Chamber and committees

Thank you, Presiding Officer. I thank Stephen Kerr for that intervention. I am keen to ensure that we are aware that a lot of public funding from the UK went into the development of the vaccines. It is great that we have the vaccines, but, as Sarah Boyack pointed out, we are just going to go round and round with new variants, which I come on to in more detail.

Pfizer and Moderna are currently selling more than 90 per cent of their vaccines to rich countries, charging up to 24 times the potential cost of production, according to analysis by the People’s Vaccine Alliance. It costs around $1.08 to produce a vaccine dose, but they are being sold to countries in the global south for $9.72 each.

Last week, a former surgeon colleague of mine, Fanus Dreyer, who is the new president of the International Federation of Surgical Colleges, told me that the only way to reduce new variants and the transmission of the virus is to ensure that the world is vaccinated. That echoes exactly the words of António Guterres, who said:

“If the virus is allowed to spread like wildfire in the Global South … it will mutate again and again … This can prolong the pandemic significantly, enabling the virus to come back to plague the Global North.”

It benefits us if we do whatever we can to make the vaccine available globally. I again call on the Prime Minister to act in the interest of public health, address intellectual property law and ensure that vaccine technology and know-how are shared globally.

Will the First Minister join me in thanking every member of our national health service staff, every volunteer and every person has gone to have their booster jag for their stunning and braw efforts, who have allowed Scotland to become the first UK nation to give a booster or third dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to more than half its entire adult population?

While we are talking about access, I want to highlight the challenges for rural areas. The minister comes from a rural area in the north-east and he will be well aware of the challenges. I am also thinking of the north-west and the south of Scotland. When women from rural areas access care, are we monitoring that and tracking the care and pathways associated with it?

Regarding the workforce, and the provision of education, I know that there are online learning programmes, including the Royal College of General Practitioners perinatal mental health toolkit. As a vaccinator, I am still accessing the Turas learning models; I did a quick check of the perinatal mental health modules and there are seven specific modules, one of which is on stigma. How do we track those modules and the uptake? Who is taking up those modules? Is it midwives, psychologists or GPs? I think that they are fabulous modules. How do we encourage our healthcare professionals to take up the e-learning modules and how can we monitor that?

The minister mentioned stigma in his opening comments and took a question from Sandesh Gulhane about it, so I will not labour the matter. However, I know that the Government is doing a lot of work to address concerns and raise public awareness around perinatal mental health. One of the issues that is being addressed is concern that mothers might have their children taken away from them. There are 12 action items in the perinatal and infant mental health programme board delivery plan. Will the minister elaborate a wee bit on specific actions that are being taken to tackle stigma?

Constituents have contacted me because they have family members flying into Scotland for the festive season who are due to arrive on 23 December. That means that family members will not be able to obtain the required UK Government PCR test on 26 December, which will be 48 hours after their arrival, because the PCR test providers will be closed between Christmas and new year, except for urgent reasons.

Are discussions taking place with the UK Government about the issue? Will the First Minister encourage people to ensure that they are aware of the current travel advice, especially regarding the PCR test requirements for people who come to Scotland during the festive season, because many people have already booked their travel?

I will pick up the issue of agriculture. In her statement, the cabinet secretary mentioned the £25 million for sustainable and regenerative agriculture. Will she provide further information about how that will be allocated to support farming and food production in Scotland, so that it is world leading in sustainability and takes a regenerative agriculture approach?

The minister mentioned Scots. The Scots language is a huge part of Scotland’s culture, and the promotion of Scots has been affected by the pandemic. What work is the Scottish Government undertaking to further promote the use of the Scots language across Scotland as we emerge through and out of the pandemic? Will the minister agree to attend a future meeting of the re-established Scots language cross-party group to provide an update on work in relation to Scots, which I am telt includes Doric as well?

Colin Smyth talks about Midsteeple Quarter and putting housing back into town centres. Could some of that housing be passive housing, because that would also help to tackle fuel poverty?

To ask the Scottish Government how its policies and actions across Government will support Dumfries and Galloway and the Scottish Borders to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic. (S6O-00495)