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Official Report: search what was said in Parliament

The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.  

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Dates of parliamentary sessions
  1. Session 1: 12 May 1999 to 31 March 2003
  2. Session 2: 7 May 2003 to 2 April 2007
  3. Session 3: 9 May 2007 to 22 March 2011
  4. Session 4: 11 May 2011 to 23 March 2016
  5. Session 5: 12 May 2016 to 5 May 2021
  6. Current session: 12 May 2021 to 5 July 2025
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Displaying 1184 contributions

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Meeting of the Parliament

Women Against State Pension Inequality (Compensation)

Meeting date: 15 January 2025

Carol Mochan

I thank Christine Grahame for her intervention, and I know that my colleague Katy Clark and other members who support the WASPI women in this injustice will welcome it, too. It is really important to have such a good debate and to hear good points from across the chamber.

More needs to be done, compensation needs to be provided and we all need to stand with the WASPI women until it is secured.

18:46  

Meeting of the Parliament

Women Against State Pension Inequality (Compensation)

Meeting date: 15 January 2025

Carol Mochan

This is an important debate, which brings an essential issue to the chamber. It recognises that, clearly and simply, the WASPI women deserve compensation.

I welcome the WASPI women who are in the public gallery. When meeting WASPI women directly, I have heard their stories and their fears about the serious impact that their disadvantage will have on their lives. Their stories have moved us all, and it would not be right for me to hide from the commitments that I have made in the past. It is impossible to argue that women who were born between 1950 and 1960 have not had to fight for equality their whole lives. Many of those women started their working lives at a time when workplaces were not structured to support or welcome them. As they started their careers, it is likely that they were employed prior to the Equal Pay Act 1970, at a time when many would have been expected to leave work when they got married or had children.

Those women have now been disadvantaged further through serious mismanagement in communications about how they would receive their state pension. That is clear. As we have heard, more than 300,000 women in Scotland have been impacted by the scandal. The decision to increase the age in the Pensions Act 2011 affected 2.6 million women across the UK, and it led to financial and emotional distress for women throughout Scotland. Those affected have had to adapt rapidly and, in many cases, to completely change their plans for their future retirement and make up for any financial losses, if they could anticipate what that would mean.

In March 2024, as we have heard, the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman revealed the Government’s failing and said that the women “deserve compensation”. Therefore, I think that we all agree that the refusal by Governments to provide any compensation thus far is absolutely unacceptable. Without the ability to plan for the future properly, the emotional impact on those women has taken a concerning toll that, for some, can become insurmountable. That has serious mental health impacts, which WASPI campaigners have fought repeatedly to expose. There are numerous knock-on effects on the quality of life that the women are able to lead now, including serious struggles to afford the necessities of life while experiencing anger and disappointment at a system that does not seem to value their contribution at all—a system that does not work for people.

Although they are appropriate, the acknowledgement and the apology from the UK Government do nothing for the women who have been left short and turned away throughout their lives. We all recognise the economic disaster that the Government must deal with, but, given the decades-long fight that those women have had to put up in order to expose Government failings, an apology is not acceptable—it does not rectify such an injustice. In a country in which the pension age gap sits at 39 per cent, the Government’s response is simply not acceptable to WASPI women, who have provided so much to our communities and economy.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

The first theme is the definition of terminal illness. A range of views have been expressed about the eligibility criteria used in the bill around the definition. Will you give us your views on that? In particular, do you think that conditions such as motor neurone disease, Alzheimer’s and cerebral palsy should or would be covered by that definition?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

Marianne, do you have a view?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

Given what you have said throughout today’s evidence session, I absolutely understand.

If the bill became law, would your organisation find it helpful if assisted dying was not discussed at all, or should people have the right to have that option placed in front of them when they discussed their options?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

Okay, that is helpful.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

In theory, though, people should be aware of the option.

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

My question relates to the situation if the bill became law, so I will try to make it brief. Lyn Pornaro talked about assisted dying as a treatment option. I suppose that my question can be quite straightforward.

Under the Montgomery ruling, people should, rightly, have all the options put to them. In this case, as disabled people’s organisations, would it help with the issue of pressure, in the way that you have described it, if that was not the case—that is, if assisted dying was not seen as a reasonable treatment option, and so was not discussed at that stage? Alternatively, do you feel, as you expressed before, that that might mean that people did not have all the options placed in front of them? If the bill was enacted and became law, how would you feel about that?

11:45  

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

Do you think that it would be helpful to have an expected timeframe for people in relation to their terminal illness diagnosis?

Health, Social Care and Sport Committee

Assisted Dying for Terminally Ill Adults (Scotland) Bill: Stage 1

Meeting date: 14 January 2025

Carol Mochan

Yes, of course.