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As you pointed out, Dr Peters, there has been a debate around that issue. I went to a reception—colleagues will have been to similar receptions—at the Royal College of General Practitioners just before the parliamentary recess, and its members had strong representations to make on that.
If there is more that we can do in addition to what we are already doing in how we go about that, I would be very receptive to hearing about it. We have just talked about the enterprise agencies and how they can do things differently, including seeking advice from agencies such as Women’s Enterprise Scotland.
It is absolutely clear that the budget has received a positive reception in the marketplace, and rightly so, because it brings stability to the public finances.
On the question of whether commissioners can succeed where other bodies cannot, that very much depends on the receptiveness to critique, the relationship that the commissioner has with Government and those broader bodies, and, to an extent, the personality of the commissioner.
11:00 First, I am not sure of the etiquette here, but we have been having on-going discussions with the Scottish Government in drafting in that area, and we know that it is receptive to such discussions. We are working on that.
Some of these impacts will affect a generation of children. If we look at receptions into residential care, for example, the high-capacity ones tend to be for children in the 13 to 16-year-old bracket.
I say to Jackie Baillie and Scottish Labour, who have brought to the chamber this serious debate on a serious issue—which was not given any serious consideration by Jackie Baillie in a speech that was, to be frank, ludicrous—that we should start by thanking all our primary care teams: not just our general practitioners, those who work in reception and our m...