Chamber and committees

Okay.

We will probably be pretty aligned on most of what I am about to ask regarding the impact of physical activity on both physical and mental health. It is obvious that there is a decline in the nation’s physical and mental health and, at the same time, we have a decline in physical literacy.

I am also concerned about socioeconomic inequality and access to sport. Participation in sport, especially at a higher level, is becoming much more middle class and is happening more in private education. How do we tackle that? After all, it is part of Sportscotland’s remit to focus on the health of the nation.

It strikes me that we have delivery mechanisms that provide opportunities, such as the 1,140 hours of free childcare. As you know, physical literacy happens pre-school—children’s cardiovascular and neuromuscular systems, as well as their bone density, are pretty much developed by the time that they get to school. We have spoken about gender inequality, but that tends not to be prevalent in younger age groups, which are much more open.

In the past 10 years, there has been a 43 per cent reduction in PE specialists at primary schools, extracurricular activity at secondary schools has been decimated and there is a lack of connection with community sport. What is sportscotland doing to try to get the Government to see the pieces of the jigsaw and what we are trying to achieve? In my view, we have all the pieces of the jigsaw but we are not putting them together.

Like Jackie Baillie, I am really pleased to see the minister’s amendment 50, although I agree that more clarity is required, because it does not go far enough in supporting Anne’s law.

As the minister has said, amendment 50A would set a requirement for care home service providers to provide a written reason to both the resident and the essential care supporter in any case in which a visit is denied. It represents an effort to ensure that records are retained that could be used as evidence for any future inquiries or for evaluation of the implementation of the law, which is pertinent to amendment 50D.

I welcome the minister’s comments about her intention to go further than what is proposed in amendment 50A and her offer to have further discussions on how we could strengthen the amendment. Therefore, I will not move amendment 50A.

Amendment 50B would place a requirement on the Scottish ministers to publish the code of practice in such a manner that it is publicly available and to provide it in an easy-read format. I welcome the minister’s support for that amendment and her intention to strengthen it. It is important that an accessible and easy-read version of the code of practice is available. Given that many care home residents will experience greater mental decline than the average population, it is especially important that the code is accessible to them.

Amendment 50C would place a requirement on ministers to revise the code if a significant number of problems have been reported. That is extremely important—we want to be able to trigger revisions to the code if it is clear that it is not working as intended. Amendment 50C would also trigger revisions in a timely manner.

Amendment 50D would place a requirement on ministers to publish a report on the implementation of Anne’s law, broken down by council area, each year. Given what we are trying to do with amendment 50A, I do not think that that would be a particularly onerous requirement, as we will be gathering evidence as we go along. Amendment 50D would improve parliamentary scrutiny of the implementation of Anne’s law and would help to identify any areas in which additional support is needed to make sure that Anne’s Law is in place for every person who receives care in a care home and their families, which, surely, is what we are all here to try to do. Therefore, I intend to move amendment 50D.

Given the minister’s comments, I will not move amendment 50C at this stage, but it relates to an important area that needs to be explored further.

Amendments 50C and 50D not moved.

Amendment 50, as amended, agreed to.

Amendment 138 not moved.

Section 40, as amended, agreed to.

After Section 40

On the basis of last week’s discussion and debate, I will not move it.

Amendment 134 not moved.

Section 38, as amended, agreed to.

After section 38

Amendment 145, again, follows a recommendation in the stage 1 report, which says:

“Irrespective of the model of accountability, the Committee believes proposals for the creation of a National Care Service need to be accompanied by a reinforced role for the Scottish Parliament in undertaking regular, structured scrutiny of its implementation and the extent to which it is achieving its defined objectives ... In particular, an assessment of the extent to which this is contributing to improved outcomes for those in receipt of social care.”

I think that that is central to discussion of the bill and to the issue of delayed discharge. Amendment 145 seeks to place a statutory duty on ministers to eradicate delayed discharge. They have already pledged to do so, so why should that target not be binding?

The amendment is intended to force the Government to consider all options when tackling delayed discharge, because its current approach is clearly not working. In December 2024, 61,760 days were spent in hospital by people whose discharge had been delayed, and that figure is a 6 per cent increase on the number of days of delay in December 2023. Those statistics come from the monthly figures on delayed discharges in NHS Scotland that were published by Public Health Scotland on 4 February 2025.

I move amendment 145.

The minister makes a really interesting point about collaborative working, which is exactly how the problem should be tackled. It is a problem that the Government already committed to eradicate some time ago, so whatever the Government is doing now is not working. Some of that collaborative work should be about the implementation and adoption of technology, which was the subject of another of my amendments that the minister asked members to vote against.

I am trying to create a focus on delayed discharge because it is a significant issue, not only for social work but in the NHS. I think that a reduction of 25 per cent per year is eminently doable if we do the right things and if we do the collaborative work that the minister suggests, so I press amendment 145.

Given the minister’s helpful comments on revisiting the issue, I will not move the amendment.

Amendment 50A not moved.

Amendments 50H to 50J not moved.

Amendment 50B moved—[Brian Whittle]—and agreed to.

I hear what the minister says about amendment 144 and I welcome the opportunity to discuss that further. However, I find it strange that she says that there are already reports containing the information that would be required by amendment 143, given that the committee’s recommendation was that there is a need for a reinforced role for the Scottish Parliament to undertake regular structured scrutiny. What the minister says goes against what the committee found. The fact that we are not collecting the data is not a reason why we should not collect it. If we have on-going managed collection of data, accountability is much easier and it is much easier to deliver a report.

I also find it very strange that we would not understand how much the bill will cost before we enact it. When we are deploying public money, it is really important that we understand where that money is going and how much it will be, so I find the minister’s arguments against amendment 157 quite puzzling.

I press amendment 143.

I will take the opportunity to work with the minister on that one. At this point, I will not move it.

Amendment 144 not moved.