Chamber and committees

Agenda item 2 is an evidence-taking session to take stock of the Scottish Government’s transport policies and performance at this point in the five-year parliamentary session. I welcome Fiona Hyslop, the Cabinet Secretary for Transport, and her supporting officials. Alison Irvine is the interim chief executive of Transport Scotland—is it still an interim post?

Thank you.

It was clear from Audit Scotland reports that Scottish Canals had drifted—it had a poor understanding of its asset values, incomplete and inaccurate records and documentation, and it was investing in things such as business properties and holiday lets along the canals, which was not its key domain. Are you happy that Scottish Canals is back on track?

I thought that you were going to ask about it.

In fairness, cabinet secretary, I have spent a huge amount of time discussing the A9 with the Citizen Participation and Public Petitions Committee. I think that I understand where we are at in the process, so I do not have any questions.

Okay.

The deputy convener has some questions.

Just to start off with, when we questioned Alex Salmond on 8 May, he gave a very clear description of how the Cabinet worked. He said that the “big discussion” at the Cabinet was always the infrastructure plan, and that he would have known if anyone was dragging their feet. He picked me up for suggesting that Alex Neil could be dragging his feet, and said that that could not have happened, and that a minister would have come to him if there was a problem with the delay. Is that how your Cabinet worked as well?

With respect, the funding is critically important—I fully accept that—but what I have laid out to you is a timescale that a surveyor and people working within the industry would set to deliver the project, which I think, from the moment you issue the first order, would be approximately nine years. That is why I am confused that the issue only came to light in 2023, when it probably should have come to light back in 2017. Did Mr Yousaf, who was the transport minister in 2017-18, come to you and tell you that there was a problem then? If he did not, we have probably found out where the delay started from.

Thank you, convener. At the outset, I highlight that Caithness Health Action Team strives hard to ensure that healthcare is delivered across the Highlands, but particularly in Caithness, from where it is more difficult for people to get to Raigmore and the centralised health service that is currently run by NHS Highland. There is no doubt that, up there, people feel isolated from that healthcare, as it can take at least an hour and a half under blue light, and probably two and a half hours under normal driving conditions, to get to it.

I remind the committee that, in 2023, extra money was given by the Scottish Government, and NHS Highland chose to use it for closed-loop therapy mainly for adults. Some money went to paediatric services, but there was a concentration on adults and, consequently, some children missed out. As the petitioner has made clear, there are approximately 25 children across the Highlands waiting for a diabetic insulin pump. My estimate of the cost of the pumps alone is about £75,000, which is not a huge amount of money, although there are some ancillary costs involved, as the convener has made clear: the costs are not only from the equipment but from the staff.

Providing the pumps would make a huge, huge difference to children as they come to terms with the diabetes that they must face, sometimes not fully understanding its effects. It would not require much additional money to ensure that all the children in the Highlands have insulin pumps. In fact, it would come at less than the cost of some of the administrative directors who sit on the board of NHS Highland. I therefore think that the committee could encourage NHS Highland to explain where the funding—the extra money that was given to the Government—went originally, why children were not made a priority and whether there are additional funds, with a mere £75,000 needed to provide pumps for all the children.

I will leave it to the committee, but I will just end by saying that it is difficult to overstate how remote people in the Highlands sometimes feel to healthcare, which is centralised. Giving people the ability to manage their own treatment would be truly revolutionary.

I would be careful where you go with that, Ms Sturgeon.