Chamber and committees

To what extent have those issues been allowed to brew over many years? Specifically, we do not seem to talk much about Brexit, but what is its impact? Certainly, the Government in Scotland talks about the effect of Brexit in terms of there not being the people to take up the jobs. Other issues are poor skills, poor education, poor numeracy and literacy skills and so on.

Philip Whyte mentioned the Christie commission. My view is that progress on Christie has been woeful, but has any research been done on that? We certainly have not got to a position where we are able to shift to prevention, particularly in health, but has research been done on what progress has been made and why it has been so slow?

Good morning. I will start with Pamela Smith. The word “crisis” is being used a lot these days. We seem to have crises everywhere. Mental health is in a crisis. As Professor McCartney said, it was an issue before Covid and, now, mental health is one of the symptoms that has been described in long Covid. Where are we at in Scotland? Is there an understanding of the issues around mental health? Do we know the numbers of people who are suffering mental ill health? As policymakers, what should we be arguing that the Government should be doing?

Professor McCartney, mental ill health is increasing right across the population among both disabled people and able-bodied people. As politicians, parliamentarians and policymakers, what should we be considering? Is the data good enough? What action should we take?

IFS research noted that those with underlying health conditions are more likely to suffer from long Covid. Are there any particular underlying conditions that are more prominent among those suffering from long Covid?

Philip Whyte, is there any statistical evidence showing any differences in the effects that the different approaches in Scotland and the rest of the UK are having?

If you could find out, that would be great. How can statistical comparisons with other countries better help us to understand the root causes of both long-term sickness and labour market inactivity and link them back to policy and funding?

Yes.

Is there any impact from the introduction of, for example, universal credit? I think back to before the introduction of working family tax credits, when it was quite common to hear people talk about the poverty trap, which involved people being worse off in a job than they were staying on benefits. Working family tax credits certainly addressed that, but there have been changes since then. Have those changes impacted on people’s willingness or ability to get back into the labour market?

I want to ask Susie Fitton a similar question. On the rising number of cases of mental health, the impact that that is having and the treatment that is either there or not there, what should we, as parliamentarians, be looking at, and what should we be expecting from the Government?