for nursing and midwifery. The WHO strategy aims to ensure that nursing is better understood by the public, to increase nursing’s appeal as a career option, to retain a focus on supporting people experiencing periods of acute ill health, to promote prevention and to tackle inequalities. I ask the cabinet secretary for a commitment that those will be built on.

This is a day to celebrate. It is a day to be cheerleaders for our nurses. It is a day to thank nurses across the globe for all that they do on this day, international nurses day.