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The Executive made a decision last week in conjunction with the Strategic Rail Authority, which is financed by our colleagues in the Westminster Government in the United Kingdom—something that Mr Swinney does not want us to have any more.
We now have in the Scottish Parliament a team of people—elected by the Parliament yesterday as well as nominated by me—in the right place at the right time for Scotland. It will be a united team, which will deliver improved public services for Scotland.
The Executive would usually provide such a memorandum. The non-Executive bills unit has not been involved in the bill.The committee has the option to invite members whose amendments are successful to explain the purpose of their amendments.
In terms of average waiting times, Scotland compares favourably with any other part of the United Kingdom. We have an important commitment to bringing down the average waiting time to nine months and an important commitment to planning ahead.
That slightly distorts the position on organic farming in the United Kingdom and Scotland. A significant attempt is being made to develop organic farming further.
For example, the only refuge in the Borders is in Jedburgh and to have several smaller units would undoubtedly be better. As funding is patchy and accessed from social work and housing budgets, will the minister consider conjoining the funding sources and ring-fencing those moneys?
Let us consider the fact that expenditure on the national health service in Scotland is growing from £5.9 billion to £6.7 billion. The best performance in the United Kingdom for median waiting times for in-patient and day cases is in NHS hospitals in Scotland: more than half of patients are treated immediately, without ever joining a waiting list.
Following the Parliament's endorsement of the report on 23 November, we must now consider how to develop our proposals.After useful discussions with the Parliament's legal advisers and the non-executive bills unit, the clerks have prepared a short issues paper which has been circulated to members.
I thank the minister for her positive response, but is she aware that industrial production in the Republic of Ireland grew by 15 per cent over the past year, compared with 0.8 per cent in the United Kingdom, which is less than an eighth of the European Union average?