I think that we need to communicate with the Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills to find out specifics about the area, and about the planned independent review on sexual harassment and gender-based violence and the practice that covers that, which is mentioned in the petition.

It is also important that we find out from the Scottish Government and Education Scotland how they monitor children and young people who are being consulted on the curriculum across Scotland, in line with the Scottish Government’s best practice, and whether the Scottish Government currently monitors data in relation to sexual assault in schools.

Details on the membership are also important; we need to find out the membership of the gender-based violence in schools working group.

If we could require all that, it would give us a much better outlook and understanding of where the Scottish Government is with the process and how it is progressing it.

There might not be that understanding when people put forward their case to the police, and you have expressed the difficulties that you had when you went to court to try to move things forward. Were any support mechanisms provided by the police or by anybody else as you went through that process?

What would you say if you had the opportunity to develop such support, change the law or change the way in which the process is tackled?

I propose that we close the petition under rule 15.7 of standing orders, on the basis that the Scottish Government intends to introduce the Legal Aid Reform (Scotland) Bill during this Parliament. In closing the petition, we might wish to highlight to the petitioner that she can contact her local MSPs about pursuing amendments to the bill once it is introduced, to ensure that the issues that are raised in the petition are fully considered.

The recent statistics highlight the huge backlogs that have built up in our NHS. This year, the Scottish Government has been provided with the largest-ever core block grant, which should be used to its fullest to ensure that the NHS and public services are provided for.

Can the cabinet secretary indicate what lessons have been learned from discussions with other Governments across the UK to ensure that resources are targeted on the recovery of our public services?

To ask the Scottish Government what recent cross-Government discussions regarding the national health service’s recovery from the pandemic have taken place as part of its Covid recovery strategy. (S6O-01290)

We understand that the figures are provisional, but it is crucial that we get the detail when it comes to social justice, housing and local government. Will the minister comment further on how the spending will be broken down, given the tight financial difficulties that local government faces?

Last month’s announcement of the £30 million dry dock maintenance contract awarded by the United Kingdom Government to the Babcock Rosyth facility will sustain 300 jobs and further benefit the wider Fife economy. Does the minister agree that that illustrates the benefits that Fife and the whole of Scotland derive from continued membership of the United Kingdom, and that it would be extremely damaging to undermine that relationship?

I am pleased to speak in favour of the amendment in the name of Miles Briggs.

Over the past two years, the pandemic required financial interventions that were previously unheard of. Unprecedented times resulted in unprecedented measures. In total, the UK Government spent £410 billion to mitigate the effects of the pandemic and Scotland’s Government received an extra £14.7 billion in consequentials.

Although Scotland is finally on the road to recovery from the pandemic, we still face difficult and uncertain times. I therefore welcome the package of measures that has been put in place to tackle the cost of living crisis. Following two years of Covid spending, it can be hard to put into context just how extensive those measures are, but a package of support that totals more than £37 billion is significant by any measure.

Labour has chosen to focus, in its motion, on a specific aspect of that financial support. The truth is that the package of support comes from all directions and includes cost of living payments, increases in the minimum wage, fuel duty cuts and, of course, the energy bills support scheme. Although the scheme will deliver financial support to every household in Great Britain, the fact is that three quarters of the total financial support will go to the most vulnerable households in our communities. That is welcome. As my party’s spokesperson for older people, I welcome the fact that pensioners who are in receipt of pension credit will be more than £1,600 better off as a result of that support.

Although that support is welcome, the onus now lies with the Scottish Government to do more in the area. That includes ensuring that the tax burden here matches that in the rest of the UK, with income tax cuts and an increase in the single-person council tax discount to 35 per cent. We have called for that and will continue to do so.

I am afraid that my time is too limited.

It also includes helping local authorities to be flexible in responding to the needs of individual households in every area of the country. Councils are best placed to respond to local needs, but their job has been made significantly harder by the legacy of the cuts that they have faced over the past decade.

That is not to suggest that the Government should look to Labour’s solutions to support the Scottish public through the crisis. The tax proposal that Labour and the SNP support would raise half the amount that the energy profits levy is expected to deliver.

Over the past two years, unprecedented packages of financial support have been delivered by Governments the world over, with huge amounts of funding. We saw that with initiatives such as the furlough scheme, which protected more than a million Scottish jobs during the pandemic. We see the approach again with the energy bills support scheme.

I have spoken before in Parliament about the United Kingdom having broad financial shoulders. This is an opportunity to ensure once again that that is the case. In conclusion, I say that only by working together with the UK Government to deliver on the potential that those broad shoulders provide can the Scottish Government deliver the recovery from Covid that the Scottish public expect.

I support the amendment in Miles Briggs’s name, which shows the amount of time, effort and resource that has been put into tackling the issue. The cost of living crisis will continue to be an issue, but we are moving forward and tackling it as best we can.