To ask the Scottish Government what its response is to the recently published report by National Records of Scotland, “Healthy Life Expectancy, 2021-2023”. (S6O-04906)

The Government remains committed to supporting everyone to live longer, healthier and more fulfilling lives. We recognise that the latest report indicates that there has been a slight decline in Scottish healthy life expectancy, which is the number of years for which people can expect to live in good health.

Experts attribute the stalling of improvements and the widening of health inequalities in Scotland to successive economic shocks, which include austerity, Brexit, Covid-19 and the on-going cost of living crisis. To tackle those inequalities, the Scottish Government and the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities have jointly published a 10-year population health framework that aims to improve life expectancy—which is an objective measure—while closing the gap between the life expectancy of the most deprived 20 per cent of communities and the national average.

Healthy life expectancy estimates for both men and women in Scotland have hit their lowest point since records began in 2014. There are also clear regional variations, with North Ayrshire having the joint lowest healthy life expectancy, at 52.5 years for women and 52.6 years for men. What work is the Scottish Government doing to improve healthy life expectancy nationally, and what work is it doing with North Ayrshire Council and NHS Ayrshire and Arran specifically in relation to North Ayrshire?

I recognise that the issue of the inequalities that exist across Scotland is one that the Government needs to look at alongside local authorities and health boards. That is why we have introduced the population health framework. As part of that, three Marmot pilots will look specifically at how areas can take a whole-community approach to supporting their communities.

I was pleased to be able to visit a project—not in the member’s Constituency, but in South Lanarkshire—that is looking at whole family support in areas of inequality to support a move to a better population health position.

In April, the Scottish Fiscal Commission published its “Fiscal Sustainability Report”, which raised concerns about the pressures that ill health will place on future Scottish budgets. It said that, if population health improved relative to the rest of the United Kingdom, fiscal pressure could be eased, but it would rise if population health worsened. Given that healthy life expectancy has been falling since 2014 to 2016, is the Minister concerned that we might be on a path to the worst health scenario projection?

I recognise the amount of work that Brian Whittle does in the area of preventative health activity. The Scottish Government has looked at tobacco and vaping and is working with the United Kingdom Government on a bill that will try to reduce people’s reliance on tobacco and vaping. In October, we will bring in regulations in relation to healthy food options, and specifically on high fat, salt and sugar. There is also the legislation on minimum unit pricing for alcohol. We are working closely with the UK Government to ensure that the gambling levy funding is allocated specifically to support people with gambling issues, which can also impact on their health.

This Government is ensuring that we take a health in all policies approach to improving people’s health because, if we do not have healthy people, we do not have healthy businesses or a healthy Scotland. That is what I am working towards.

I ask for more brevity in responses.

Question 2 was not lodged.