Chamber and committees

That felt like something of a “jam tomorrow” response from the cabinet secretary. Incidentally, tomorrow does not fall until very soon after the next Scottish election, which feels convenient.

The app will be incredibly limited compared with what has been available for years in England, so that will be cold comfort to Scottish patients. Some 34 million people use the app in England. They have come to rely on the functionality that Amanda expected when she came here, but her move to Scotland felt like a step back in time.

Patients in Scotland are stuck in a phone queue for the 8 am scramble for general practitioner appointments. British Medical Association Scotland has called it a disgrace that GPs still have to sign paper prescriptions by hand, given the pressures on their time. Software platforms still do not speak to each other across our health service. Everything is harder for patients and staff when GPs have to navigate outdated tech.

Does the cabinet secretary recognise that, as long as our Scottish NHS relies on technology from the last century, we are holding clinicians and patients back and deepening the crisis in our health service?

Amanda Clark and her family moved to Scotland from England three years ago. The app that was available to her south of the border made her life as a parent and carer much easier. It gave instant access to her medical history and allowed her to easily renew prescriptions for herself and her disabled son. When she moved to Scotland, she expected that her details would automatically migrate to the Scottish version of the app—except that there was not one. The transfer of paper records led to vital information being missed on allergies, Covid vaccines and complex medical conditions. Why, in 2025, are patients in Scotland still unable to benefit from a national health service app that provides the same joined-up care that families in England have been able to rely on since before the pandemic?

To ask the Scottish Government for what reason patients across Scotland will reportedly not be able to fully access the new MyCare NHS app until 2030. (S6T-02701)

Whatever one’s point of view on these matters, everyone can recognise that it is harder to be trans in Scotland than it used to be.

When trans pupils go to school, they want to be clear about what is expected of them, and they want to know that their anonymity will be protected—if they want it to be—and that teachers, staff and other pupils are there to support them.

When it comes to teachers, I have no doubt that they will want to know that the conversations and plans that the guidance suggests that they carry out will be done in the most sensitive manner possible. In that spirit, what further assistance and assurance can the cabinet secretary provide to trans pupils and teachers in navigating these issues?

I remind members of my entry in the register of members’ interests, having been a host for Ukraine for nine months under the homes for Ukraine scheme.

I welcome the tone of the minister’s statement, particularly her remarks about the fact that we have a proud tradition of offering safe harbour to people through our asylum system. However, does she recognise that there is a crisis in the asylum backlog because of processing times, which was caused in large part—and deliberately—by the last Conservative Government, and does she agree with Liberal Democrat plans to activate the Civil Contingencies Act 1998, so that we can double the number of caseworkers processing asylum claims and start up Nightingale-style processing centres in order to reduce the number of claims in only six months?

Colleagues will remember that I raised this subject at First Minister’s question time when there was very nearly a tragic incident on the doorstep of Portree hospital last year. The cabinet secretary says that most of the recommendations made by the independent review have been met, but people on Skye still face the possibility of finding the doors of Portree hospital locked during a moment of crisis and some will still be forced into a two-hour round trip to Broadford. Given the tragic incidents of last year and the continued confusion around urgent care, when will people living on the north end of Skye be able to walk into Portree hospital without first having to phone NHS 24 and with the confidence that qualified staff will be there to treat them?

The Scottish Government’s ferry fiasco is a national embarrassment. It has cost us a fortune, but no Scottish National Party minister has ever had the decency to resign. Scottish Liberal Democrats have been arguing for years that islanders and coastal communities deserve compensation for the colossal disruption to their lives. Now, the Scottish Government has belatedly set up a scheme, but far too many are excluded from it. Why do businesses on Mull, Iona, Coll, Tiree, Islay and Jura all get absolutely nothing?

The First Minister should tell that to the communities that have seen their timetables altered to hide the cancellations. That is “unfair, arbitrary and divisive”. That is what Joe Reade from Island Bakery on Mull says about the scheme, and that is what everyone in excluded communities thinks.

The Scottish Liberal Democrat consultation on the future of ferries closes tomorrow. We are listening to everyone who is affected. The Scottish Government clearly is not, because there is no compensation for Mull, where the toy shops of Tobermory are genuinely displaying signs that say that their toy ferries are more reliable than their real-life counterparts.

There is no compensation for Cumbrae or Ardrossan, which has lost its link to Arran because the SNP Government built a boat that does not fit its harbour. There is no compensation for the islands and port towns of the west Highlands or in Argyll and Bute, where timetables were stripped back to hide cancellations.

Sympathy does not pay the bills. When will the First Minister enrol those communities in the scheme? When will they get the cash?

It is a tremendous privilege to pay tribute to Sir George Reid on behalf of the Scottish Liberal Democrats. His passing marks the loss of one of the most substantial figures in the life of the Parliament and the life of Scotland.

I met George only a handful of times, and only fleetingly, but I was always in awe of him and he was always generous with that time. I saw, from the outside, what this chamber meant to Sir George and, over time, what he would come to mean to the chamber.

He was a man of great intellect, deep compassion and integrity. From those roots in Tullibody, he never lost his pride in Clackmannanshire. He never forgot where he came from or what was behind him, but he was always looking forward and outward—a profound internationalist.

As we have heard, his career in journalism led him to the very heart of global events. In the Red Cross, he found not just a vocation but a calling. Working in places of conflict and of catastrophe, he brought humanity and hope where both were in short supply. He would later say that it was in that work that he did

“far more good than at any other time in”

his life.

In politics, George made his mark twice: first at Westminster, and then here in Holyrood. As Presiding Officer in the years between 2003 and 2007, he took the chair—as we have heard several times this afternoon—at a very difficult time for the fledgling Parliament. The Holyrood project was mired in delay and controversy, but Sir George always brought order, authority and dignity. He was determined—as he said—to move in and move on, and he succeeded.

By the time that he laid down the mace that sits before you, Presiding Officer, this Parliament was not just complete as a building; it was established in the minds of the Scottish people as the beating heart of the nation’s democracy.

Sir George was a man of principle, who was never afraid to speak truth plainly. As the First Minister rightly mentioned, his speech on the Iraq war, which was informed by his years of humanitarian service, was one of the finest that I have ever heard in the chamber, and I found such common cause with the words that he spoke that day.

Sir George was knighted in 2012 for his service to public life, but the honour that mattered most to him, as exemplified by his life’s work, was the chance to serve his community, his country and the cause of humanity.

On behalf of my party, I extend our profound condolences to his wife, Dee, to his daughter Morag and her family and to all those who mourn him today. [Applause.]

I associate myself with Paul Sweeney’s remarks on the sad passing of Peter Krykant, who was a friend to many in the chamber.

We are talking about 85 people a month who are dying in Scotland’s drug death emergencies—the figures are the worst in Europe. It is why Liberal Democrats put the issue at the heart of our budget negotiations last year, with extra money now going to services such as recovery services for women and their babies.

I was glad to hear the minister talk about work towards long-overdue drug-checking pilots. In speaking with Home Office ministers, will she also consider rolling the pilots out to festivals and concerts? We know that, as has happened in my constituency, they have been blighted by this tragedy, too.