Malcolm Chisholm: Edinburgh has by far the highest number of delayed discharges in Scotland and asked some time ago for social care funding to deal with its specific circumstances. Is it not the case that the social care money that was announced yesterday, to which the cabinet secretary referred, will pale into insignificance—indeed, disappear—beside the 7 per cent cut to local government funding, which is...
Malcolm Chisholm: I congratulate John Wilson on lodging the motion and I support the thrust of it. However, each potential war situation is unique and must be looked at on its own merits. My view is that war is always a last resort. I have opposed UK military intervention in nearly every instance when it has happened in my adult life. Clearly, there are exceptions, unless someone is an absolute pacifist. The...
Malcolm Chisholm: No one would object to the principle of post-legislative scrutiny; we certainly need to have more of that than we have had in the past. However, to propose a specific sunset clause—that is what the measure would be in practice—for the bill seems rather odd. We cannot have a general rule that every piece of legislation has such a clause. We have to be careful about which pieces of...
Malcolm Chisholm: I congratulate Jim Hume on introducing the bill, which I am sure that everyone will vote for at decision time. We went over some of the arguments when we debated the amendments. As I said then, the science in the area is not in doubt. Legislation already works well in countries such as Australia and Canada, and has been introduced recently in England. Most important of all, the bill is an...
Malcolm Chisholm: Is the cabinet secretary aware of the Audit Scotland report on health and social care integration from earlier this month, which highlighted the failure of the health service and local government to make progress on pooled budgets for the integration bodies? How does he know that the £250 million, which we welcome, for the integration bodies will be additional rather than just deducted from...
Malcolm Chisholm: 5. To ask the First Minister whether the Scottish Government considers that there is a gap between its position on climate change and its policy on air passenger duty. (S4F-03113)
Malcolm Chisholm: I welcome what the First Minister said about climate change in Paris and I am glad that she went there by train. However, in this week of all weeks, will she reconsider her proposal to slash air passenger duty? Does she not realise that the Scottish Government’s research indicates that that would result in hundreds of thousands more journeys by plane instead of train; that the majority of...
Malcolm Chisholm: I think that we all agree that the fiscal framework is central and that indexation of the block grant adjustment for income tax is pretty central to that. Does the Deputy First Minister acknowledge that the majority of academic experts seem to be saying that the best and most risk-free option for Scotland is indexing for changes in the tax base per head? I tend to agree with that. Does he?
Malcolm Chisholm: I do not like health to be a political football, either, but in that regard I think that it is useful to look at what Audit Scotland has to say, as it is very much above party politics. In one of its recent reports, “NHS in Scotland 2015”, it says that “There is limited evidence of progress towards achieving the 2020 vision”, but it goes on to say that what it has in mind is the...
Malcolm Chisholm: The two are inextricably interlinked, because I take it that the reason for the budget difficulties is that health boards and councils are trying to hang on to their own budgets. The Audit Scotland report on health and social care integration also makes specific comments about set-aside budgets. I do not have the time to go into that issue, but I hope that the cabinet secretary will look at...
Malcolm Chisholm: I am glad to hear that. I had been told that the figures went down in November, and I am looking forward to hearing more about that at the meeting with the health board on Friday. I was going to highlight a good example from Glasgow, but I do not think that I have the time to do so. I will say that, at the cross-party group on health inequalities, we had a very interesting presentation on the...
Malcolm Chisholm: I have no time to give way, as I am in my last minute. I have certainly had a lot of concern about the availability of psychological therapies recently. I think that one of my constituents waited almost a year for cognitive behavioural therapy. She told me last week that, after all that, all that she was offered was an occupational therapist. She is so disgusted that she is not going to...
Malcolm Chisholm: I thank Johann Lamont for introducing a very important subject and pay tribute to her work in the cross-party group on adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse and, indeed, to Margaret Mitchell’s work. I hope that the Government will pay very close attention to their speeches, because they encapsulated many of the current concerns of survivors groups. They certainly know far more about the...
Malcolm Chisholm: Does the First Minister agree that, over and above fundamental action to create a more equal society, it is necessary to support targeted action for the most vulnerable individuals and the most disadvantaged communities? I am thinking of initiatives such as the Royal College of Nursing’s innovative nursing at the edge initiative, which will be featured at a meeting of the cross-party group...
Malcolm Chisholm: 4. To ask the Scottish Government how it will ensure that all children and young people requiring regular medication and medical assistance at school have these needs met. (S4O-04877)
Malcolm Chisholm: Is the minister aware that the current guidance, to which he referred, has been extensively ignored, according to recent research from the office of the Children and Young People’s Commissioner Scotland? Is it not time that the right to essential medication and medical assistance in schools is put on a statutory footing?
Malcolm Chisholm: Will Liz Smith give way?
Malcolm Chisholm: At this stage in the process, we ought to be concentrating on implementation of the named person policy. I welcome what Iain Gray said about that at the beginning of the debate, but the sad reality is that we still have to address the myths and the scaremongering that have stirred up a great deal of anxiety and misunderstanding among certain people. I suppose that I should acknowledge the...
Malcolm Chisholm: I cannot accept an intervention. I am sorry. We should be concentrating on implementation. It is clear that there are issues to do with getting the message across and with providing the resources that are needed, but we still have the fundamental task of supporting the policy and challenging its misrepresentation.
Malcolm Chisholm: As Mike Russell does, I have high regard for Liz Smith, but I regret the speech that she made today.