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Thanks very much, convener and committee members, for inviting me to address the committee today. When I attended the pre-budget session in September, I set out the priorities of my portfolio.
However, probably the greatest impact of the pandemic, the lockdowns and the cost of living crisis has been felt by people with pre-existing mental health conditions.
I very much look forward to hearing the committee’s conclusions and recommendations, but I will finish with a few suggestions, if I may. The pre-eminence of the Scottish Parliament to decide on devolved matters should be restated, although we still have to acknowledge Westminster’s continued claim to sovereignty on all matters.
Salmonella is also sequenced in Scotland, as a result of the pre-existing work. Again, that is linked across the four nations; indeed, that has to be the case in order for us to understand it.
Police Scotland has committed to all its front-line officers carrying it. In my time, which was pre-2018, the families of people who were drug users and leaving prison were offered naloxone kits.
In some of our submissions to other committees for their pre-budget scrutiny, COSLA has said that two thirds of our spending is directed in some way by national priorities.
We look at regulatory provisions only post-transition, so things that already existed pre-transition would not be relevant regulatory provisions for us to consider.