First Minister’s Question Time – in the Scottish Parliament at on 12 December 2024.
Foysol Choudhury
Labour
An investigation into Edinburgh maternity units found that
“Mothers and newborn babies came to harm”
from
“a ‘toxic’ culture”,
fuelled by
“staffing shortages”.
That comes almost a year after the British Medical Association Scotland warned that national health service staffing levels were becoming “dangerously low”.
We are now seeing the consequences, with mothers and newborns needlessly being put at risk by the Scottish National Party’s mismanagement of our NHS. Will the First Minister listen to those concerns, stop pretending that nothing is wrong and step up to protect patients and staff?
John Swinney
Scottish National Party
Mr Choudhury has raised a very significant issue, and I have naturally been very close to the issues that have been raised in that regard in the past couple of days.
First, I make it clear that the greatest importance is attached to ensuring the safety of all services in the national health service, and that must be especially the case for maternity services. We have taken forward the Scottish patient safety programme perinatal programme, which has received a great deal of international commendation because of its focus on improving patient safety. We have also taken steps to increase the number of qualified midwives, and there has been an increase in that number over the past 10 years, especially in the past year.
However, all that said, the issues that have been raised publicly about the climate in NHS Lothian maternity services are not acceptable, and they must be addressed. The Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care is insisting that NHS Lothian addresses those issues, because mothers must feel safe going into maternity services.
I consider, on the best advice that is available to me, that those services are safe, and I reiterate that point to Mr Choudhury today. However, I do not want in any way to suggest anything other than that there must be improvements in the relationships in NHS Lothian maternity services to ensure that the fundamental concerns that whistleblowers have raised are properly and fully resolved, because that will be in the interests of mothers and babies in those maternity services.
Alison Johnstone
Green
That concludes First Minister’s Question Time.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
The cabinet is the group of twenty or so (and no more than 22) senior government ministers who are responsible for running the departments of state and deciding government policy.
It is chaired by the prime minister.
The cabinet is bound by collective responsibility, which means that all its members must abide by and defend the decisions it takes, despite any private doubts that they might have.
Cabinet ministers are appointed by the prime minister and chosen from MPs or peers of the governing party.
However, during periods of national emergency, or when no single party gains a large enough majority to govern alone, coalition governments have been formed with cabinets containing members from more than one political party.
War cabinets have sometimes been formed with a much smaller membership than the full cabinet.
From time to time the prime minister will reorganise the cabinet in order to bring in new members, or to move existing members around. This reorganisation is known as a cabinet re-shuffle.
The cabinet normally meets once a week in the cabinet room at Downing Street.
Question Time is an opportunity for MPs and Members of the House of Lords to ask Government Ministers questions. These questions are asked in the Chamber itself and are known as Oral Questions. Members may also put down Written Questions. In the House of Commons, Question Time takes place for an hour on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays after Prayers. The different Government Departments answer questions according to a rota and the questions asked must relate to the responsibilities of the Government Department concerned. In the House of Lords up to four questions may be asked of the Government at the beginning of each day's business. They are known as 'starred questions' because they are marked with a star on the Order Paper. Questions may also be asked at the end of each day's business and these may include a short debate. They are known as 'unstarred questions' and are less frequent. Questions in both Houses must be written down in advance and put on the agenda and both Houses have methods for selecting the questions that will be asked. Further information can be obtained from factsheet P1 at the UK Parliament site.
