Chamber and committees

Regarding what you have just said about the local authorities giving you a particular rate while you are paying your staff more than that, do you see that as an issue that a national care service might address?

I know that Rachel Cackett wants to come in. Emma, do you have anything that you want to put to Rachel? I am very conscious of time and have my eye on the clock.

I would like to ask the minister, as I have done quite a few times, about people who need to access treatment but have caring responsibilities, particularly mums and dads. The framework for families that was published last year had a lot in it about that.

What progress has there been? I know that, this week, there were significant announcements about progress in relation to facilities, but what progress has there been in helping people to access treatment, of whatever type, when they have caring responsibilities?

You have pre-empted my second question, which is about auditing what has happened previously.

All of us will have heard of situations in which a mother has had a child taken away from her and has then fallen pregnant again, with the expectation that that child will be taken, too. Will we drill down to see where support can be put in place to help somebody to have a better outcome when they find themselves pregnant again and are worried about their child being taken off them?

I have only one question, which is on stigma surrounding medication-assisted treatments. During the minister’s tenure there has been a lot more nuanced conversation about how such treatments can form a pathway that will prevent many people from getting into crisis and also prevent drug-related deaths.

Will she outline how stigma around such treatment might cause massive harm to people? Could the discourse that we have in politics and in the media about people who have to access methadone, for example, cause more harm?

I cannot hear Scott Heald clearly. Perhaps, if broadcasting colleagues turn off the video the next time he speaks, we might be able to hear him more clearly, which would be better.

Sandesh, remember that we are talking about the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, not the wider aspect.

Evelyn, do you have a question?

Thank you. We move on to questions on mental health support and protection.

The next item on our agenda is further consideration of the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill. We will take evidence from two panels today.

Before we start, I thank everyone who took part in our informal evidence sessions last Monday in Aberdeen and yesterday in Dumfries. I think that members who participated in those sessions would agree that they were extremely helpful. We will make sure that some of the things that we heard in those informal sessions make their way into our scrutiny of the bill and into our questioning of witnesses and, ultimately, the minister.

With our first panel, we will focus on the data and information sharing aspects of the bill. Two of our witnesses are joining us remotely and four are attending in person. I welcome to the meeting Daren Fitzhenry, the Scottish Information Commissioner; Paula Fraser, development officer at Voices of Experience Scotland; Beth Lawton, chief digital and information officer at the University of Strathclyde; and Ken Macdonald, head of ICO regions at the Information Commissioner’s Office.

The two witnesses who are joining us remotely are Scott Heald, Public Health Scotland’s head of data driven innovation, and Dr Kenneth Meechan, who is head of information as well as the data protection officer for Glasgow City Council and is representing the Society of Local Authority Lawyers and Administrators in Scotland, otherwise known as SOLAR.

We move to questions. I will start with Daren Fitzhenry, whose office made a late submission in relation to the provisions in the bill that would impact on the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body’s independent office-holders. Daren, will you explain your concern about those provisions?