To ask the Scottish Government whether it will reconsider its plan to reorganise neonatal care across Scotland, in light of reports that it could result in the downgrading of essential units, including the service at Ninewells hospital. (S7O-00081)
Last week, I received correspondence from Lauren Bruce, a mum from Blairgowrie, whose daughter, Grace, suffered a rare stroke shortly after birth at Ninewells hospital. Her concern is that, under the current plan to downgrade the neonatal intensive care unit there, a baby with that condition would be moved two hours away from their family—a journey that Lauren fears that her daughter would...
I am enjoying Mr Rennie’s analysis of where we are. He raises the issue of the looming £5 billion black hole. The Deputy First Minister seemed to suggest that taxes were not going to rise to fill that. Mr McKee is on record as saying that public sector reform does not mean reducing overall public spending. Is Mr Rennie any clearer than I am as to how that £5 million black hole is...
I start by welcoming Jenny Gilruth to her new position as finance secretary and also Hannah Mary Goodlad, whom we look forward to hearing from shortly. I also congratulate all those who made their first speeches—Kim Schmulian, Katie Hagmann, Martyn Day, Joe Fagan, Iris Duane and Andrew Baxter. I do not want to single anybody out, but I thoroughly enjoyed Andrew Baxter’s audio...
Oh, so soon! I will, of course, give way to Mr McKee.
That is not all that Malcolm Offord does not understand, to be fair, but I agree with Mr McKee’s basic premise, and I hope that Mr Offord would, too. The biggest growth in the Scottish budget is not spending on public services but spending on benefits. We learned this week from another place, the Mandelson files, that the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, Pat McFadden,...
Maybe Mr McKee was misquoted in the interview that I saw, when he said that public service reform was not about reducing costs.
I think that we will be debating those issues next week, so I am sure that we will get much more clarity from Mr McKee on what exactly is going to happen. What has the debate been about? It has been about more wealth taxes. The motion talks about celebrating a mansion tax and a tax on private jets. That is going in entirely the wrong direction. Scotland should be encouraging wealth...
